Influencer marketing is one of the top marketing trends at the moment. The Influencer Marketing Industry will grow to approximately $9.7 billion in 2020. And this isn’t the only number that shows how important this industry is for brands. 

From the brand's point of view, Influencer Marketing is a very powerful form of marketing, the average earned media value per $1 spent has increased to $5.78. It means that on average, every $1 spent on influencer campaigns brings back almost $6. 

These numbers show that there is great potential for you as an influencer. Knowing this, you should carefully pick the right platforms and decide where you are going to build your audience.

In this chapter, we will cover the most important, as well as the least important platforms. You already know the Influencer Triangle from the previous chapter. To make things work, all three elements have to be connected.

Brands are searching for those platforms, where their audience is. The main criteria used to find the right platform is based on the number of active users, demographics, target audience and more.

The community is looking for valuable content. They pick those platforms where they can spend some time, have fun, get inspired, learn something new or interact with other people and brands.

The influencer is creating content and attracting a target audience. By building this relationship he or she grows their influence and power, which is interesting (and potentially useful) for brands.

Based on information from a Mediakix survey from 2019, we are sharing the list of platforms that have been the most important for brands.

With over 1 billion users, Instagram is the number one influencer platform for brands. Almost 90% of marketers consider this platform strategic in their marketing mix. This is mainly because of the new features that were added in and around the year 2018. IGTV, Stories or multiple shopping options, make Instagram a very strong channel and you shouldn't ignore it.

Despite the fact that Twitter, LinkedIn, Pinterest and Snapchat are popular platforms with many active users, these platforms are not so important for brands in terms of influencer marketing.

Data also shows that blogs play a strong role in regards to relationships with brands. Unlike major platforms, blogs are completely in your hands and there are almost no limits as to what you can write or say. This is an advantage for every marketer, so you shouldn't ignore the idea of running your own blog.

Content Life Span

Talking about blogs, it is important to say some words about content lifespan. Every platform behaves a little differently, in terms of how long the content earns its engagement. In the infinite stream and hidden algorithms of different platforms, every piece of content has a limited time for when it is visible to others.

Instagram

• A regular post earns 75% of its comments within the first 48 hours of being published.
• Engagement momentum is between 6 to 12 hours (half of the comments).

Facebook

• On average, three quarters of the total engagement is within the first 5 hours.
• 75% of those get their momentum within the time frame of just 2.5 hours.

YouTube

• Content lasts 20+ days on YouTube (because it works like a search engine).
• YouTube's search is larger than Bing, Yahoo, AOL and Ask combined.
• The best way to keep your audience engaged is to post at least once a week.

Blog

• Blog posts stay alive for 2 years, on average.
• Considering the amount of effort you put into creating a piece of content, a Blog is one of the best platforms.

How Can You Improve The Lifespan of Your Content

The effort you put into creating content is necessary. It can cost you time, energy or even money. So creating content that has a long lifespan is in your best interest. See some strategies on how to do this below.

1. Share High-Quality Content

Only content that resonates with people has a chance to stay alive longer. The marketing holy grail – educate, entertain or inspire is your key to providing valuable content. It's that simple. 

2. Share at The Right Times

Every platform behaves differently, so in order to earn the most attention and engagement you need to post at the right times. This varies across channels.

📖 Detailed insights and the research-based “right” times are in our Instagram Cheat Sheet.

3. Repurpose Your Best Content

Analysing your content can give you a clear answer to the question, “What content worked the best?” And yes, you are allowed to, and we even suggest that you take this content and repost it.

The Multichannel Approach

Relying on one channel is pure gambling. Not only is it not safe to bet everything on one card, but it's likely that your target audience is constantly moving between different platforms. Therefore, you should not stay stuck on one channel, but be where your target audience is.

Of course, this does not mean that you have to immediately jump on all networks and create profiles there. You don’t have to be everywhere or spread yourself too thin.  The key is to find the right mix of platforms, in order to cover the virtual area your target audience is, and it will be manageable.

Why Use The Multichannel Approach

When it comes to business and monetizing your efforts (we will go deeper in the last chapter about Business Models and Monetizing) 75% of customers buy after 3 to 5 touch points. It means that brands are more likely to collaborate with influencers who are active across 3 and more channels.

How To Pick The Right Channels

This is not easy, but there are some factors you should consider when thinking about a new platform that you want to add to your mix.

• Size of user base
• Users demographics
• Platform growth and trends

Just your presence on social media networks is not enough. Users seamlessly switch between platforms and some statistics say that people are using up to 7 platforms at the same time. Your job is to make sure that you and your profiles are recognizable across channels, so the user can recognize your profile and content in relation to you as a human.

It is also important to realize that each platform works differently and that users have different expectations. It is therefore a good idea to adjust the style of communication when using different channels. For example, on Tik Tok you can post virtually anything, while on LinkedIn people expect rather formal communication. Branding will help you align communication across channels, and this is what the next chapter talks about.

In the next chapter, we will dive into the basics of branding and your identity. You will learn how to build and maintain a consistent communication style across the given platforms. 😎