Influencer marketing – that is, strategies that use digital influencers to connect a brand with the public – is efficient and accessible for smaller companies as well. This is explained by consultant Paula Tebett, a digital marketing specialist with 15 years of experience and a teacher of MBA courses.
Paula Tebett offers tips and guidance in episode 8 of the Conexão Poli Digital series – a set of live videocasts promoted by Poli Digital, a platform that automates and unifies communication channels between companies and customers. The episode and the whole series are available for free on YouTube, at the address https://www.youtube.com/@poli.digital.
The specialist emphasizes that the first step for a company that wants to adopt influencer marketing is to identify influencers whose profile aligns with the characteristics of the audience they intend to communicate with. Influencers should not only be understood as celebrities, but also as opinion leaders in certain niches or locations.
Thus, the strategy is applicable not only to large companies, as it is possible to hire opinion leaders on a smaller scale. What is essential, Paula Tebett reiterates, is that the influencer ‘matches the brand’, meaning that the target audience must be considered when selecting an influencer. ‘It is necessary to locate the right influencers, from specific niches.’
Therefore, the fundamental requirement is not the number of followers on social media. The first point to be analyzed is whether what the influencer communicates, how they position themselves, how they act, is in line with the brand’s purposes.
For influencer marketing practices, a recurring misconception, notes the consultant, lies in the content designated for the influencer, as well as in the delivery methods. “It is not enough, for example, to ask the influencer to just keep doing ‘stories’ [Instagram feature] for the sake of it. It is important that it is content that generates identification between the followers and the influencer,” she emphasizes.
Paula Tebett draws attention to a tool with great potential but often underexplored: WhatsApp’s ‘status.’ “Hardly anyone sees that it can be a strategy,” she says, mentioning her own successful experiences with using this feature. “When I use it, I receive a lot of messages in return.”
The specialist also considers it essential for a company to have automated and centralized communication channels for relationships with consumers and customers. She gives an example, mentioning how common it is for companies to receive a comment or message from a consumer on Instagram and respond asking them to contact them via WhatsApp.
“The person [in most cases] is not going to do that. This is one of the most common mistakes companies cannot make. There needs to be this automated centralization by the company and not keep leading the customer from one place [communication channel] to another,” she warns.
In this sense, Paula Tebett highlights the importance of platforms like Poli Digital, whose technological solution integrates WhatsApp, Instagram, and Facebook communications, enables the use of the same number by multiple attendants, and allows for the creation of flowcharts and automations for customer service, among other functionalities. Poli Digital is an official partner of Meta, the group that owns WhatsApp, Instagram, and Facebook.
