There are many different platforms and forms an influencer can promote your product or service. When deciding what platform to have your event on, you should first consider the influencer and understand what platform/form they engage the best with their audience. That being said, depending on your goals (drive transactions, get awareness, etc) you may want to consider a specific type of content to be produced. Here are the most popular platforms and ways an influencer can promote your product/service:
Stories – The best direct call to action post type. The influencer promotes a product/service in their stories and tells the user to swipe up to access that offer. However, Stories only last for 24 hours and Instagram’s algorithm may be prioritizing other types of post and Stories are getting less exposure.
Feed Post – A static post the lives forever (or until the influencer deletes it). This increases your exposure but is not the best for a direct call to action event. The influencer is unable to post a link directly to the post content, however the influencer can change their link in the bio and tell their audience in the post to check the link in their Bio (most likely the influencer will only keep this link in their bio for a short period of time).
Reels – Instagram is trying to compete with TikTok. Reels is their answer. For this reason, Instagram is showing more people Reels than any other content on their platform. Reels is the best option for exposure on Instagram, however like a Feed Post there is no option for a direct call to action. The influencer in the description of the reels or in the reel itself can tell the audience to check out the link in their Bio. If possible, doing a Reels and a Stories swipe up event at the same time can be a great way to get the largest reach and the best direct response.
Tiktok really only has one option for a partnership and that is a traditional tiktok video post. Like Instagram Reels, there is no direct call to action option. The influencer is not able to put a link for the promotion directly on their content. They can however put the link in their Bio.
TikTok has great exposure, however this exposure can be “cheap” quality. TikTok can expose a video to more people, but generally these people may not be a follower of the influencer, these people may be mixed audience from all over the world, and this audience tends to be a younger audience.
When running the same promotion on TikTok as Instagram, Instagram has outperformed Tiktok.
If the influencer has an audience on Facebook (which is very few influencers), this can be a good option as the influencer can include direct call to action links in their post. This content will live forever on their feed until the influencer takes it down. Most influencers perform better on Instagram however there is a select few that do perform better on Facebook.
Sponsored Video – You can sponsor a YouTube influencer’s video or be one of the brands that gets a shootout during the video. Very similar to a traditional commercial or live read. The downside is that the video is not completely about your product, however prices should reflect that. The influencer can post a direct call to action link in the video description.
Review Video – Have the influencer review your product or service in a video. Not all YouTube influencers will do this, however if they are willing it’s a great way for the influencer to talk about your product. They can also instruct the viewer to click the link in the description to buy or learn more.
Conclusion
If you are looking to drive immediate sales from your event with the influencer, traditionally Instagram Stories have been the best way to go. However, as of writing this (June 2021), there appears to be some changes to how Instagram feeds up content and Instagram Stories have been getting less views and engagement. Hopefully, this changes and Stories continue to get the views and engagement they were getting as this is the best form to get a direct response to your promotion.
If you are looking to get awareness, Instagram Reels & TikTok are getting the most views. However, these forms lack a direct response and may be harder to track the performance of your promotion.
Make sure to take the Influencer’s input when picking the platform or content form as they know their audience best and they know what will perform the best for their audience.
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