Twitter Influencers: 11 ways they can benefit your brand

Celebrity endorsements or dedicated bloggers are no longer the only source of Twitter influencer marketing. As consumers, our generation no longer believes in fluffy marketing tactics. With too many celebs popping up every now and then claiming that they use a particular brand’s products; we have become numb to all the ‘trying hard to sell’ advertisements.

With the rise of social media, we have successfully ignored all these adverts and are now following the people whom we trust. We listen to them, read their feedback and reviews, and take their advice too. 

These are the influencers we are talking about – the people with a high follower count and the people whose words are trusted by their audience in general. They hold the power to influence the purchasing decisions taken by others – by people like us. The concept of ‘word of mouth’ has now been re-packaged into influencer marketing.

Why does your brand need influencer marketing?

When was the last time that you paid attention to a banner ad shown on a random website you visited? Or when was the last time you clicked on one of them? Don’t remember? Neither do we – neither do a majority of people!

Many people find them super annoying and remove them from their sight by using an AdBlocker. According to a statistic given by Google, the average click-through rate for banners is 0.06% only.

As a brand, you might be focusing on social media marketing strategies to overcome this situation. And that’s a great thing to do! But, maybe a few hundred followers are not enough to take your reach as far as desired. People are more likely to focus on organic feed, and that’s when influencer marketing dives in.

• 85% of people trust the recommendations given by influencers.
• You can get genuine sales, leading to higher ROI.
• Influencers increase your brand awareness and build up your social media presence.
• People can ignore or skip the ads. Influencer marketing leaves a mark.

Why use Twitter influencers for marketing?

Twitter claims that 61% of users follow at least one influencer, which is more than any other platform. Also, according to studies, 40% of people said that they made a purchase after seeing a tweet made by a Twitter influencer and 20% of people have recommended products to their network. 

The real-time immediacy of Twitter has made it a key platform for following influential creators. Interacting with Twitter influencers is quite easy and it offers a lot of advantages.

As explained by Twitter itself:

“For businesses today, it’s not “if” you should be partnering with influencers – but more so “why and how” to partner with them. What’s even more crucial for brands to know is that, there is a unique why and how for every social media platform – especially for Twitter.”

If some Twitter influencers’ niche matches to your products, building relationships with them will be favorable in the long term. When such influencers promote your products, it will be a win-win situation for everyone – for your brand, for the influencers and for the people following them.

Different types of Twitter influencer

You can choose influencers depending upon your product, niche, and budget.

• Celebrities – 

Celebrity endorsements are definitely the oldest form of Twitter influencer marketing. A massive audience can be reached while opting for that, but it’s extremely expensive. Just think of handing over a few thousand dollars from your bank account for promoting your product.

Also, a majority of people do not trust celebrity endorsements anymore. The target audience can also not be defined as all kinds of people follow them.

• Macro Twitter influencers –

Macro influencers are the people having millions of followers and those who are experts in their respective fields. The main difference between celebrities and macro influencers is that celebrities are known by everyone, while macro influencers are popular in their particular field. You can label them as ‘mini celebs’. 

They are relatively less expensive than celebrities. They produce professional and high-quality content and have set a mark in their audience reach.

• Micro Twitter influencers –

Micro influencers are also experts in their niche but have a follower count of 1,000 – 1,000,000 people. You might have come across a lot of accounts of food bloggers, travel bloggers, fashion and lifestyle bloggers or fitness bloggers who share content related to their specialty.

Micro influencers tend to have 85% higher levels of engagement than others, as with the increase in the number of followers, engagement rate decreases.

It makes sense because a small audience means more personal interaction – and that is a thing which is considered as gold in marketing these days. Additionally, they are going to cost you much less for product promotion.

Benefits of Twitter influencer for your business

1. They create great content:

Influencers are influencers because of the content that they create. All of them have a unique style of presenting things in front of their audience.

When you work with influencers, they will represent your brand in a way that will catch their followers’ attention. As they are the kings and queens of producing high-quality engaging content, it is great for your business because they will generate things that you can use on your own Twitter handle. 

But remember that you cannot share, edit or publish the content generated by them without their permission and approval.

2. Enables Niche targeting:

The people who follow influencers are the ones who are interested in the kind of content that they create. They generally focus on a particular niche. 

Thus, through Twitter influencers, you will be able to attract the right people and sell to a target audience who are most likely to be interested in your products or services. An influencer belonging from your demographics can further increase the chances of selling.

For example, if you are a brand selling sports shoes, your ideal influencer can be an athlete or a fitness blogger.

3. Builds the trust factor:

People already trust influencers and believe in what they say or recommend as they have already built credibility and relationships with their fans.

When they promote your product, the credibility directly transfers for your brand too. It also creates a perception that your brand is trustworthy and an industry leader. The trust that is generated in this way can increase the time period in which you can have successful connections and conversions.

4. Boost brand awareness:

This is especially a big advantage when your business is not much known by people. Influencer marketing can hugely expand your reach in the twitter marketplace. Twitter users will start to learn about your brand, what you have to offer, who you are and what are your visions and story. So influencers basically act as a link between your business and your market awareness.

5. Flexible pricing options:

Twitter influencer marketing is a highly approachable method for spreading the word of mouth, which fulfills the need for both small and large scale businesses. The flexible pricing options enable you to decide the campaigns according to your budget and goals. 

You can select an influencer that fits in your criteria from the range of influencers available on twitter. You do not have to spend a lot and still reach a maximum number of people by targeting micro influencers for promoting your brand.

6. Increase leads and conversions:

The ultimate purpose of a business is definitely to generate leads, make sales and earn profit. Influencer marketing can provide you with that. When an influencer tweets about your product, from that moment itself, the idea of your product and the thought of purchasing it is there in people’s minds. 

A study reveals that businesses are earning an average of $7 from every dollar spent on influencer marketing. Thus, it is a great way of acquiring customers in a very less period of time.

You can ask the influencers to include a call to action in the form of discount coupons at the end of the tweets to drive more sales.

7. Aids your Twitter content strategy:

Coming up with fresh and new ideas is quite difficult. It requires great creativity to create content that engages the audience. In influencer marketing, the influencers do that work. You do not have to worry about churning out fresh ideas consistently.

Influencers know what kind of content their audience likes. Thus, they put in immense efforts and ideas to create quality content. You can gain new perspectives for your marketing strategy and uncover fresh angles of product promotion.

8. Find audience insights:

After your product is promoted by the influencers, ask them about the kind of people that showed interest by commenting or asking questions about the product. Do not force influencers to promote the product according to your strategy. Align your goals with theirs to produce maximum results. Stay brand consistent and allow them to give their inputs too.

9. Improved SEO:

Influencers help in bringing genuine traffic to your website and social media platforms. Along with that, they can also help in increasing your website’s domain authority. 

We know that social sharing is not directly linked with Google’s algorithm. But links pointing to your products and website are extremely helpful. They act as backlinks to your website and ultimately improve the SEO. 

10. Cross channel benefits:

Most of the Twitter influencers have accounts on all social media platforms. So, when they promote your content on Twitter, you can simultaneously ask them to share it on all other sites. This will help in gaining popularity and followers across multiple social media channels. 

It will also give users the option to follow your brand’s updates on the platform that they prefer the most.

11. Influencers are transparent:

You might have seen influencers using the hashtag #ad in the tweets. Or a disclaimer that says the particular tweet is promoted. Influencers are very transparent when it comes to brand promotions.

They mostly work with the brands that align with their perspectives and decline those who don’t. This is a good point as you will know that you are working with a person who supports your vision.

Now as you know how effective influencers can be for your brand, start searching for the right ones to promote your products!