Since the Cambridge Analytica Scandal,
Facebook has been in a state of free fall. In a bid to win back the trust of
their audience, they decided to revamp their newsfeed as well.
This, in turn, reduced the organic reach of business pages.
Then, brands started spending more on paid
promotions. This led to an increase in the costs of ads on Facebook. Due to
these reasons, Instagram remains the most preferred platform for influencer
marketing. However, Facebook can also be a profitable platform for influencer
marketing. But only if you do it right.
Let’s take a closer look at what you need to do (and what you should avoid doing) when partnering with an influencer on Facebook.
What to Do When Working with Facebook Influencers
1. Plan Your Campaign
When you’re partnering with a Facebook
influencer, it’s crucial to plan your campaign in advance. You need to know
what you want to achieve from the campaign and how you’re going to implement
it.
Decide whether you want to increase reach, engagement, or sales or if you have a different goal, such as getting more newsletter signups or Facebook followers. Your goals will help you figure out what you need to focus on to maximize the results of your campaign.
There are three main ways to manage an influencer marketing campaign:
- Partner with an agency: There are many
agencies that specialize in influencer marketing. You can look for those that work with Facebook
influencers and hire them to manage your campaign. - Manage the campaign internally with the help of tools: The second option is for your own team to manage your influencer
marketing campaign using an influencer marketing tool or platform. There are a variety of tools that
can help you plan and manage your influencer marketing campaigns. - Manage the campaign manually: You can also try
finding and connecting with Facebook influencers manually. And then manually
manage your campaign without the help of a tool, platform, or agency. This
method is the cheapest but also the hardest and most time consuming way to
manage your campaign.
2. Update Your Team
It’s crucial for you to keep your team on the
same page throughout your campaign. Communication is the key to succeeding with
influencer marketing. And that doesn’t just apply to your in-house team; you
need to keep your influencers in the loop as well.
For this, you can use an influencer marketing management tool such as SocialCert from Lumanu.. This tool allows two-way secure sharing of content, data, usage rights, and audiences between influencers and marketers. Your marketing manager can easily whitelist influencer content and boost it right from the platform as well. This way, you can optimize content while maintaining full transparency throughout the process.
3. Approach Influencers Correctly
After zeroing in on your desired influencers,
you need to approach them for collaborations. However, you need to keep in mind
that you shouldn’t pitch your ideas to them right off the bat. Before pitching
them a collaboration, you should put effort into building a solid relationship
with them.
The first step you should take is to find
their preferred mode of contact. Check their social media profiles and/or blog
and find their contact details. Start following their posts and engage with
them. Show your appreciation for their work and concentrate on building a rapport with them first.
Once you’ve established a genuine connection with them, you can pitch your idea to them.
4. Track Your Results
Once you get influencers on board and launch
your campaign, it’s important that you track your results.
Tracking the results of your Facebook
influencer marketing campaign will help you find opportunities to improve the
effectiveness of your current and future campaigns. It will also help you
determine your campaign ROI.
Measuring the ROI of campaigns is still the #1 challenge that marketers face when working with Facebook influencers. However, only 27{1652eb1ffa4184925f6a63a9c04ea6b421acb7a78117241e7d4325cdca8339fa} of marketers measure their campaign’s performance continuously.
What Not to Do When Working with Facebook Influencers
1. Pick the Wrong Influencer
Finding the right Facebook influencer is
crucial for the success of your influencer marketing campaign. This is because
there are many fake Facebook influencers out there who purchase likes and
followers. These influencers have little or no real engagement, and partnering
with them will likely not benefit you.
The Facebook influencers you partner with
should be passionate about the content they create, and their values should
match those of your brand.
However, finding influencers manually can be
quite a task. You need to search for influencers in your niche who create
quality content. And then you need to go through each influencer’s profile and
check if they’re getting real engagement.
To make these tasks easier, you can use tools like Influence.co and BuzzSumo, which can help you find influencers in various niches.
2. Spam the Facebook Influencer
One of the biggest mistakes that you can make
with a Facebook influencer is to spam them. If you reach out to an influencer
and don’t get a response, don’t keep pestering them by sending emails or DMs.
Doing so can put the influencer off. You need
to give them enough time to read your email or message and respond. Also, keep
your team informed about whom you’re contacting. That way, the influencers
won’t get multiple emails from different people in your organization.
Remember, Facebook influencers may get hundreds of emails and messages for collaborations every day. You shouldn’t keep pestering them to try to get a response. Doing so can backfire and the influencers may even call you out just like Charlotte in the screenshot below.
3. Be Unprofessional
Remember, when you do establish a relationship
with a Facebook influencer, you need to be professional. Just because the
influencer may seem peppy and casual on social media, don’t assume they’ll be
the same while dealing with you.
It’s dangerous to think of influencers as
amateurish, unprofessional people who just work from home.
They are entrepreneurs and should be treated just like every other consultant or business partner you deal with. If you are too casual with them, you risk ruining your relationship and losing out on a great Facebook influencer.
Final Thoughts
Partnering with a Facebook influencer requires
that you have a plan in place. Additionally, you need to find a reliable
influencer to collaborate with. Concentrate on building a solid relationship
with them first and then pitch them your idea. Treat them with respect and
professionalism and make sure you maintain transparency as well.
Finally, don’t forget to track your campaign performance to identify optimization opportunities. To further improve your Facebook influencer marketing campaigns, you can use influencer marketing tools.
