57% of modern consumers have made at least one purchase in their lives based on the word of an online influencer. So, what’s an influencer? Are you an influencer? If you have to ask, then probably not. But you can use prominent online influencers to help promote your brand. By implementing an influencer strategy for your videos, you can boost your video marketing power significantly. Let’s take a look at how.

What Is an Online Influencer?

An influencer is someone who has built up a significant online following within a particular area, and whose thoughts and opinions are trusted by their followers. Take, for example, the vlogbrothers, John and Hank Green, on YouTube. Their channel has over 3 million subscribers, and their videos routinely get hundreds of thousands of views each, or more. This popularity has led them to create their own non-profit and host an annual charity drive, which has raised millions of dollars for a variety of causes.

They’re able to raise this much money because they have a large platform with millions of followers who trust and respect them tremendously. So when they tell those followers to donate to a particular cause, they come out in droves to do so.

There are plenty of other people online as well with a similarly large following, whose fans trust them, and whom they can influence based on what they say. With influencer marketing, an influencer tells their followers about a particular brand and why it’s worthwhile, in the hope of boosting that brand’s sales.

It’s similar to a celebrity endorsement. However, influencer marketing is about more than just offering someone a paycheck to say good things about your brand. Influencer marketing is about trust. Show them why your brand is worthwhile and something that they would want to advocate, and they’ll in turn show their followers reasons why they think your brand is good.

Building a Video Influencer Strategy

So how do you build an effective influencer strategy for your video marketing campaign? First you need to find an influencer who fits with your particular brand. The most natural pick would be a video personality, but you can also choose someone with a lot of loyal Twitter followers, or a popular Facebook page, or some other online presence.

But how do you find the right person for your brand? You need to know your audience. What videos are they watching? Who are they following on Twitter? Who’s making a big splash among your target demographic right now? Look for someone whom people trust and respect, who would be a good fit for your brand. You can also look for people who aren’t fully established yet, but who are on the rise. If you can forge a professional relationship with them in the beginning, you can hopefully continue it once they’ve reached their peak, and use their rising influence to increase your own as well.

Once you’ve found the online influencers in your brand’s circle, invite them to appear in one of your videos. Once it premieres, they’ll hopefully share the link with their followers, who will be more inclined to watch it and look favorably upon your brand, based on the influencer’s presence in it. And thus, you’ve greatly expanded your own audience. If the influencer makes videos of their own, you could offer to appear in one of theirs in return, thus boosting your reach even more.

Continue to nurture those relationships over time as well. If you can get them to appear in multiple videos, it will help embed your brand further into their followers’ minds, and associate that influencer with your brand. Eventually, they might even promote one of your videos to their followers even if they weren’t in it themselves, just because they like it.

By continuing to make connections with the key online influencers in your field or industry, you can build up your own trustworthiness among your target audience. They’ll see you as someone whom their idols respect, and thus someone they can respect as well. Then you’ll be an online influencer too!

How will you use online influencers to boost your brand’s own influence online? Let us know in the comments below!