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In recent times brands and marketers are turning to Influencer Marketing campaigns on Facebook and Instagram to increase brand awareness and drive revenue. According to a study, up to 93 percent of marketers find influencer marketing more effective than traditional marketing strategies.
However, if you are only posting with influencers organically, you may be missing out on a myriad of opportunities for paid social strategy. You need to consider using influencer tools such as whitelisting and dark posting to further drive your brand engagements and conversions.
What is whitelisting?
Whitelisting refers to a process through which you obtain appropriate permissions from influencers to run paid campaigns through their identity. It is an arrangement where social media influencers provide brands access to advertise on their social media accounts to boost brand awareness and marketing efforts.
Many benefits come with whitelisting; for one, you are the one to create and pay for social media promotions on behalf of the influencer. You, therefore, have a more significant say on what goes into the posts. You will also get an opportunity to boost the influencer’s content to grow your brand awareness effectively.
What is dark posting?
Dark posts refer to the targeted ads on social media that don’t typically appear on timelines of general users. They also don’t show up in the feeds of general social media followers. Dark posts are programmed to show up as sponsored content on specific followers that you are targeting. Dark posts are also referred to as unpublished posts on Facebook because they are not published like organic posts. Dark posts were a brainchild of Facebook, but they now exist on all other major social media platforms such as LinkedIn, Pinterest, and Twitter. Notably, all the ads on Snapchat and Twitter appear as dark posts by default. In the other social media platforms, you essentially have to select whether to boost organic content or create a dark post.
Benefits of influencer whitelisting
Provides an ideal way to amplify influencer content
Whitelisting allows you to reach your target audiences easily to optimize for sales and CPA/ROAS. It also allows you to amplify the influencer content to drive and measure sales for the influencer marketing campaign.
Allows you to control the post
The posts that influencers white list typically gives the brand full control over them. In essence, this means you will be able to promote content freely and according to your marketing strategy. You can practically add your target audiences, including those that don’t follow the influencer. The influencer content amplification, therefore, helps increase brand awareness and optimize paid media.
Enables creation of dark posts
Whitelisting on social media also allows you to create dark posts. Ideally, whitelisting empowers you to create creative posts for your paid advertising that you will use to reach audiences on the influencer’s profile.
Rather than getting the influencers to create the dark posts, you can create them yourself.
Editing of posts
Influencer whitelisting on social media also enables you to edit influencer content. It allows you to make necessary edits to the branded content to appear exactly like you want them to. However, a good practice is to consult with the influencer to seek their opinion before you post the edited version online.
Helps extend the life of posts
Influencer whitelisting on social media also enables you to increase the life of the posts. Practically, with white listing, you will reach more audiences, and thus your content will likely remain on their feeds for a longer duration. Notably, posts have a short lifespan, with Stories lasting for only 24 hours. But when you boost them, they will continue being visible past the 24 hours and reach more people.
Is there a difference between whitelisting and Facebook’s branded tool?
Facebook’s Branded Content Tool is designed to offer creators transparency into their paid collaborations. It also enables advertising brands to expand their influencers’ content. Unlike white listing, the Branded Content tool allows marketers to run paid ads directly without seeking access from the creator’s account. The tool will also enable partners to easily tag brands and amplify existing posts via their ad manager.
What Are Facebook Brand Collabs And Its Effectiveness?
Another alternative to white listing is the use of the Facebook Brand Collabs tool. A Brand Collabs Manager is a creator’s tool for securing content deals on Facebook. The tool allows you to connect and collaborate with brands on sponsored posts. Ideally, it provides you with a platform to showcase your past work and audience. If the brand is impressed with your work and matches their campaigns, they will reach out and initiate a partnership. The benefits of this tool include:
- Helps showcase your content- Brands Collabs Manager allows you to curate your best content so that advertisers see your expertise and skills that will be an asset to them should you collaborate. The skills that you showcase may be just what the brand is looking for.
- Helps demonstrate the value you bring on board– the tool helps provide essential data such as follower numbers, views on posts, and engagement stats. This essentially helps demonstrate the value that you can add to a partnership.
- Helps show specific brands you are interested in– the tool also helps target particular brands you want to partner with. When you like the brand’s page within the tool, you automatically appear on their suggested list of creators.
- It helps you see projects you are eligible for- you can also use the tool to see the suitable projects in your niche. The Project Brief tabs within the tool allow you to view the project’s brief and express your interest in partnering with them.
Key Takeaway
There is no doubt influencer marketing provides a more effective, compliant, and scalable way to reach out to target audiences than traditional marketing tools. Influencer white listing specifically provides brands and marketers an opportunity to combine best paid social media practices with the scalable content created by social media influencers. If influencer marketing is on your mind, Contact ATTN Agency to discuss how you can use influencers in your paid marketing strategy on Facebook and Instagram.