How Social Influencers Can Help Startups

A startup can be as big or as small as it gets, but it can always do with a little help. From budgeting for advertising and marketing, to sourcing warehouse space, every single amount needs to be thought of carefully and spent judiciously.

If help can come from some quarter, then a startup would be wise to take it. For a startup, the social influencer holds tremendous advantage. Here’s how.

1. Internet space.

The internet is a wonderful space for everyone to flourish. So many startups are internet based and offer services through the internet. It helps to have someone who wields power online to help a startup. That power pin is the social influencer. Social influencers use the internet to talk about things that matter to them. A loyal audience pays attention and uses suggestions and discussions to make their own purchasing choices. Thus, if an influencer believes in the efficacy of the startup, it can go a long way in gaining customers.

2. Multi-channel approach.

Social media influencers don’t limit themselves to just one social media page. They are on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, YouTube and a host of other channels. A note they leave on a page can also be seen in other channels they use and post content on. This means a wider audience group and better mileage for you. With a traditional ad or marketing campaign, you could lose customers who don’t use the service- for instance, an ad in the subway misses out on commuters in cars. Not the case with social influencers. Their presence across quarters is useful to gain all sorts of audiences.

3. Any business works.

The social influencer can be used for pretty much any business you can imagine. Flower delivery, technology solutions, home baking services, fashion consultancy, public relations; no matter what your line of work, a social influencer can be a valuable asset to the startup.

4. Ways to pay.

A social influencer may need something in return for the work they do for startups and rightly so. The good thing is it need not necessarily be cash. It could be products, discounts, freebies, acknowledgment on the startup page or commission for a product sold through the influencer. Thus, cash can be spent on something else. Even if a fee is given, it may not be as vast as a marketing budget.

5. Legitimacy.

A startup especially suffers due to one reason – no one knows about it. And very few people take a chance with a new company and its products. That is, unless they are told or reassured that it’s a good bet. Now, the startup can do it. But it won’t have as much weight as when someone the audience knows and trusts tells them that a product or service is good. Who better to do that for a startup than a social influencer? The influencer gives a new venture dependability, something that happens only after years of being in the business. This is invaluable.

6. Word of mouth.

Nothing advertises quite like word of mouth and that’s exactly what social influencers bring to the table. In an informal interaction with the audience they talk about a startup and the fortunes of the startup can be transformed. Just one shout out and the word of mouth works its magic.

A startup however, should do their research. They need to know that any social influencer will not work well for their business. They need to use the services of a social media influencer with good influence in his sphere of work. The sphere of work should be the same niche as the start-up’s. A ready audience willing to listen to an authority in that niche is what marketer’s dream of and this dream can be achieved with a social media influencer. Some people may look like social media influencers but their followers could be bots, you need to check on that too. You should read the posts of the social media influencer and see if their posts have had an impact earlier. For example check if the influencer has posted about startups previously and then check whether the startup has progressed or not. This will help you in taking a decision.

Also there are many platforms that an influencer uses, you should know which platform you prefer. Facebook is the preferred platform nowadays and you can have other marketing campaigns running on Facebook simultaneously and a combined push will help you get the required mileage. Blogs are evergreen, a post or review on a blog will surely help the startup and if it is an authority blog you will get valued back links too. Twitter and other websites are also useful.

There is so much that a social influencer can do to help a startup get on its feet and move forward.