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It was close to a decade ago when while visiting a Marketing Conference in Amsterdam, founders and CMO speakers from well-known brands discussed the subject of Influencers and Social Media.

Representatives of major brands such as Coca-Cola were openly discussing with the public. Large corporations with unlimited marketing budgets had to quickly adapt to what was happening back then with channels like Youtube.

To the astonishment of their marketing teams, more and more influencers were rapidly appearing and gaining hundreds of thousands of followers. At the same time, their brands did not seem to find the right formula just yet.

They were turning to these new generations and adapting their raw storytelling to increase their engagement with the crowds. Video sharing on Youtube, later Instagram, and nowadays Tiktok demonstrate the exponential growth and new opportunities for brands in social media.

At that conference, one brand representative shined about all the rest of the speakers with their clear message and charisma. It was one of the leaders of the brand called Tonys Chocolonely. This brand was created in the early 2000s and had found ways to expand its mission of 100% slave-free chocolate worldwide.

The presentation was impressive, and their results were more than that, considering how their message and actions are present in the US, Africa, and the Netherlands as market leaders. A decade after that presentation, their message is still clear and charismatic. In terms of Social Media, their facebook channel has over 135000 followers.

Our Path in Social Media

Social Media was a channel of little interest for most of the corporations I have been working with within the last two decades. Twenty years ago, explaining to CEOs or COOs the importance of effective social media channels for large corporations was one of the hardest things to do.

Like in the previous story of the conference in Amsterdam earlier in this article, corporate head managers worldwide already had too many issues allocating budgets for a traditional marketing campaign and new websites. And the idea of getting a return on investment for social media channels seemed to them a mission impossible.

If you read my article about the DNA of a brand, you would notice that several of the mentors I had so far were indeed older than 55, some even much older.

And as soon as I started talking to them about Facebook or Snapchat, it was almost like talking to them in Quechua. (The Inca’s Language in the Andes…. Yes, I’m from Ecuador and proud of it). So I got quite a lot of freedom to research and apply ideas to the subject.

Past cases

A Social Media strategy was a great source of traffic and income from tourist attractions like Ripley’s Believe It or Not Amsterdam! To large Retail e-commerce businesses such as Spimbey. Key strategies have adequately optimized each channel, their segmented targets, and effective collaborations with influencers.

Inspiral Growth as an Agency has its own Social Media Team focused on Europe and the United States. And our company is also indirectly connected to a second agency called Serendipia, which does fantastic work with companies in South America and Spain. And if there is something particular about these channels is that you must always keep track of the changes happening inside each platform.

It’s exciting to keep exploring and learning more with both teams. I had the pleasure to learn from some outstanding agencies and founders in the past, such as Danny Martins from Eureka! Creates.

Social Media is a living ecosystem; whatever you think you know now, it might be completely different 5 years from now. And for that same reason, it is never too late to start learning.

Our Social Media Framework

If you have come this far in the article, let’s share one of the frameworks we use at Inspiral Growth.

It’s the same framework we offer as a free growth hack on the Inspiral Growth Webshop.

This framework can easily be adapted to different channels, but for now, let’s focus on Instagram.

Let’s consider that you already have a brand guide with a logo and an idea of your brand’s DNA. If not, I strongly recommend you look at this article about branding. Also, if you are entirely new to branding and are looking for quick tools, I will make sure to add a list of tools at the end of this article.

Our Basic Inspiral RRSS Setup

Step 1: Choose the Right Feed For your Brand

Consistency and Creative Talent go hand in hand in your channel.

Your content should have a similar look and feel to your brand guide.

Step 2: Optimize your BIO

Make sure that it is clear who you are and what you are selling. Add a unique value proposition.

Step 3: Have a clear and tracked Call-To-Action.

Never forget that you are selling something that needs to go straight into your CTA. Some examples include a link in your Bio, content unlocks, or a shoppable feed.

And if you are just starting with Influencer Marketing, here is a quick tip on the type of influencers you could reach out to for your target audience.

The Four Types of Influencers

• Nano-Influencers: 1,000-10,000 followers
• Micro-Influencer : 10,000-50,000 followers
• Macro-Influencers: 500,000+ followers
• Mega-Influencers: 1 million + followers

The power of authentic stories

Like Tony’s Chocolonely, real stories connect with the crowds nowadays. And yes, we have famous cases like the Think Different of Apple or the sense of victory and experience you get from the Nike Branding. Yet, in this opportunity, I would like to share more about other beautiful stories of Social Media out there.

Social Media and the music

In 2017, one of the major topics of that summer in Amsterdam was that Justin Bieber had purchased a Rooftop Penthouse on one of the new buildings in the city center. It was particularly significant for us because that building was right in front of our office. (it remains uncertain if it was real or not, yet that was the topic back at the office for quite some time)

That summer, the continuation of that first topic was on how Justin Bieber was once discovered on YouTube. Yet, for some reason, we never researched how he was found. I recently learned it on video straight from the one that made it happen.

His name is Scooter Braun. And I strongly encourage you to watch and learn from him to understand the power of social media in the music business, with Scooter Braun working with artists like Justin Bieber, Usher, Eminem, and Ludacris.

Social Media and Tech Companies

Two of my favorite educational platforms are Mindvalley and Foundr. And in both cases, their social media are just goldmines. Mindvalley is an excellent content source; its storytelling connects millions of visitors. And in the case of Foundr, even their channels are full of courses and best practices that you could apply to your brand.

Yes, there are hundreds of courses out there to learn from. And we have been in many of them. It is not only about how much you know but how much you bring to action. So whether you use Foundr or Youtube to learn, start learning today.

Here are some tips of tools that you could use:

• For brand colors: https://coolors.co/
• For Quick Design: https://canva.com/
• For Video editing: https://www.movavi.com/ (or the Inshot App)
• For Link Building: https://linktr.ee/
• For Link Tracking: https://bitly.com/
• For copywriting: https://www.copy.ai/

Would you like more? Just send us an email at in**@in************.com and we will gladly help you.