Social commerce has quickly become one of the fastest-growing shopping trends, with earnings predicted to reach almost $80 billion in the US by 2025. This new type of commerce has provided a huge opportunity for brands to meet their consumers where they are (on social media), and even shorten the time from discovery to purchase.
So what’s the not-so-secret secret to running successful social commerce campaigns? Influencers. Here are a few reasons why:
- Influencers provide reach to specific audiences
- Influencers are able to promote and highlight products in a more authentic way
- Influencers hold incredible sway with their online audiences — an endorsement from them is like getting a personal referral (but exponentially more potent!)
That being said, not all influencers make good social commerce partners. If you want to be successful, you need a good strategy to find the right influencers for your brand, who have the power to sell. This article will explain the impact that influencers have on social commerce campaigns and how to find influencers that will help you get the most out of your own social commerce campaign.
How to Find Influencers for Your Social Commerce Campaign
Social commerce and the role of influencers
Social commerce is a subset of ecommerce that is enabled by social media. Most social platforms have developed features — from product tags for photos, to in-app stores, to shoppable lists, to affiliate links — that make product purchasing and selling much easier and faster.
“Instagram… is a powerful store-front that supersedes every mall, shopping district or fashion magazine. A user’s ability to buy natively through Instagram radically shortens the buyer journey allowing businesses to easily find, inspire and convert a window shopper into a customer.” — Anthony Svirskis, Forbes contributor
Even more interesting: recent survey data shows that this isn’t just a trend for brands and platforms — consumers really do purchase on social platforms. Research conducted by Traackr found that surveyed consumers ranked these platforms as their top choices for social commerce:
- 39% of surveyed UK consumers ranked Instagram as the number one social platform that they are most likely to purchase products on. This was followed by TikTok, Facebook, YouTube, and Pinterest.
- 36% of of surveyed US consumers ranked Facebook as the number one social platform that they are most likely to purchase products on. This was followed by Instagram, YouTube, TikTok, and Pinterest.
Consumers have made it clear that they are ready to purchase products on social platforms, and influencers are part of the reason why. According to Traackr’s research, 70% of surveyed US consumers said that they are more likely to buy a product from a brand if they work with an influencer they know and trust.
How to find influencers who drive sales
The strategy you use to find influencers for a social commerce campaign is different from the strategy you use to find influencers for an affiliate program, a seeding campaign, and so on. A social commerce campaign is all about selling, and not all influencers specialize in this.
As with most things in influencer marketing, the most important tool at your disposal is data. To find influencers who can be good partners for your social commerce campaign, focus on these key attributes:
- Organic love. Influencers who have high brand affinity and are already (organically) mentioning your brand and products are more likely to provide authentic content. They have also already made their audience familiar with your brand, increasing the likelihood that they will actually purchase.
- High engagement rates. Unlike impressions or reach, high engagement rates indicate that the audience (no matter what size) is paying attention and interested in the influencer’s content. If they like, comment, save, and share an influencer’s content, they may be more likely to click through to a purchase link!
- History of successful social commerce partnerships. Search through past content for keywords that are used in social commerce campaigns such as “link in bio”, “use my code”, “swipe up to shop”, etc. You can do this by typing any of these keywords into a social media platform or use an influencer marketing platform, like Traackr. Once you’ve identified influencers who have had previous experience with social commerce campaigns, check their comments and engagement rates to ensure their audience responded positively!
- Balanced mix of content. Find influencers who have a mix of organic and paid content. Too much paid content may indicate that the influencer’s audience is already oversaturated with other brands and product promotions.
If you have the time and bandwidth, you can search for all of these things manually by simply researching directly on your social platform of choice. But if you are in a time and resource crunch, you should consider using an influencer marketing platform. Traackr, for example, can help marketers find influencers much faster by layering multiple types of data, and providing rich insights like audience demographics (location, age, income, affinities, etc).