Influencer marketing campaigns are making waves as a marketing strategy since it provides third party credibility and brand awareness to the right audiences. An influencer can enhance a brand’s visibility and social reach, usually beyond the capabilities of traditional media outlets.

Tapping into influencer marketing requires some planning and dollars so it’s important that our influencers are making a positive impact on the brand in terms of return on investment. It’s impossible to determine if your influencer marketing campaign is actually improving your business if you’re not measuring the effective of the campaign. Here are some tools to help keep track of how successful your influencer marketing campaign is:

Social media PR can be a moving target. Rules and guidelines change, algorithms shift, and consumer moods can turn on a dime. Taken together, it can feel daunting to product a series of campaigns that consistently wins. But it doesn’t have to be. Consider these tried and true social media PR strategies, and you can find balance, even as the social corner of cyberspace continues to shift.

Don’t be afraid to share your hobbies, interests, or passions. While you should take care in how your messages may be perceived, the big benefit of social media is that it humanizes big brands and brings celebrities closer than ever to their fans, while still providing necessary separation to protect your privacy. Well-handled, you could leverage your interests to create deeper bonds with your fans and your customers. A casual conversation about a shared interest could be the push that turns a customer into a dedicated fan.

The rise of the Influencer cannot be overstated, and Influencer Marketing can be your firm’s best secret weapon. Still, as with any industry, the world of influencers is not immune to fraudsters. Here’s five ways to tell if your future Influencer is really more of a follower.

Commit this formula to memory:

Social media giant Snapchat is now introducing a new series of lenses to their platform that can respond to voice commands. The audio lenses will animate automatically when users speak simple words like “yes”, “love”, “no”, and “hi”. This is an alteration on previous filters that respond to physical actions that users take on camera like opening their mouths or winking.

For instance, if a customer says “hi” using the new audio lenses, Snapchat will automatically launch an application that surround them with a flock of birds. On the other hand, if a user says “no” they are placed in an infinite tunnel of photos, while if they say “yes”, the Snapchat filter will zoom in on the user’s face.

For companies looking to build their brand, there’s no better tool than a solid PR strategy. The right plan can help to nurture new leads, facilitate rapid growth and improve an organization’s reputation both online and off. Of course, there are still many businesses out there that don’t know how to use PR as a brand-building tool.

As the world of marketing continues to evolve, the strategies available to modern firms are sure to grow and transform. However, for 2018, the following tactics could have the best results.

By: Elizabeth, Social Media Manager

I have a confession.  I saw Julia Engle of Gal Meets Glam in a J.Crew top and it took less than 10 minutes before I purchased it.  This poplin pullover quickly became a wardrobe staple while simultaneously solidifying my belief in the power of influencer marketing.

By: Kelsea, Social Media Director

Influencer marketing continues to grow, with brands investing more and more in influencer partnerships each day. Through these partnerships, brands and their agency partners can select brand-aligned influencers to market products and services to loyal followings with targeted demographics. They give word-of-mouth validation and often lead to engagement and follower spikes on brands’ social pages. Influencer marketing is a two-sided business, with many influencers becoming equally selective as brands when it comes to vetting if a partnership is right for them and, more importantly, their audience. These influencers take their personal brand seriously and like brands, are working to further grow and develop their digital community.