How to Leverage Influencers on Social Media Platforms By Sherry Salois, MILLIONSAs digital marketing continues to expand into 2022, social media marketing has become a powerful avenue for marketers to increase brand awareness, humanize their brands, and generate traffic, leads, and customers. One popular method of increasing brand awareness is collaborating with influencers, relying on their talent as creators to raise a brand’s or product’s profile. Now, with the rise of TikTok, short-form video has taken over social media marketing. In the wake of TikTok’s popularity, Meta has been scrambling to release and promote Instagram Reels and Twitter to increase its video quality. All three platforms provide good opportunities for brands to take advantage of influencer and video appeal, and all have their shortcomings, as well. For those brands seeking to tap into the lucrative world of video marketing, and more specifically market surrounding sports, there’s a new player in the arena—MILLIONS.co—that might be the best option for brands who want to reach sports fans and create lots of video content especially. PlatformsTikTok Elevates the Video GameBoasting more than a billion active users, video-sharing social media app TikTok has become a cultural powerhouse with a global community of creators. Stats posted on TikTok for Business show “65% of TikTok users enjoy when a Creator posts about a product or brand; 35% discover products or brands from a Creator, and 39% consider products while interacting with Creator videos.”ProsTikTok features designed for marketers include Top View Ads, In-Feed Ads, and lots of support, along with access to creators. Brands can leverage TikTok’s Creator Marketplace to find vetted creators based on budget and focus, partner with them, access statistics to quickly analyze results, and fine-tune campaigns. With an average influencer engagement rate of 18% in the United States alone, it trumps that of Instagram at 5%. Ad Manager provides tools for businesses to create their own In-Feed Ads.For those brands angling to reach Gen Z (born between 1997 and 2012) or Millennials (born between 1981 and 1994 or 1996, depending on who you ask), TikTok is ideal with 41% of users landing in the 16 to 24 age bracket while 66% are under 30. GWI indicates that Gen Zs in particular don’t want to see “picture perfect“ content, but are looking for more authenticity—not only from creators but from brands, as well. TikTok provides the tools to make that happen, with video editing; filters and effects; AR, 2D, and 3D; sharing across platforms; likes and comments; and notifications, all enabling brands to stand out in the crowd. TikTok invites user engagement and increases the chance of creating trending challenges—including hashtag challenges that have proven to be effective marketing strategies, the popular Duets feature, and reaction videos. TikTok thrives on spontaneous content, so costs can be minimal. The algorithm starts at the “For You” landing page and increases the odds of content being viewed by offering users videos similar to what they have watched, liked, shared, or commented on in the past, and how they interact with other features like captions and settings. Live streaming is …
