How to Scale your Social Channels: Clarity on the new wave of Influencer Marketing

by the SHE Media Influencer Team

Where the industry is going

As the Influencer Marketing industry continues to grow, so should your efforts in building your brand – especially if your goal is to make this your primary source of income.  One of the main goals of influencer marketing is to reach and retain new audiences (which will ultimately lead to more campaigns!). Unfortunately, gone are the days where posting a great piece of content is all you need to do. With all the constant changes to each algorithm coupled with a saturated influencer market, reaching new audiences can be one of the most time consuming and challenging things an influencer can take on.

The Decline in Organic Reach

It shouldn’t come as a surprise to any influencer that organic reach on either Facebook or Instagram is on a steep decline. Instagram’s constant changes is a sure-fire sign that they are following a very similar pattern to what happened on Facebook only a year or so ago, that essentially meant the end of organic reach and an introduction to a paid model. Most recently, in countries such as Australia and Canada, Instagram has removed the ability to see the amount of likes on other people’s post. While there are many different views on this, it can be assumed that Instagram has done this to force influencers into moving into a business account and ensure that brands who are partnering with these influencers, will need to pay to achieve the results they require.  It also shifts the focus from the ‘number of engagements’ to the ‘reach’ that was achieved from a post, putting less emphasis on an engagement rate, and more on total followers.

Similarly, Instagram has also recently removed the ‘Following’ tab in the activity section, which means you can no longer see the posts and accounts that your friends are regularly engaging with. While the official statement from Instagram alludes to cutting out Instagram stalking, in reality it is removing a component of organic follower growth for influencers as the friends of their followers will no longer be able to find them (unless they appear in the explore tab). Interestingly, Instagram has also just recently released the feature to pay to be featured in the explore tab. All of these examples are the proof that Instagram is focusing on declining organic reach so that influencers and brands alike will need to pay to reach the results they want.

Now it is not all bad news: Influencers who have built up their audience over a significant amount of years and cultivated an engaged community are in a luckier position than most. For those that are starting out will need to be smarter and more creative at how to achieve continuous growth.

Luckily, there are some tools that can help with this. The most important one for all Influencers to know and actively be using is Facebook Business Manager.

What is Facebook Business Manager and why do you need it?

Facebook Business Manager is a free tool, owned and operated by Facebook, that allows influencers to securely manage many different aspects of their Facebook and Instagram profiles.  It can be used to manage your pages, run and track ads, help integrate any business partners and report on your activity. The most effective use for any influencer will be to amplify posts to increase impressions, reach, engagement, clicks, video views or in some cases with shoppable posts, actual conversions to sales.

I’m sure everybody has seen an ad or two appear in their Facebook or Instagram feed. The types of ads can range from your favorite clothing brand to a local event happening over the weekend – or sometimes it can be your favorite influencer amplifying some of their own content.

Amplifying your content can be done with any budget, no matter how small, and can be targeted to whatever demographics you prefer. If you have some budget available, amplifying some of your non-sponsored content is a nice way to grow your audience base and expand your reach. Though sometimes this isn’t always feasible. If you are currently working with brands, then some of your brand partners might have asked you for the ability to amplify your sponsored posts. The brand does this to further the reach and exposure of the work you put so much effort into and it’s also a very nice addition for you: you get the benefit of having your posts amplified without having to spend a cent!

Having this setup prior to a campaign can save you a lot of back and forth with your client. Below are some helpful hints on getting this set up:

1. Go to Business.Facebook.com

2. Click Create Account

3. Follow the prompts to connect your page (If you don’t have a business page, it’s easy to create – for those that are Instagram only, that’s ok. Just create a business page on Facebook only and you can leave it dormant)

4. Once created, go to Business Settings

5. On the left hand side there will be an Instagram section

6. Select this and follow the prompts to connect your Instagram account

Now you will be set up! When it comes to connecting brands to your account there are a few different ways to do this.

You should ask the client to request access to your page firstly, then you will receive a notification and you can accept or deny their request. Alternatively, you can ask them for their Business Manager ID and add this under the ‘Assign agency’ section.

As a content creator, it’s important to stay up to date on all of the developments in the industry. Getting familiar with Facebook Ads manager will give you and your partners the scale to make an impact, so you can focus on continuing to make amazing content!

For those that are part of the She Media Partner Network, you will have access to our team of professionals in house that can provide some in-depth resources and training on creating and developing ads for Facebook and Instagram. Any questions you have, please direct them to the team there. For those that are not part of the network, click here to find out more, or email us at joinSMPN@shemedia.com.