Marketers are seeing growing demand from audiences to share more authentic and transparent content, and they face the constant challenge of staying relevant and competing for attention across critical touchpoints.
However, these days, content creation is no longer just in the hands of brands and agencies. Influencers are also now playing a key role in the stories brands communicate.
The fashion and beauty industries are the two most-engaging on Instagram, and they have both put influencer content center stage. Socialbakers data shows that 2/3 of all content from the 100 biggest beauty brands on Instagram mentions another user - half of all content from fashion brands, respectively.
The Power of Micro-influencers
You’ve probably been hearing a lot about micro-influencers - influencers who have fewer than 100,000 followers. Data from Socialbakers shows that 75% of all influencers mentioned by beauty brands were micro-influencers.
This not only demonstrates that brands are relying heavily on influencers within their content strategy, but that they understand the power influencers have over a niche industry and specific audiences. In fact, influencers that have under 10,000 followers account for the majority of profiles mentioned by the fashion and beauty industry; that’s 37% from fashion and 43% from beauty.
This clever strategy is working to keep audiences engaged on Instagram, as mentions of other users has proved to drive higher engagement.
Tip: Mention the influencer’s profile name in your post, and give them credit for their content. Out of all interactions beauty brands collected on posts that mention other users, 58% came from posts mentioning users with under 100,000 followers. For fashion brands, that was 53% of interactions.
The Takeaway
Audiences are looking for authentic forms of content, and influencer recommendations are becoming the new currency of transparency to build consumer trust.
According to research from Forrester, influencer and user generated content can help customers discover and inform their purchase decisions. 37% of customers visit a brand’s website to research products or services, and 49% use a search engine, leveraging blogs, UGC, and reviews to explore product offerings.
Marketers have been building their presence on social media and growing their communities, and now the battle is keeping that audience engaged. They face the challenge of curating content that resonates with the right people, and constantly feeding that content machine to capture attention at every stage of the funnel.
Partnering with influencers can help sustain the momentum of publishing new and authentic content. By seeking third-party recommendations from micro-influencers, brands are able to reach new audiences.
Celebrity endorsements are expensive and require a lot of production. We predict that in 2018 we're likely to see more brands across many industries showcase influencers and micro-influencers within their content strategies.