Earlier in Nigeria, what we were used to was just using celebrities as brand ambassadors but in recent times, the use of influencers (micro and major influencers) grew tremendously and became a key strategy in Nigeria Marketing space. So in this article, I want talk influencer marketing, why it is growing in use and how it should be used.

First, let’s start with definition

According to Wiki ‘the mighty’ Pedia, Influencer marketing is a form of marketing in which focus is placed on specific key individuals rather than the target market as a whole. It identifies the individuals that have influence over potential buyers, and orients marketing activities around these influencers.

In other words, Influencers are key persons in their niche with a high reach and thus can increase the chances of virality and action. Typically, these guys are usually very active and popular on Social Media and or have popular blogs.

Why do Brands use or should use Influencer Marketing?

The Law of Association: In this age, word of mouth recommendation and criticism have more value (& spread through social media faster than fire in a dry field) to the average person than a random advert from the brand itself. I mean, you are more likely to buy a product or use a service if someone you like and or respect or look up to in some way recommends the brand. This is what influencers do, they use their influence on their community (the trust, respect, love their fans have for them) to sell the brands they represent. Influencers are like mutual friends that connects a brand to its target market.
Ad Blockers: lol! Since Social Media and Google do not want us to enjoy the internet in peace, majority of us (at least the more tech savvy people) have began to use ad blockers to block away any and every ad that wants to interrupt our flow. Now, this is one advantage influencer marketing has over PPC Ads, because influencer posts would always show up organically on your timeline.
What Makes an Influencer right for you?

Target Audience: Yes! It is influencer marketing but the influencer you use is not as important as the audience you are trying to reach. Thus, before any strategy meeting, before influencer consideration, you must define your target audience. Determine what appeals to them, where they are and who they follow. Thereafter, use this info to streamline your choice of influencers.
Context: One thing that is much more important than how successful an influencer/celebrity is and the how large his community is, is determining if he is the right fit for your brand. Who the influencer is – his brand, his voice – needs to resonate with your brand and your message. Their personality and niche must complement your brand. Don’t pick just based on numbers but pick based on context. Why? Because influencer marketing ideally borders on trust, thus if an influencer starts promoting a brand that his personality & niche does not resonate with, his followers would smell the authenticity. The best influencers work to seamlessly integrate their branded campaigns into their unique stories.
Reach: While Numbers should not be the first thing you look at, they are very important. You don’t want to use just anybody. If you are going to pay for it, then you should be paying for something that could give your brand and campaign a good reach.
Actionability: Personally, I think the ability of an influencer to drive action (conversion) may even be more important than context. Lol! But really, if an influencer cannot generate conversion, why bother? This is probably the reason most Nigerian agencies and brands pay twitter influencers (with no defined niche & brand but have high following) and Instagram Comedians to promote their brand even though it may not be a great contextual fit. Is it right? Not really but it works. So, Actionability is important. When talking actionability, I should also mention that micro influencers with less than 100k followers (especially on Instagram) sometimes do better than the really big guys because the micro influencers can own your brand for the duration of the campaign but with the really big guys, sometimes (most times), your content takes lost in their feed. Also, because of cost (& effectiveness) using multiple micro influencers can be much better than using a major celebrity (except it’s a brand ambassadorship deal though).

The influencers chosen for marketing shouldn’t be only the entertainers – musicians, comedians & actors. They are other people – though leaders who have built for themselves a close knitted community that hangs on their every word. Depending on your target audience and campaign objective, you should look at these people too. Some are activists like Omojuwa, Online Business Coaches like John Obidi, Entrepreneurs like Tara Fela Durotoye, Trendsetters like Dooney’s Kitchen, Coaches like Steve Harris to name a few.

Lalasticala, mynd44, tonyebarcanista, sarrki and some other NLders are also influencers.

source; http://tushmagazine.com.ng/influencer-marketing-future-digital-marketing/

cc
lalasticala, dominique

Social Media Influencer 360: A Popular Web Technology platforms for Entrepreneur

Influencer is one of the most well known companies in the entire world. They are often considered an internet giant. This is because Yahoo offers a wide range of different online services. Those services include, but are not limited to, shopping, gaming, travel, music, movies, and more. In fact, Yahoo is also well known for their creation of an online social network. That network is known as Yahoo! 360.

To sign up for Influencer Ng! 360, you must have a Influencer and password. If you already have a Yahoo email account or participate in another Influence program, you should be able to use the same information. In the event that you do not have a Yahoo user id and password, but you would like to get one, you easily can, all in a matter of minutes. You should be able to do this from the Yahoo! 360 homepage or by visiting Influencer Ng’s main webpage.

Once you have a Yahoo user id, the sign up process literally takes seconds. After that, you can begin to explore the site. To make the most out of Yahoo! 360, you are encouraged to explore the site before you begin making your own webpage. You should read the Yahoo! 360 help page because it will provide you with steps on how to use the social networking site, including making your own profile page. You may also want to quickly examine other member pages. This will give you an idea as to what is popular and what is not.

In addition to creating your own profile page, you can also start your own Yahoo! 360 blog. This is a great way to start your own blog, free of charge. You also do not have to worry about signing up with another blogging program. With Yahoo! 360 you can do everything including, meet new people, chat with them, and create your own blog, all in one place.

As with most other online social media influencer websites in Ngiera, Influencer Ng! 360 allows you to meet new people. This is done by using the numerous search features. By searching with a keyword, such as a city, state, or hobby, you should be able to find a fairly large number of members that share the same interests with you. If you wish, you could invite them to be one of your friends. In addition to inviting your own friends, it is likely that you will be invited as well. This is because as soon as you create your own Yahoo! 360 page, your page can be searched by other internet users.

One of the many features of Yahoo! 360 that stands apart from the rest is your homepage. Yahoo defines your homepage as the page that you will first see when you sign into your 360 account. While the homepage itself isn’t considered unique, what you will find on it can be. Displayed on your homepage will be information on all of your online friends. This information will list or outline changes that were made to their pages. These updates will help to ensure that you do not miss a thing.

When it comes to Yahoo! 360 there is one thing that is important to note. This online social media influencer website in Nigeria (Africa) is easier to use than most. As previously mentioned, you can be singed up for an account in as little as a few seconds. The website is easy to navigate, really easy. You do not have to have any experience in HTML or web design to enjoy everything that Yahoo! 360 has to offer.

Hi magazineguy,

True to your words influencer marketing is fast on the rise in Nigeria. Brands are quickly recognising the opportunities and seeing value in using influencers. Though still a new concept, most brands are doing this wrongly. Looking out for just influencers with a large following as opposed to Engagements.

While it sounds really sexy for your content to be seen by so many eyes for a better Return on Investment brands are advised to look out for niched down influencers with a level of engagement before investing. Over the last few months, working with influencers on http://Qwikkly.com.ng as an Influencer Marketplace we noticed Micro Influencers does a great job compared to Top influencers in terms of engagements and R.O.I that is why currently we focus on connecting brands with the best micro influencers in Nigeria. Helping them identify the best influencers with a high brand affinity with their brand or product.

We belive influencers should not just be paid to talk about brands. Not minding their engagements of influence, we belive before an influencer gets the right to represent a brand they first must own the brand, love or must have had an experience of this brand or product this is why we recently introduced an option where brands can give FREE products, discounts on their products and services in exchange for promotion and product recommendation from influencers. Influencers from 1,000 engaged followers can in turn come on board, look through the available campaigns, choose the campaigns/brands they would like to promote in exchange for FREE products or services, discounts or CASH.

What is Influencer Marketing?
As an influencer, you have the power to affect the purchasing decision of others because of your authority, Knowledge, Position, or relationship with your audience.

You have Followers in a distinct niche with whom you actively engage. The size of the followers depends on the size of your topic of Niche.

Influencer marketing works because it uses Tactics, like word-of-mouth marketing and social proofs, which are now critical aspects of any successful marketing strategy. Customers trust their peers, friends, and people they admire more than the companies selling the products and services they buy & use. In reality, the audience does not care less about the brand. They only care about the opinions of their influencers. That is why it is advisable not to try & foist rules & Business practices onto an influencer because the audience is for the influencer and can walk away, taking their followers with them.

What works in Influencer Marketing?
Influencer marketing is an investment- to get it right, you have to devote time to ensure you find the right influencer to promote content that appeals to your Target Audience.

You also have to spend money and or resources to reward the influencer more according to your marketing goals.

Carefully consider your approach to influencer marketing

Be organized, put together a strategy, plan, and budget, spend time on research

Decide on how you will find influencers – find them organically, subscribe to a platform, or work through an agency

Be patient and be human – people talking to people, not companies talking to companies

Develop a schedule

Does the influencer prefer monthly/quarterly/biannual calls or newsletters?

Integrate with your PR schedule, product release schedule, etc.

Send emails on behalf of key executives. Plan travel schedules for executives and arrange face-to-face meetings.

What Influencer Marketing is not
1. Influencer marketing is not just about finding someone with an audience and offering them money or exposure so they can say good things about you. Influencers spend time building their brand and cultivating their audience; they will be naturally protective of their reputation and the people who trust them. They are people who had the patience, focus to succeed in social media, one organic follower at a time—people like this are not interested in doing influencer marketing solely for the money.

2. Influencer Marketing is also not about quick results. It is the same kind of slow-and-steady approach as Social Media and Content Marketing, where your campaign is not about directly selling your wares. Instead, it is about demonstrating your authority, credibility, and thought leadership within your industry. It is about becoming synonymous with whatever it is that you offer, like when people say they are going to Xerox a document instead of photocopying it, or to Hoover the floor, rather than vacuuming it.

With Social Media Marketing, it is a slow game of acquiring the kind of followers who will be loyal and engaged. It is tempting to think that joining forces with an influencer will be an easy way into the hearts and minds of their followers—it is not that simple because to ally yourself with influencers, you have got to earn their trust and respect. But how?

One Simple Rule: Influencer Marketing is Marketing to Influencers

With traditional social media marketing, your brand can set up its identity on whatever platform it chooses, and, as time passes, your follower bases grow, you can see who your brand champions are. These are the customers who like and share your content or mention the brand itself in a post. Having Followers like these can be further nurtured through personal attention and part of a highly segmented group of all the brand champions. Efforts to market to this group focus on ways to keep them spreading the word.

One problem with this approach is that you may not have enough brand followers to make much impact. Most ordinary people on social networks do not. Most people have a small network of maybe a few hundred friends and associates representing all kinds of tastes and preferences. As a result, brands struggle to create content that they hope will resonate with their followers in some meaningful way, all while staying engaged with the day-to-day interactions.

This scattershot approach to social marketing yields predictably erratic results.

Do not blindly grab likes and followers or throw various bits of content out to see what sticks. Influencer marketing tells us that our time is better spent in marketing directly to influential people whose likes and dislikes we already know — they align well with our own. It means engaging with these people across social accounts, following and liking, commenting, demonstrating knowledge and personality. It can also mean curating or creating content that is hand-picked to get the attention of influencers. So while your audience as an influencer is the ultimate prize, the target market for brands includes you as an influencer.

By laying this groundwork, you can achieve two things as a brand:

The first is that by merely interacting in positive and constructive ways on influencer’s social pages, you gain early access to their followers. Secondly, you are not promoting anything to them; but showing your face as a community member, adding to your credibility down the line.

The second achievement is that, eventually, when you propose some influencer marketing collaboration, they will already know you. Influencers are celebrities, per se, but their online life can look a lot like a famous person’s real-world one: lots of interruptions from people they do not know, wanting a price of their time, either to praise them or to pitch them.

You will need to stand out from the noise of attention they get in the form of emails and tweets. This means that when you finally reach out to them, they will already know what you are about, and they will know whether you are a good fit for their audience.
learn more about influencer marketing here: https://learntal.com/what-is-influencer-marketing