Social media influencers boost local business

A shoutout or post from the right influencer on social media can potentially move the needle for businesses in both brand awareness and sales.

It’s one of the reasons influencer marketing is expected to be a $13.8 billion business in 2021, up from $9.7 billion in 2020, according to a recent report from Influencer Marketing Hub.

"Influencers aren’t going away," says Jackie DiBella, account manager at EGC Group, a Melville-based marketing and digital services firm, which assists clients with influencer marketing.

Influencers can be celebrities, but for small businesses it’s more likely they’d connect with smaller-scale social media influencers who have developed a niche/following within their respective fields, she says. For example, people look to accounts like @lieats for restaurant recommendations in the area, she says.

Built-in trust

The benefit lies in that "they’re targeting the exact audience you want to get in front of," she says.

She finds many small businesses are working with influencers with between 10,000 and 50,000 social media followers.

"They have a built-in audience and built-in trust," DiBella says.

But that’s not to say small businesses can’t work with larger influencers.

The WhalesTale in Northport in July teamed up with Carl Radke of Bravo’s "Summer House." He guest-bartended and took photos with fans there, says Owner Sosh Andriano, who also owns Northport-based Harbor Head Brewing Co.

Cross-promotion

It coincided with the launch of NoPoCo, a Northport-focused lifestyle brand that Andriano was launching for a beer brand made by Harbor Head and apparel like shirts and hats. It was a mutually beneficial alliance because Radke was looking for Whales Tale to carry a sparkling hard tea, Loverboy, he’s affiliated with, Andriano says.

"It gave us an opportunity to introduce our brand to Carl’s 300,000-plus [Instagram] followers," he says.

By promoting the event via photos on their own social media pages they were able to cross promote their brands to each other's social media followers, introducing each of their respective audiences to both Whales Tale and Loverboy.

Smaller influencers like food bloggers have been particularly helpful for brand awareness at Andriano's newer East Northport eatery, Lota Veco, which targets an organic and vegan audience. He’ll invite the influencers to try the food for free.

The smaller influencers can have a powerful draw, says Shane Barker, a Sacramento, Calif.-based brand and influencer consultant.

"Say you’ve got a celebrity recommending a product on one side and your close friend recommending another product. Who will you trust?" he says. "People are more inclined to trust and heed recommendations from people with whom they have close relationships."

Freebies

Often many smaller influencers will work for freebies or discounts rather than getting paid. It depends on the reach of the influencer.

Hilary Topper, president of Long Beach-based HJMT Public Relations and a micro-influencer that helps promotes products for brands, gets freebies, but also gets paid for endorsement posts.

She has a blog, "A Triathlete’s Diary," and with that has grown a following. She has 10,000-plus Instagram followers and has a pending book deal from her blog, Topper says. Brands from sneaker to wet suit companies will look for her to do shout-outs or videos on Instagram. She could get anywhere from $500-$2,000 a post.

But because she’s built a following, to maintain their trust she says she doesn’t just take any endorsement and won’t do a shoutout if she doesn’t like the brand or product.

Salvatore DiBenedetto, aka The Grubfather, a food and travel influencer with 300,000-plus Instagram followers, says he also won’t post if he doesn’t have a good experience.

Pandemic factor

"You have to maintain a level of integrity with your followers," he says. With his count of followers, he gets paid for his relationship with brands.

He typically goes beyond a simple post or shout-out and does content creation including a "bank of imagery and videos," says DiBenedetto, CEO of Babylon-based The Connect Agency, a creative marketing agency, and co-owner of The Grub Shop in Huntington and Long Island Taco in Babylon.

Influencer marketing’s been growing, but the pandemic "put a lot more eyes on social media," he says, noting he grew from 135,000 followers to 300,000-plus since the pandemic’s start.

So how does a small business find influencers?

"It’s easy to find niche-relevant influencers by performing hashtag searches on Instagram and Google searches," says Barker, noting you can also look for influencers among your followers. You can also use influencer marketing platforms, he says, noting he’s reviewed more than 35 of the top platforms.

Winning influencer friends

Start by liking or interacting with their posts and then reach out to them. DiBenedetto prefers email. "Introduce your business and be personable," he says. "You want them to feel comfortable with you and your product."

But you want to hold influencers accountable, too. By giving influencers promo codes to share with their followers, a business can measure how many customers that influencer is steering their way.

"They help encourage influencers to generate sales" and also "track who your most valued influencers are," Barker says.