Influencer Marketing and Online Reputation: Partnering with the Right Influencers for Your Brand

Understanding influencer marketing, reputation management with influencer marketing, and how to leverage influencer marketing for online reputation is quite simple. Let’s cover the first part first.

There is a guy in your neighborhood who is just too good at mending up anything that rests on wheels. Cars, trucks, bikes. You name it. Then one day you ask him what superbike you should buy and then he suggests a few good options.

It is very likely that you’re going to consider his advice, as you know him to be an expert in automobiles and engines.

What happened here is that he “influenced” your purchase behavior because of his advice and the persona that he has created by his work. It is similar to celebrity advertisements on TV but with an important difference.

On TV, you might see, say, De Niro, suggesting you buy a particular brand of tofu. You might buy one too.

However, DeNiro is not “widely accepted” as someone who knows a lot about tofu. What if the same food product is suggested by someone like Gordon Ramsay?

This personal touch, this product-dedicated persona, is what makes influencer marketing a bit different than the generalized form of advertising that we witness over radio and TV.

Companies are now more interested in partnering up with Internet sensations who are known to be the masters of their fields and then partnering up with them to influence their fan base on social media.

Today’s blog is all about influencer marketing, how it works, and how small businesses can leverage it to build a robust online reputation and get more 5-star Google reviews.

Understanding Influencer Marketing in the Local Business Landscape

Yours being a business or service deeply dependent and limited by the geography where you are located, influencer marketing can be both tricky and rewarding.

It’s because finding an influencer who fits inside your budget, has a hold over the buying behavior of your neighborhood, and is believed to be an expert in the service or products you provide is not an easy task.

Even a TikToker or Instagrammer with good evening followers might demand too high a price.

You can’t always blow up a month or two worth of revenue over them without having some kind of assurance that they will help you boost your sales.

What are your options then? One way is to pick up a known face from your neighborhood who knows what they are talking about – like that moto guy we discussed in the opening paragraph.

So, if you are into plants and saplings, maybe a retired army vet who has a garden that everyone admires.

Or, you can ask your local community college to let you beautify their reception area, board rooms, or maybe only the dean’s cabin and then get a nice picture with a glowing Google review.

Stunts like such always help because vets, teachers, college professors, etc., know, generally, a lot of people and are often respected for the services they rendered for the nation and society.

A few positive words from them can really help you get things going in the right direction.

Types of Influencers: Mega, Macro, Micro, and Nano

Though criteria for categorisation may vary based on business cases, the following four are the most commonly accepted influencer types based on the number of followers they carry on social media platforms:

• Mega influencers: Think celebrities and social media superstars with millions of followers. You may think that this gives them a vast reach, but often, their audience is not as engaged, which kind of makes them less effective for local businesses.
• Macro influencers: Such influencers typically have 100K to a million followers.
• Micro influencers: Those with 10,000 to 100,000 followers. They are known for their niche audiences. They typically have higher engagement rates. The best part is that they are known to be more approachable and authentic. The other best part is that their audience tends to be more local, making them ideal for small businesses.
• Nano influencers: This influencer category is more suitable for local businesses. They have fewer than 10,000 followers but tend to have a highly engaged, tight-knit community. Partnering with nano influencers can be a powerful way to reach customers within a specific geographic area.

See, for your local business, partnering up with a micro or nano influencer makes more sense. This route offers a better and more direct way to connect with potential customers who are genuinely interested in your products or services.

An example would help you understand it in a better way. Let’s say there is a nano influencer who runs a local mommy blog. They would have a significantly larger impact on local childcare centers or family-owned restaurants than, say, a mega influencer who endorses just anything.

Identifying the Right Influencers for Your Brand

Much like everything else on this God’s green (or whatever color it is that’s abundant around you) Earth, everything has its own taste and style – even the influencers that we are talking about today. If good influencers can do wonders for your business, the wrong ones can do the exact opposite, and the bad ones can make it even worse.

When trying to choose the right influencers, business owners often follow the top two markers: number of followers and domain authority. These two markers are quite good and should be taken into account at all costs. However, coming up with the right influencers has more to it than just these two factors.

Here are some key factors to consider when selecting an influencer for your brand:

• Audience alignment: It’s more than just the influencer’s topical authority. What you need to look for is the value system of the influencer aligns with the value system of your audience. Like, say, your’s is a restaurant where families come to eat, your menu being a mix of well-balanced diet (often favored by adults) and sweet and salty stuff (liked by kids). In this case, your best influencer need not be someone who is an authority on topics like food, diet, etc. They could be, and that will be great. But what you can also go for is someone who has an image of a family man or who has promoted places like fun parks.
• Authenticity: With so much social media nowadays, people can easily tell if someone’s content is authentic or plagiarized. Not saying that it doesn’t happen, but you surely don’t want your promotion to be a copy of an 80s advertisement.

But, authenticity in this case goes beyond just copying the script of old TV commercials. It’s about your influencers knowing what they are up to. It’s about choosing to not promote opinions under garb of facts, doing the right research, and not being a total sell-out just for a few more likes or link clicks.

• Engagement rate: How often does the influencer’s audience engage with their content? A high number of followers means nothing if no one is interacting with their posts. Look for influencers with a high engagement rate, as this indicates a more active and trusting audience.

Building Strong Influencer Partnerships for Long-Term Success

Now, now! We know the difference between old-time promoters and influencers, the types of influencers, and factors a business owner should consider once choosing one for their local business.

With all these things done and dusted, it’s time to learn how to approach them and sign them up, and once a brand new influencer is on board, how to keep that engagement well-oiled, long, and lively for the longest time possible.

Let’s start with the approach and onboarding.

• Appreciate their efforts: The first thing you need to do is to show that you genuinely appreciate their content. So you need to do your homework. Watch their reels, shorts, or whatever long or short-form content they have produced recently to be in total sync with their effort, values, and value system.
• Personalize your partnership pitch: Some influencers would simply jump on the next sponsorship opportunity. Some would take time to go through your brand. Some might outright decline. So, keep your pitch handy as to why you want to work with them.
• Offer value: Other than the money, make it clear how the partnership will benefit the influencer. This could be through free products or exclusive access. Influencers are more likely to work with brands that offer mutually beneficial opportunities.

Buddy, the thing is, a successful influencer-brand partnership hinges on clear communication and shared goals. So it’s better that you start by outlining what you want to achieve through the collaboration and how you would compensate them in return.

Is your goal to boost your sales by 10X in the next three months? Or, are you aiming to increase 5-star Google reviews for a better ORM?

If you want to see what a well-defined expectation charter looks like, you might want to see partnerships between local boutiques and fashion influencers.

What fashion influencers often do is that instead of one post, they document an entire shopping experience. This starts from browsing through racks to styling the clothes in a photoshoot, resulting in multiple pieces of content over a few weeks. You can also discuss such plans with your next influencer.

One more thing: a strong influencer-brand partnership is a collaborative one. You have to put some of your waking hours into working together with the influencer to develop content ideas that resonate with the audience to achieve your business goals. Influencers know their followers best, and you know your brand best. So, both parties should be involved in the creative process.

Let’s look at an example. If you own a local gym and are looking to boost your monthly memberships, you might work with a fitness influencer to create a series of posts about their personal fitness journey at your facility. This plan could include workout tips, progress updates, and behind-the-scenes videos that give their followers an authentic look into their experience.

Measuring the Impact of Influencer Marketing on Online Reputation

When you have decided to spend so much on reputation management with influencer marketing, it’s only fair to expect good results from it.

But what exactly are good results? How are you going to say that this influencer and his campaigns worked for you, while the others simply failed?

Here are a few things to keep in mind when judging the impact of your next influencer campaign:

• Growth in Google Review volume: Once your influencer is done with the first leg of their campaign, you should look at how good that bump in your positive Google reviews is. It’s easy too. You just have to write down the number of positive reviews before and after the campaign and compare them.
• Engagement rate: Much like the review count, you have to see for yourself how well people interacted with the posts (likes, shares, comments) done by the influencer.
• Referral traffic: No influencer marketing is done without referral links. These are the links that help you determine the source (influencer, campaign, season, etc.) so you know what works for you. You can use referral marketing software to help you track and gauge the traction of your influencer campaign.
• Sales and conversions: Finally, the proof of the pudding is in the eating. Everything else is fine, but if you are not getting sales, then almost everything is down the drain. So, keep checking those sales numbers.

Conclusion: Influencers as a Catalyst for Growth and Online Reputation

Influencers have the power to shape public perception and enhance your online reputation. By partnering with the right influencers—those whose values align with your brand and whose audience is engaged and relevant—you can generate positive reviews, increase customer trust, and drive business growth.

Through strategic partnerships and a focus on online reputation, Prosperly can help your business build a positive, lasting online presence that attracts new customers and keeps existing ones coming back.

Now is the time to take action. Start partnering with influencers who can elevate your brand’s reputation and bring in the 5-star Google reviews that will help your business stand out. But in case you’re a bit tight with that budget, don’t worry, because with Prosperly you can start generating hundreds of positive reviews in no time. Try it here.