Social media influencers have fundamentally changed the role of public relations when it comes to reaching today’s audience. The balance of power between consumers and brands has shifted, and consumers are more likely to trust the people they see on their social media feeds than traditional marketing. By effectively tying social media influencers into your public relations strategy, your business can reach larger audiences, promote positive branding and increase customer engagement and awareness. 

Your consumers already know and trust influencers to make decisions, and when they hear from them that your product or service is the best, the results will be powerful. National and local celebrities, industry experts, and other influencers amass great followings on their online blogs and social media. Working with influencers often gives businesses access to targeted audiences. What’s even better is that unlike with traditional media, influencer marketing is much more measurable – know who’s looking at your content, when, and where they came from.

According to recent research, brands are now globally spending more than $255 million on influencer marketing every month, and that’s just on Instagram. Influencer marketing is growing exponentially, and there are many reasons as to why PR firms should start focusing on social influencers.

• Build consumer engagement and trust

Social influencers share strong personal connects with their audience, which is a big reason why their audience engages with their content, and believes what they have to say. In fact, contrary to the prevailing notion that celebrities command the power to sway mass opinion, there’s an emerging trend of local influencers who are more popular with their follower base as their personalities and content resonate more. By connecting and collaborating with these influencers, it is possible to consistently produce higher engagement numbers while keeping the messaging genuine and low cost.

• Create a unified customer experience

With the spawning of social media sites, people are consuming content at all times. This demands an always-on content strategy, and this is where influencers become an indispensable channel to activate. With the help of influencers, PR firms can engage their customers across channels, locations, and time zones, create content that is engagement-worthy, and target audience in different stages of the customer lifecycle – from awareness to consideration to conversions.

• Chance to Get Creative

Being brutally honest, millennials don’t read brochures, reports, or press releases. They are spending close to nine hours browsing the internet, surfing social networking sites, using emails and texts, and on online forums. When it comes to the kind of content consumption, millennials spend most of their time watching videos on YouTube, consuming content on Facebook and Instagram, binge watching shows, and reading short news via apps. Influencers get this, and they keep playing with creative means to keep their audience engaged. It’s about time for PR to get through to their target audience by breaking the content clutter via influencers.