Why you need a Content Creator/Influencer for your business
Social media is changing our lives. Your online presence is just as important as who you are in real life. We talk to our friends through social media, and strangers on the internet now influence our shopping habits. Instead of having to travel hundreds of miles to visit a physical store, you can purchase from brands all over the world. With just a few clicks, you can take yourself to another country. Content creators and influencers are the driving force behind the growth of social media channels, changing how we interact online.
Digital marketing is the future of advertising, but not everyone is convinced just yet. I work with several brands that are leaders in their industry. While their owners may be everyday Facebook users, they don’t see the need to curate an online presence to complement their physical stores. These businesses are already making losses compared to their competitors, who are taking advantage of content creators and influencers to build brand awareness.
The popularity of digital marketing has been building over recent years, especially since the launch of Instagram in 2010, but it’s been turbocharged by the pandemic.
My client base is now shifting its focus to online platforms to save their businesses. Not everyone has a six-figure marketing budget to pay influencers with hundreds of thousands of Instagram followers. These businesses can hire a content creator to curate their online presence and grow their following.
What is a Content Creator vs. an Influencer?
When it comes to building your digital strategy, you can choose to focus on content creation or influencer marketing. They both have their benefits, but you may find that one is better suited to your niche and marketing goals.
Content Creator: Content creators are wizards with online software. Each creator has their own skillsets, which they can utilise to help you develop your online presence. Content creators include graphic designers, photographers, video editors, and writers.
Instead of looking at their social following, you can evaluate a content creator by the quality of their work and portfolio. The most skilled content creators will be able to produce multimedia content that you can utilize across your online platforms, from your website to social media channels. While they won’t post your content on their own feed, content creators can help you run and manage your profiles, posting the content directly on your pages.
Influencers: An influencer is someone who has grown an engaged audience online, who can leverage their online following to build brand awareness and promote your product. Influencers develop an emotional connection with their audience, who consider them to be a trustworthy source of information. These followers are more likely to purchase an item on the recommendation of an influencer than any other form of marketing. 88% of women turn to social media influencers for advice before making an online purchase. If you’ve got a younger demographic, you can take advantage of the fact that 60% of teens take advice from influencers instead of celebrities.
If you’re considering hiring an influencer, you want to look at their following and engagement rates. Their ‘follower count’ won’t always translate to a high engagement level. The influencer industry is growing every year, meaning you’re guaranteed to find someone within your niche.
How to Choose a Content Creator or Influencer
Whether you’re looking for a content creator or influencer in Singapore, there are a few things you want to consider. As someone who works in the industry, these are the thoughts that I have on the content creator vs. influencer debate.
Numbers Aren’t Everything
With social media, it’s easy to get caught up in someone’s follower count. There are influencers who have millions of followers, along with others who have a smaller following. What’s important is their engagement rate. Have you ever clicked on someone’s profile and seen that they have 10,000 followers but only 100 likes per post? What’s likely to have happened with this profile is that the user has paid for their followers. With social media becoming a lucrative way of making money, companies are launching with the sole purpose of selling followers. They use fake accounts to drive up the profile’s follower count.
I’ve personally paid for one of these services — and while my followers jumped, my engagement was on the floor.
How can you tell if someone’s followers are real?
Click into their ‘followers’ and have a look through some of the accounts. If almost every profile has a generic description, with a basic photo and no personal information, it’s likely to be a bot account.
The Work Should Speak for Itself
The most important thing to remember is that numbers don’t sell. If you’re looking for a content creator, you want to focus on quality. If you’re considering influencers, you need to care more about their engagement levels. You need to let the individual’s work speak for itself. Take a scroll through their social media channels and check out any other links they have. Most influencers and content creators have an online portfolio or website that can give you an insight into their aesthetic and work style.
With an influencer, you want to deep-dive a little more into their work. How does their audience react to it? What are the comments like? Are people saying they’re running to click ‘add to cart’ on the item? When examining an influencers work, you need to consider how their audience and followers engage and interact with it.
Best of Both Worlds
With the growing digital marketing industry, you don’t have to choose between a content creator and an influencer. There are plenty of talented people who fall into both categories. Casey Neistat is one of the most famous influencer creators. His online career started with YouTube videos, which he was able to commercialise as an influencer by growing his audience. With over 12 million YouTube subscribers, Casey is one of the most powerful figures in the online community. If you want the best of both worlds, you can find people like Casey, who create organic content, while having an engaged audience that they can influence.
Not everyone is like Casey. Most of the people you come across will either fall into the ‘content creator’ or ‘influencer’ camp. While influencers have a following, their content is usually basic photographs or videos. Content creators may not have thousands of followers, but the quality of their work is superior. If you’re looking to use digital marketing to grow your business, content creators and influencers are an invaluable asset.
I hope this article has helped you decide if a content creator or an influencer is right for your business.
