While deciding which engagement model works for them, brands also need to pick the most effective route to market. Selling direct to consumers has clear advantages. It retains close control over how consumers experience a brand, and it’s a great way to deepen consumer relationships and collect data to improve social marketing performance. A good example? Beauty brand Kiehl's drove a 22% increase in sales through a Facebook campaign in Vietnam which used targeted Stories and a Messenger bot to enable direct consumer ordering.
However, to really grow brand awareness and engage with new consumers and/or communities, partners such as influencers can be a more productive, nuanced route that builds on the trusted relationships these partners already have with their community.
In the people-powered world of social commerce, influencers are evolving from promoters to strategic partners who can use their understanding of an audience to help brands to grow. This does require relinquishing a degree of control, however. Restaurant chain Chipotle is embracing this, inviting participants of their Chipotle Creator Class to brainstorm new ideas and strategies and help shape the brand’s future. In return, Chipotle supports the career growth of their creators, offering a range of perks and opportunities that promotes long-term collaboration.
Partners don’t need to be high-profile. In fact, our research shows that friends are the most powerful source of influence for both large and small brands. Prior studies also show that micro-influencers, those with fewer than 5,000 followers, consistently have the highest engagement rates because they are seen as the most authentic. In 2020, micro-influencers achieved a 5% engagement rate compared with just 1.6% for those with 1m+ followers.
If giving up control is challenging, virtual influencers could be considered. In China, where over 60% of social media users already follow a virtual character, engagement rates can be up to three times higher versus interactions with real people. Beauty companies such as L’Oreal, Laneige and Estee Lauder all now have virtual brand ambassadors, using them as the faces for their campaigns.
For brands that are ready to truly embrace people-power though, it’s possible to turn passionate consumers into advocates, marketers and sellers. Brands can reap big benefits from the halo effect of trust that these consumer-sellers create.
That’s what KFC China did in a collaboration with Accenture by creating a virtual KFC store that anyone could own via a WeChat mini program. Consumers became content creators and promoters. They could set up their own stores, sell items to be redeemed in physical outlets, add candies to their friends’ stores (to unlock offers), and compete with friends for popularity and ranking.
