What To Know About Amplifying Influencer Content

Social media amplification has been an effective tool for brands looking to maximize their advertising dollars and efficiently reach new potential customers.

New privacy settings and changes in data collection have made targeted amplification trickier, but with strategic tactics and performance monitoring, we still find amplification to be a powerful means to extend the reach of influencer content and marketing efforts. And when you partner with Lytehouse, we work to create a customized amplification strategy that meets your brand’s individual marketing needs.

Whitelisting vs. Boosting

There are 2 main types of social media amplification: boosting and whitelisting.

Boosting, or using the Branded Content tool on Facebook and Instagram, is the simpler of the two. This allows a brand to boost out an influencer’s post exactly as it appears on their feed and extend it to a larger audience. This is quick and easy to do, but lacks the options to customize copy and imagery for different performance metrics or target a lookalike audience, and does not provide detailed data past 14 days.

Whitelisting is where influencers give brand partners access to their accounts in order to modify and promote content directly from the brand account. Whitelisting allows brands to customize captions, images, and calls-to-action to target different performance metrics, provides the option to dark post content (where a sponsored post appears to come from an influencer’s profile but does not appear on their feed), and allows access to detailed metrics. 

How does whitelisting affect influencer rates?

Influencers typically charge an added fee to allow brands the ability to whitelist content. It is important to clearly lay out where and for how long your brand intends to amplify influencer content so that fees can be determined accordingly.

These factors typically affect influencer rates when amplification is added on:

Content Usage: Influencers will charge an added fee for brands to use influencer-created content for amplification purposes.

Duration of Whitelisting Content: The longer your brand requests access to whitelist influencer content, the higher their fee will be. 

Nature of the Brand and/or Content: Influencers can charge a premium for partnerships that discuss potentially sensitive topics.

How can I optimize content for performance-based metrics?

Amplification is a game of trial and error. Test different combinations of captions, images, and CTAs for different marketing goals, try out different audiences, budgets, and durations, then assess what’s working and recalibrate your strategy from there. Or you can work with an agency like Lytehouse that can do all the heavy lifting for you and run amplification in-house.

For more information on whitelisting, read our Whitelisting vs. Boosting blog post.

4 Ways To Use Instagram Guides

Extend your brand identity and partner with influencers to make the most of your Instagram profile.

We’ve laid out the basics of Instagram Guides. Now it’s time to discuss some applications for this feature of Instagram. We find Instagram Guides so valuable because they provide a number of ways for you to build out your brand identity, share products, and provide information about your company, all without users having to leave the Instagram app. Frictionless brand experiences are essential to converting viewers into customers, so the more they can access in a centralized location, the better.

How Can You Use Guides In Your Next Instagram Campaign?

1) Curated Shopping Picks

Product Guides are a great way to showcase your brand’s latest collections, curate best-sellers, or display influencer favorites. If your brand has an Instagram Shop, a Product Guide will help encourage social media followers to shop your brand with ease. You can also add photos, either from your account or from another user’s, and tag shoppable items below it as a clickable, shoppable catalog that lives within your Instagram profile.

2) Mini Blog

Influencers have been turning to Instagram Guides as a way to write out mini blog posts that can live on the Instagram platform rather than a separately-hosted website. The ability to combine text and imagery allows for powerful storytelling, and for smaller accounts that are unable to include swipe-up links in their Instagram Story, they can share a clickable preview of their Guide and drive readers.

For brands, a blog-style Guide could highlight user-generated content, share inspiration imagery for the latest collection, or feature interview questions with team members or interesting individuals who relate to your brand’s ethos.

3) Travel Guide

Places Guides are so helpful in creating travel and location-based recommendations for your audience. This could include a guide to a far-off locale that’s influenced your brand, a list of local recommendations where your brand headquarters are located, or anything else related to destinations near and far. 

4) Tips & Tricks

A great way to utilize Guides is as a visual FAQ. What do people want to know about your brand? Are there secrets to making the most of your product? Different ways to wear or experience items? You can use Instagram Guides as a place to centrally store different Reel and IGTV tutorials, answer frequently asked questions, and provide expert tips on making the most of your product.

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No matter how you decide to implement Guides into your Instagram marketing strategy, we see this as a perfect opportunity to partner with influencers to develop innovative Guide content. Whether they’re sharing the must-have products from your brand or showing your followers through a tour of their hometown, Guides present a unique way to extend your brand and find creative partners to help curate the content.

Ready to work with influencers on an Instagram Guide? We can help pair you with the perfect creators.

Whitelisting vs. Boosting: Breaking Down The Differences & Benefits

We’re firm believers in the power of amplification in influencer marketing, but it can be tricky to figure out successful tactics. Let’s break down the basics.

Whitelisting, dark posting, boosting...if you’re in the digital marketing world, you’ve likely heard these terms before, but understanding what they all mean can be complicated. The world of digital ad amplification is still relatively new, and finding the pathways to success can be difficult for newcomers.

For Facebook and Facebook-owned Instagram, there are two main methods of amplification: boosting and whitelisting, and in our opinion, one is far superior to the other.

Boosting

Boosting influencer content through Instagram’s Branded Content Tool is simple, but it’s options are limited.

The Limitations of Boosting

As we mentioned, boosting is a little too simplistic to create targeted ads that maximize reach and conversion.

For one, you cannot edit a post’s copy or imagery in order to run variant ads and figure out which ads are performing better and worth scaling. Another drawback is the inability to target lookalike audiences through boosted pos ts, and some features, like Instagram Stories, are not supported through Branded Content boosting.

Last, advertising partners can only access metrics of an influencer’s content for 14 days after the original posting date, making it difficult to run longterm ads and determine success over time.

Whitelisting

Whitelisting is where influencers will give brand partners access to their accounts in order to modify and promote content directly from their account.

The Benefits of Whitelisting

Brands can customize a post’s captions, images, and calls-to-action to target different KPIs and achieve various campaign objectives. Through whitelisting, brands can also create posts that appear to be shared from the influencer’s channel but do not appear on their feed.

In addition to customization options, brands also have access to a vast number of performance insights such as reach, engagement, impressions, and clicks.

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We love the customization opportunities and insights that come with whitelisting and definitely recommend it for your next influencer campaign. Have no clue where to start? Amplification is one of the many services Lytehouse can manage on your brand’s behalf. Let’s chat.

Creating Content That Resonates

As influencer marketing and social ads grow in volume, so does the competition for capturing new consumers.

Social media behavior moves at the speed of light, and influencer programs that worked a few years ago may feel completely outdated now. So what type of content can hold audience attention in 2021? Here’s our advice:

Embrace Long-Term Partnerships

It’s time to look at influencers as true partners rather than one-off contractors. When an influencer speaks about a brand multiple times over the course of weeks or months, their audience is more likely to trust the partnership and take the influencer’s recommendation into consideration and sales clicks.

Lean Into Relevant Trends

TikTok, memes, and trending hashtags have all contributed to the rise of trend-based content, and brands can benefit from the virality of popular trends by adapting relevant trends for their own channels.

Be warned: trends move quickly on apps like TikTok, so if you are going to try your hand at trend-based content, you’ll need a quick turnaround. Most trends come and go in about a week.

As the FTC gets stricter on how music on apps like TikTok and Instagram are used, you’ll also need to be wary of copyrights around trending music.

Capitalize On Authentic Moments

Lean into authentic brand moments when you see them. Brands like Dunkin’ Donuts have hosted successful campaigns centered around organic brand affinities, such as “The Charli”, a rebranded drink based on TikTok star Charli D’Amelio’s favorite Dunkin’ order. Her fans have seen her sip Dunkin’ coffee all over her social media, so the partnership was a no-brainer.

Do It For The Meme

As with trending content, memes are all about contributing your own spin on zeitgeist cultural moments. From Tiger King jokes to Bernie Sanders appearing literally everywhere after an iconic photo from President Biden’s inauguration, memes are everywhere. They’re also sharable, relatable, and easy to digest, making them primed for extended reach and impressions. 

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Looking for more ways to step you your digital marketing plans and learn about the latest trends driving influencer marketing? Our State of Influencer Marketing 2021 Report breaks down resonating content and so much more. Download it here.

4 Reasons Why Instagram Stories Are A Valuable Platform For Marketers

Social media is always evolving, and one trend we’ve certainly noticed in 2020 is that Instagram Stories are slowly overtaking Instagram Posts as the most popular post type for influencer campaigns.

From April to September, Instagram Stories accounted for almost half of all our campaign post types. Across that time period, we observed an 8% increase in Instagram Story campaigns from 2019 to 2020.

Why is it that Instagram Stories are on the rise? There are a few factors that make Instagram Stories so valuable for marketers. Let’s break them down:

1. Relatability Factor

If Instagram feed posts are a dreamy highlight reel, then Instagram Stories are where an influencer’s personality and real life can shine. There is less pressure to make every Instagram Story frame picture-perfect, making them feel much more relatable and off-the-cuff.

When it comes to brand partnerships, even Instagram Stories are often pre-recorded and approved by the brand before posting, but their reliance on selfie videos, iPhone photos, and behind-the-scenes sneak peeks make them relatable to viewers, much more so than the curated content that goes on an influencer’s feed. 

2. Demonstrations Made Easy

Instagram Stories make it incredibly easy to demonstrate how to use a featured product in short, concise clips. Whether an influencer is cooking a recipe, demoing a new technology, showing how to style a piece of clothing, or something else, Instagram Stories are the perfect platform for such demonstrations. With the ability to add text captions and GIF stickers too, there are plenty of tools to create engaging and informative tutorial-like content. 

3. Conversation Is Key

Instagram Stories are about community building, and the poll and question stickers, along with the ability for followers to direct message (aka DM) an influencer help cultivate conversation. Viewers can provide feedback, ask questions, and create a dialogue that can last far beyond the 24 hours that a Story is live.

Story interactions are beneficial for 2 main reasons: first, replies, poll votes, and other interactions help increase the Story’s engagement numbers and can in turn boost an influencer’s Story to the front of people’s Story feeds. Second, both your brand and the influencer can receive immediate feedback on the content, product, and partnership. Maybe a follower has a question about how to use a product or absolutely loves the content produced and DMs the influencer to say as much. This instant feedback can help both of you inform future content and strategies for future marketing efforts.

4. Ease Of Conversion

Last but certainly not least, the ability to add “swipe-up links” is perhaps the valuable benefit of Instagram Stories, particularly if you are deciding whether an in-feed Post or Story is more worth your time (and budget). Adding in swipe-up links allows influencers to turn their content into sales conversions and hopefully drive more sales to your brand.

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Now that you know why Instagram Stories are all the rage in influencer marketing, make sure you know the ins and outs of Instagram Story analytics so that you can track your campaign success.