Influence marketing is a method used by companies to accelerate their brand on social media. Local influencers are individuals with a small but engaged number of followers that they have influence or the ability to sway a person’s decision making. According to businesswire 61% of those individuals are likely to trust recommendations of a product or service from a social influencer.

Your marketing budget may not allow for a celebrity or the popular YouTuber with a million followers, but there is still a way that you can increase awareness and engagement for your brand on a smaller scale.

I introduce to you the Local Influencer who has up to 1,000 followers for which they have a strong relationship with.

Here’s 3 ways a local influencer can help you

1. Local influencers are authentic and relatable

Followers of a local influencer rely on that individual to be the expert in their niche, followers rely on their informed opinion when seeking information about a product or service. This relationship is built on trust, the influencer speaks about the brand in a way that coordinates with his or her interests as well as those of their followers.

 The “human” person promoting your product or service will appear genuine to their followers compared to a business pushing an ad. Partnering with a local influencer using your message in her or her own voice will inspire their audience to act.

2. Higher rate of engagement

Local influencers have greater activity and engagement with their followers be it that they usually deal with a specific niche for which their followers are connected to on a deeper level. Influencers that have 1k followers possess the best engagement rate.

As a small business this will help you extend your reach to a relevant and engaged audience. The local influencer has worked hard to build his or her followers and is aware of how to best create content that communicates to engage their audience.

He or She has used or experienced your brand locally and can produce posts that resonate with their audience creating engagement in the form of likes, shares, and comments.

3. Cost effective for a small business

Local influencers are more affordable than influencers that have more than 1k followers. They are local to your area so you do not have to have them travel or pay to ship products, they can come directly to your business and test your product or service.  

Your business will also benefit from the local influencer being a content creator, they know what medium to use to communicate to their followers freeing you from having to create new content provided you give them the digital resources they will need.

Conclusion

 Research to find local influencers in your area yet keep these few tips in mind:

• Make sure the influencer aligns with the vision of your brand

• Don’t look at just the vanity metrics such as likes, comments, and shares but also how they engage with their followers

• Do allow the influencer to be creative so that their posts remain authentic to their followers.

Influencer marketing is a great wat to drive profits to any business, partnering with a local influencer can help you reach local consumers in your area that may not be aware of the products and services you provide. Do your research and find a local influencer to increase your brand awareness and drive traffic to your business.

Category: Advanced Tactics, Social Media Marketing 101