The Power of a Huge Following
The power of a huge following cannot be overstated. In the world in which we live, a social media influencers following on social media allows them to share more than just content. It allows them to influence people, make money, and even get offered “real” jobs. The actor Robert Downey Jr illustrates this point well.
A Large Following Equals Free Advertising
After coming off the most iconic and successful acting role of his acting career, starring as Iron Man in Marvel Cinematic Universe movies, he accepted the lead role as Dr. Dolittle in the film ‘Dolittle’. Needless to say, after 10 years of playing Iron Man, Downey boasts an immense following. People know him as a good actor with nearly flawless performances.
However, unlike his role as Iron Man, his role as Dr. Dolittle in ‘Dolittle’ fails critically. Nearly all critics agree major problems exist in the film. The incoherent storyline, Downey speaking in a hard to place accent, and less than juvenile jokes all contribute to the failure. The film received 18% from critics on Rotten Tomatoes.
Despite this, many still go see the film. Why? Because of RDJ. He lends credibility to the film. His followers want to see what he’s up to. And so, despite its flaws, the film succeeds commercially. RDJ lends the film valuable free advertising because of his massive social media following.
Social Media Influencers
In the world of social media, influencer’s ability to make a living increases exponentially as they gather more followers. Because of the algorithms that make up most social media platforms, and even more search engines, the more followers a person amasses, the higher their content shows in the platform, giving them access to even more followers.
Influencers with large enough followings have an endless meal ticket. In other words, the influencers’ following of people see them as a legitimate voice. A place where they go to get advice on the things that matter to them. This makes influencers a lot of money because just by mentioning products or services on their social media accounts, they get can paid by a company vying for people’s attention.
Mentioning for Income
Often, this type of advertising is overlooked as a legitimate source of income. When, in fact, it is one of the greatest assets an influencer possesses to make money. A good example of this is makeup vloggers on YouTube. The vloggers are social media influencers. Just by mentioning a product in their video, a percentage of their followers usually purchase it.
This is great news for companies selling all types of products. All they need is to partner with a vlogger who influences likely customers with a large following and voila, traffic begins to flow and the money starts rolling in. And, of course, the vlogger gets a slice of the pie.
Connecting Social Media Influencers with Followers
In addition, some vloggers even leave notes in the description about the products they use and links to where their followers can purchase them. Going one step further with this idea, though, a vlogger can ensure they get credit for a purchase by texting followers a link to a product where they purchase a product instantly.
If an influencer’s following is large enough, they can make a lot of money by product promotion. Plus, influencers can easily build a text message list and send out text messages about products with links to get a certain percentage off. And if it is time-sensitive, even better. Offer text message notifications to followers where they receive a notification each time a product goes on sale that you promote.
Connecting influencers with text message marketing is powerful! Instead of just taking a reactive approach to selling products or services, influencers take an active one. All an influencer needs is to set up a keyword campaign and promote it. For example, a makeup YouTuber simply says “Text BEAUTY to 50505 to receive notifications when the products I mention in this video go on sale.” It’s really that simple.
Text Marketing for Social Media Influencers
The beauty of text message marketing is that the list can be built from a following on any social media platform. It doesn’t matter if the platform is TikTok, YouTube, Facebook, or Instagram. Each platform is perfect in its own unique way for influencers to start text marketing to their followers. On YouTube, you mention your text message keyword in your video, on Instagram in a caption for an image, on Facebook in a status update.
Make More Than Money, Make Change
But text marketing is useful for more than just selling products, influencers can use it for so much more. Use it to engage with their followers, announce upcoming events, send out surveys, and anything else you can think of. In the end, influencers create their own destiny. The power to influence can be used in so many different directions. Certainly, making a living because of your influence is a prudent goal and learning to utilize the available tools to maximize your efforts just makes good sense.
