2023 Trends: A Look Ahead

Posted on February 22, 2023December 7, 2023 by Yoeri Callebaut

What’s Emerging and What Should Brands Be Doing About it?

Last year, we published, “13 Social Media & Influencer Marketing Trends to Look For Now,” many of which are still relevant for 2023. So, what new trends are emerging now, and what’s changing? Most importantly, what should brands be doing about it?

1. Social Media is More Deeply Intertwined with Life, as People Share Everything

While people have long used social media to share life’s fun (and sometimes not so fun) moments, posts were often carefully curated and edited.

Social media is now becoming increasingly entrenched in people’s lives, as people share everything in the moment, on the go. Users are sharing every second via video on TikTok, SnapChat, and BeReal in ways that are less pre-planned and polished than typically seen on Instagram. On the popular Netflix show “Emily in Paris,” the protagonist livestreams her visits to popular tourist destinations – free of edits. The Paris Convention and Visitors Bureau posted where to find the main locations in the series to help people see the city through Emily’s eyes.

For Pro Juventute, we organized a campaign against cybermobbing in which three TikTokers, including Kris G, authentically shared their experiences with cyberbullying along with tips on how to deal with offensive comments and messages.

The Takeaway: Create brand content and select influencers who embrace this instant authenticity people crave.

2. Moving Even More Toward Everything Video

In our 2022 guide, we noted that video is increasing in relevance and importance, leaving other formats less likely to be noticed. As platforms adapt, they’re converging on video, specifically on-the-go storytelling. Sprout Social predicts that businesses will put more money behind video production.

PPCexpo states the video is, “The single most important content marketing strategy today.” Both video and authenticity continue to grow in importance. Social Media management platform Later notes video content is already shifting towards casual, off-the-cuff storytelling. “Even video editing is becoming more about telling a story, like using multiple apps to create clever edits.”

The Takeaway: Allocate sufficient budget to video production and select influencers with proven ability to create engaging videos. Also consider innovative use of your influencer video content with Kingfluencers “Influencer TV Spot,” a new exclusive advertising format that we launched last year, to take storytelling to a whole new level.

3. Performance Marketing Grows in Importance, as Brands Focus on KPIs

Many brands are still struggling to figure out how to monetize their social media presence. Brands want to ensure their initiatives, including IM campaigns, pay off, but tracking KPIs can be challenging.

As 2023 progresses, IM will be more tuned into sales and focused on conversion. Kingfluencers’ Head of Creative Strategy, Larisa Topalo, stated, “Conversion will begin to overtake awareness as the key goal.”

Eric Amstein, Kingfluencers’ Chief Strategy & Digital Influence Officer, stated, “Brands need to use every digital communication channel more and more strategically. Getting ahead of the narrative across all stakeholder interaction will be crucial to stay relevant and commercially successful. These investments will drive stronger results in digital brand building, digital reputation, positive eWOM, driving better performance of marketing activities and ultimately conversion rates.”

Fohr, influencer marketing agency and platform provider, also predicted, “Brands this year will be highly focused on ways to track conversion and their return on ad spend (ROAS).” In addition to a prioritization on conversion, Fohr predicts a rise in multi-touch attribution models that follow a longer customer journey.

The Takeaway: Allocate some of your campaign budgets to performance marketing (boosting organic content to reach even higher KPIs). Establish specific campaign goals and closely monitor quantitative KPIs, in addition to nuanced measurement with qualitative analysis. Consider multi-touch attribution models and use every channel more strategically.

2023 Trends a Look Ahead. Performance Marketing.

4. IM Content Gains More Ground

According to a study from eMarketer, “Influencer marketing spend is projected to grow 23.4% in 2023 and 15.9% in 2024.” But we don’t expect IM expenditures to be restricted to traditional campaigns.

Instead, IM content will continue to spill over into other domains and serve as the basis for performance marketing campaigns. Brands will use the power of that content to convey their value, get attention, and further capitalize on their IM investments.

Larisa said, “We’ll see more influencers, more content, more platform changes. Integration of influencers into traditional marketing activities will continue, for example PR events, capsule launches, product co-creation, TV advertising. There is a lot of room for creativity, and we’ll see even more unusual collaborations, viral campaigns, and clever integrations.”

Influencer marketing will also continue to expand beyond consumer products, impacting B2B purchase decisions and integrating the influence of corporate leaders. We expect B2B influencer marketing to take off, but it needs the requisite tools and processes. It can be time-consuming and difficult to find B2B influencers, making the support of agencies that much more vital. (And yes, Kingfluencers is already part of this take off!)

The Takeaway: Allocate funds for IM as an integral part of your marketing efforts. Yoeri Callebaut, Kingfluencers CEO, advises, “Take the time needed to strategize, plan, and allocate budgets. IM can’t be an afterthought at which you throw leftover budget. It’s important for brands to have a diversified and smart approach to social media and constantly reinvent how they communicate, spending more time on content to stand out. The storytelling train is moving fast. You need to get on now and come with brand stories, characters, and room for influencers to be creative.”

5. Social Media Platforms & Creators Continue to Innovate… Beyond TikTok

Platforms have long been accused of copying one another, which we expect to continue. However, some innovative channels are still emerging and growing as they target unique niches, such as Twitch.

2023 Trends a Look Ahead. Success Story Street Parade

Larisa expects IM campaigns to become more creative, complicated, and elaborate. GoPro demonstrated their trust in the unbridled creativity of influencers at the recent GoPro Creator Summit. The brand invited 42 creators to a four-day, all expenses-paid jaunt to Interlaken, Switzerland, an experience one summed up, “A brand threw me out of a plane.” GoPro didn’t give creators any specific assignments or content mandates.

In collaboration with Street Parade Zurich, we created an exclusive Kingfluencers VIP Stage and shared the experience with over 250 influencers. Under the hashtag #KingfluencersXStreetparade, the influencers shared the unforgettable day live with their communities. The creators published a total of 71 posts on Instagram and TikTok, achieving over 1.8 M impressions.

The Takeaway: While it’s important to stay informed of the latest platform innovations, brands must move toward a community-centric approach. Focus on your target community and build an approach that includes which platforms to use to reach them. Think beyond Meta (Instagram) and TikTok and include other platforms like Twitch (especially for men), Pinterest (especially for women), and YouTube. Kingfluencers will continue to help you stay informed with our new upcoming study coming out mid-March with insights into digital influence on Swiss consumer behaviors like inspiration searches, purchase decision-making, and platform usage.

6. TikTok Remains a Driver, as Platforms Strive to be More Entertaining and Engaging

Fohr thinks, “TikTok will stay as a cultural engine, as the platform matures, creators could bring their communities elsewhere.” The agency and platform provider has seen reports of slower follower growth and fewer views on creator content, which means new opportunities for YouTubers, bloggers, newsletters, or live streaming.

TikTok has been banned in government agencies due to cybersecurity risks in several US states. Fear of TikTok bans persist, but restrictions are likely to remain limited to government agencies or individual corporations.

“In my opinion, other platforms now see the entertainment approach is working, and are launching more features to make the platform both more entertaining and more engaging. Impacted by TikTok’s success, platforms are striving to create community feelings and engagement, stimulating interactions with features such as chat, video calls, groups, and audio rooms. These are big factors that make people stick to the platform, contributing to the success of social media,” said Yoeri.

“Sparking connections between people over what they find,” is among Instagram’s priorities in 2023, alongside inspiring creativity, and discovering new things.

The Takeaway: TikTok remains a vital channel to connect with consumers, and don’t disregard the opportunities for engagement elsewhere. Entertaining content is great, but people stay when they can connect and interact in a community.

7. Focus on User Generated Content (UGC)

Nearly 80% of consumers surveyed say UGC highly impacts their purchasing decisions. Recognizing this value, brands are making increasing efforts to capture a greater variety of voices, such as consumers and employees. Through consumer advocacy efforts, they’re working to capture UGC and use it wisely, building a squad of voices to deliver a broad range of support.

Salesforce is one very impressive success case. The brand revamped their social ambassador program and turned 25,000 employees into social brand ambassadors in 21 months by leveraging Haiilo.

The Takeaway: Make plans to capture and leverage UGC. Don’t leave it to chance. Give your consumers creative freedom to showcase how your product can solve a key pain point of your community. The authenticity of such real stories makes IM powerful and can result in highly successful campaigns.

2023 Trends a Look Ahead. User generated Content.

8. Scrutiny & Oversight of Platforms + Influencer Guidelines

Recent events at Twitter have unleashed many questions and increased scrutiny. Specifically, how do platforms really operate? How fragile are they? What impact do they have on democracy?

Social media is becoming a topic of geopolitical interest, amid growing concerns about the power and instability of platforms. We’ll likely see increasing demand for more oversight and regulation.

Greg notes that Twitter could become more interested in the creator economy to generate new revenues. While some brands have reduced their Twitter marketing spend, the platform still provides great opportunities. For example, Shakira sang about her ex Gérard Pique’s new girlfriend, “You traded a Rolex for a Casio.” Casio responded and has been having great fun on Twitter.

Anja Lapčević, Kingfluencers Co-CEO & Chief Influence Officer, stated that France is now another country that has planned to implement guidelines for influencers. “We will also focus on further developing the Code of Conduct and expanding the Conscious Influence Hub, in addition to recruiting more creators, agencies, brands, and individuals to work with association. We believe that as a community we can use the positive power of social media to strengthen digital togetherness.”

Sprout Social wrote how brands talk about sustainability, specifically, will change, with many opting for a quieter approach amid fears of being called out for greenwashing.

The Takeaway: Contribute to social media as a force for good. Ensure public statements are always transparent and sincere.

9. Brands Will Hire Influencers to Run Their Accounts & Work Onsite

Shopify states, “If an influencer has a track record of going viral with their own accounts, chances are they can replicate the success for a brand.” In addition to their knowledge of what engages communities on social platforms, they also have friendships with other influencers that can further help brands extend their reach.

Kingfluencers manages Manor’s TikTok account, where our team also engages with their communities via the creators T-Ronimo and Ericwdrae. Another successful example is influencer lala who creates TikToks for the German grocery store EDEKA.

10. In-Store Influencers

Based on their global consumer study, the Qualtrics XM Institute has declared 2023, “the year businesses rediscover the human connection.” “But in the rush to digitize everything, and drive operational efficiency, many companies left their humanity behind. And now, they’re paying the price as consumers demand deeper, more human connections with the companies they buy from.”

Influencers can play a part in building more human connection. As published by Trend Hunter, “Brands are inviting influencers to their brick-and-mortar retail locations for more interactive and engaging partnerships. These collaborations are often realized as consumer-facing marketing resources, or a way for the brand to help influencers supercharge their social media content.”

Consumers are increasingly looking at influencers for insights into different products or services, as they are often shown in the moment or in use. Both, brand and influencers, ensure through in-store creator events to provide real, authentic experiences instead of putting the purchase decision in focus.

Some of our influencers participated in such a in-store creator event for the opening of the On Running flagship store in Zurich, together with other talented content creators. It was a fun (and sporty!) event, full of laughter, music, good vibes, and refreshing drinks.

Brands will increasingly focus on reviving brick-and-mortar retail experiences, especially with influencer opening events or visits, because that makes retail fun and more human-centric! Even employees can act as in-house influencers and become a crucial part of your branding.

The Takeaway: Consider enabling creators to manage your account or just take it over for a day. Give creators freedom to generate content for your brand. While influencers are often associated with social media, consider partnering with them for in-store collaborations.

11. Need to Compete with AI (Artificial Intelligence)

New use cases for artificial intelligence seem to occur on a daily basis. Launched in November 2022, ChatGPT is a chatbot that’s shockingly decent at creating unique content. Social Media Today writers suspect that many websites will use AI-generated content for generic overviews, helping cut down on SEO time. “The end result, then, is that people – like, actual, real humans – will be less and less engaged by the generic, which could open up more opportunity for better copy to stand out.”

On the other hand, the OpenAI Terms of Use states, “Due to the nature of machine learning, Output may not be unique across users and the Services may generate the same or similar output for OpenAI or a third party.” Therefore, by using AI-generated text, you could end up with duplicate website content, thus incurring Google penalties.

AI-generated art has also been growing, with some unique results such as every country as a super villain.

AI may be progressing in creating text and imagery, but it doesn’t seem capable of making fun TikToks… yet.

Content, whether for SEO, email, or social posts, must resonate with people. As reiterated by many surveys we’ve quoted here, people crave authentic human connection. It’s crucial to share emotional, sincere posts from real people that consumers can relate to. AI can’t come close to achieving that vital depth of connection.

The Takeaway: Influencers will have to compete with AI in creating content. Brands should carefully vet influencers – especially writers – so you can be certain the content they’re creating is unique. Real people are needed for real human connection. But also consider including some fun, fascinating AI-generated imagery as a complement to your authentically human campaigns.

12. Preventing Burnout & Improving Mental Health Will Be Priorities

With all the new trends and innovations, it’s important to maintain a focus on wellness, both physical and mental. Behind every smiling face on social media is a person with doubts and problems. That’s why we’re introducing a new format on our channels: Monthly Mental Health Check-in. We at Kingfluencers want to bring attention to the topic of mental health and share very personal and close experiences. Our January topic was comparing yourself on social media and was extended in February with our #NoFilterFeb Challenge. In our 2nd part of the Mental Health Campaign, we highlight how social media distorts reality and provide tips and tricks.

Talking to The Media Leader, Phil Rowley, Omnicom Media Group’s head of futures, commented on the need for social media to positively impact mental health. “We love social media, but we hate it too, and we certainly can’t stop using it. So the only long-term solution is to find a model that scratches all of our itches but doesn’t make us feel terrible in the process.”

The Takeaway: Consider how your social media interactions will impact anyone who encounters them. Refer to the Conscious Influence Hub Code of Conduct for guidance.

Soon, But Not Now:

Live Commerce

Live commerce is gaining ground worldwide, although it’s not yet common in DACH. The Drum reports a recent shift in understanding and engagement of live shopping in Europe.

Many platforms offer their own shopping features – with social commerce, brands can handle the entire customer journey within one platform – from the initial inspiration to the purchase of a product. This gives social commerce an advantage that traditional online commerce cannot offer and also increases the impulse of purchases. According to the Swiss Mail Order Association, which brings together more than 320 online retailers generating around 50% of Swiss B2C online sales, manufacturers and brands are investing heavily in their online format to increase sales and improve the customer experience.

Although the topic is still very young in Switzerland, it will become increasingly relevant and also be used more and more.

Metaverse and Web 3.0

Fastcompany says: “In 2023, the Metaverse is likely to grow exponentially, becoming more immersive and more expansive. With advances in technology, we are likely to see more realistic avatars—the figures that represent you in the Metaverse—that allow for more complex interactions in virtual worlds.”

At Kingfluencers, we expect the metaverse to grow significantly in 2023 both on the side of brands and users presence – although perhaps not at the speed sources like Fast Company predict just yet. In Switzerland and DACH, we assume that it might still take a little while and foresee the boom rather as of 2024-2025 for a number of reasons such as complexity for people to get involved in areas like NFTs (requiring NFT wallets etc) and general access to the Metaverse with multiple ‘Metaverses’ like Sandbox existing without any of them being the true leading one. We do believe that in the next 2 years clearer dominance of certain Metaverses will become apparent, which will help adoption as people and brands will know where to go – Metaverse-wise. Furthermore in order for Metaverse to become more popular and gain traction, access to Metaverse and Web 3.0 should be simplified and potential users need easily accessible guides and information or education concerning how to participate – from buying NFT’s to generation avatars and being ‘on the Verse’. Once how to gain access is more clear or simplified consumers and brands are likely to find their way to the world of web 3.0 a lot faster and the exponential boom can begin (much like it happened with social media in general).

The real trend we expect is that specialized stakeholders in this industry such as web 3.0 developers but also some leading frontrunner brands outside the web 3.0 technology zone will make access to the Metaverse and Web 3.0 easier or more attractive in order to stimulate adoption. This will be done for example by simplifying systems and procedures related to access and ownership of digital assets, so that more people will find their way to it without much ‘technology hassle’. Some of this will require real ‘reengineering’ of certain systems and processes related to these fields. Forward looking companies and brands will continue to invest in innovation in all areas as well as NFTs throughout the year and with good reasons.

Supporting Your 2023

If you have any more questions about the emerging trends listed or would like to chat about other trends on the horizon, feel free to contact us right away.

Kingfluencers can help you to initiate and integrate the trends into your marketing strategy, be it general marketing trends, social media management, influencer marketing, TikTok, or even a TV spot.

Author: Yoeri Callebaut, Kingfluencers AG

Social Media Community Management: An Insider’s Guide – Part 2

Posted on February 2, 2023December 7, 2023 by Yoeri Callebaut

How to keep your community engaged

Here are six actionable strategies to drive up engagement of your social media community:

Welcome new members. Have a way to open up the conversation with those who are just joining you. This could be a post tagging new members and asking them to introduce themselves. Or it could be a direct message to anyone who is new (manual or automated). Making people feel welcome and warming them up for active participation is one of the best ways to create engaged community members.
Post at the perfect time. This requires looking at your analytics for when most people interact with your content. Time zones and audience demographics play a big role in when exactly that is. If you figure out the best time to post, more fans will be there to engage with your content right away. The increased initial engagement then encourages social media algorithms to promote your content more – turning your time spent analyzing the best time to post into a double-win.
Encourage discussion: Share interesting third-party posts. People love discussing the latest events relevant to their niche of interest. By sharing selected pieces of content that are sure to get the conversation going, you can drive up your members’ engagement with your social media profile and with each other.
Make your content beautiful. Beautifully crafted posts and crisp images stand out from today’s sea of social media content. Everyone loves to consume, engage with, and share the most appealing things they come across online. If that’s your content – you can be sure people will love engaging with it.
Use video. Video just feels more real than other types of social media content and is still the most requested and most consumed content on social media. If you use it well, your followers will feel more connected to you. As a result, they’ll stick around longer and respond more positively. Using Video is a great way to keep your community going strong.
Gamify your content. Can you figure out a way for your fans to earn points, badges, or discounts for engaging with the community? That’s a perfect way to keep them coming back to your platform again and again. The increased fun factor is sure to keep your followers hooked – gamification can supercharge their community interactions.

Now, what are the exact tasks you have to do when you manage your social media community?

We’ll dive into those below:

These are your tasks in social media community management

There’s four distinct types of tasks you have to carry out to manage your community well.

If you do these right, and keep up your efforts over time, your fans will stay happy and you’ll continue to reap the brand-boosting benefits:

Task #1: Monitor

This means you’ll listen to any conversation in any way relating to your brand. There’s so much to glean from these:

Are your members venting about their unsolved problems?
Are they praising certain positives – that you could double down on in the future?
How are they talking about your competitors?
How is the general vibe, how are your fans relating to each other? Could you do something to facilitate their conversations?
Are they passionate about your brand’s offer to the world?

By staying “on the pulse” of your community, you remain agile – ready to pivot and implement new strategies in response to the insights you gained.

A good social media community manager can read into what he’s monitoring, and quickly devise new tactics based on his learnings. In addition, a good manager keeps an eye on everything happening – are negative comments being spread or is there even a shitstorm approaching or something similar that should have been handled? You should always be able to react immediately.

Task #2: Moderate

As mentioned above, a social media community manager must respond quickly. Many people think of “moderating” first when they hear the term “community management”:

The removal of comments using foul language, harming your brand, or otherwise misleading your community members.

And indeed it’s an important part of the manager’s job. Additionally, you’ll need to address bad customer feedback and calls for support.

Handle these well, with short response time, and your honorable attitude in dealing with criticism and dissatisfied customers will strengthen your reputation.

Task #3: Engage

The most fun part of social media community management: The (sometimes serious, sometimes playful) back-and-forth with your community members.

Creating an actual connection with your fans. Making them feel like they’re part of the tribe.

While it’s a good idea to let your followers talk among each other without jumping into every conversation, you should strive for 100% engagement if someone directs a question at you or tags you in any way – within reasonably short response time.

It’s just another aspect a great community manager is tasked with: Showing the members you really care.

Don’t leave any question unanswered. And draw attention to your profile by commenting on other creators’ or brands profiles and leaving funny comments.

Task #4: Measure

To measure is to make management much easier – that’s why this is one of your most important, but also most beneficial tasks as a community manager.

There’s several metrics you can track:

Audience size over time
Engagement rate
Post shares and content reach
Brand mentions across all media
Number of user-generated content pieces submitted
Participation in contests and giveaways
Product mentions within your community
Click-through to your sales page or product listings

The use of analytics is a powerful way to stay on top of managing your community. You’re able to see the full picture of how your community is doing. And you’re able to react swiftly if some of the data show room for improvement.

When you manage communities on social media, there’s certain things you have to get right to have everything run smoothly – the so-called best practices. You’ll now learn what these are, so you can make sure to implement all of them successfully.

Do you want us to take care of it for you? We have deep expertise in managing online communities. We’ve been a full-service digital marketing agency since 2016 and have helped many prominent brands with their social media community management.

Community management best practices: How to get it right

What are community management best practices?

Best practice #1: Outline rules and guidelines

Before people start taking part in your community, it’s considered best practice to make them aware of the rules they’ll have to respect and the guidelines they’re expected to follow.

Your standards for acceptable behavior might be different from other communities they’ve participated in in the past – so it’s only fair to let your fans know beforehand. Also, having strict boundaries as to what’s allowed for members and what isn’t makes them feel part of a special in-group:

Not only does it make your community easier to manage, it’s also great for creating group identity and cohesion.

Best practice #2: Generate new members

It should always be your goal to find new users to join you. Managing a social media community well also means making sure it doesn’t shrink, but always keeps growing.

So it’s best practice to use different strategies to make people aware of your community and entice them to join: Make sure to frequently share posts to new outlets – and encourage your members to share, too. Explore other outreach methods: Publish links to your community on your company’s website, or promote it to your email list.

The ultimate way to generate new members is of course to manage your community so well that people are delighted to refer their friends by word-of-mouth marketing.

Best practice #3: Check your ratings

At least every month, make sure to monitor what people have said about being part of your community on review sites like Google, Yelp, etc. You want to be able to address any negative feedback you might have gotten.

If you then visibly work to improve on what was criticized, it says a lot about how much you value keeping your fans happy.

Again, people don’t like to see unanswered reviews. Take a stand on negative comments or just say thank you on a positive review.

Best practice #4: Reward your fans for interacting

Above and beyond actually reading every post in your community and responding with a “like” or other response emoji – let your community managers show your fans even more love for their regular engagement with your content and your followers:

Respond with a GIF or meme
Write out a few thoughtful sentences
Gift them a coupon or discount code
Share their post or mention them in your own

Follow the best practice of authentic, attentive interaction with your fans, and you’ll cultivate a wonderful feeling of community among your followers.

Community management on Facebook

What does effective community management look like on Facebook specifically?

More than other platforms, Facebook is all about two-way communication. So to manage your Facebook community well, it’s recommended you take the time to type out thoughtful responses to each post – consistently and in a timely manner. This shows your audience that you care. And it’ll keep your community engaged for the long run.

By the way: Open communication with fans in your Facebook group or page will give you great insights into what your brand is doing well, and what could be improved when dealing with prospects and customers.

If only for this benefit, investing effort in proper community management on Facebook should be worth it to you.

5 tips for effective community management on Facebook

Publish educational posts. Only sharing links to your website or content you found elsewhere is not the best way to manage your community on Facebook. On the other hand: Create content that genuinely aims to teach your fans something and to improve their lives, and your community will be much more engaged.
Ask your community’s opinion. Make your members actively participate in the group. This is the key to managing social media communities well: Have people actually be social. If you encourage (constructive & cordial) discussion, you’ll help your fans connect with each other. As a bonus, the added interaction will push your content from an algorithm standpoint, giving your posts a much greater reach.
Answer in Facebook Messenger. Some of your customers will try to contact your business page or your community manager’s account through Facebook messenger with questions, remarks or concerns. If you attend to these messages quickly, respond in a friendly way, and try your all to help them out, it’ll do wonders for your community’s reputation and levels of engagement. Your fans will be thankful you care about helping them, so they’ll reward you by sticking around and possibly promoting your Facebook community to others.
Have employees share updates. The community likes to gain a more private insight into the workings of your brand. Having your employees frequently share updates about what’s happening in your business will give your fans the feeling they’re a special part of everything. If your team members then share these posts on their personal profiles, you’ll also be gaining more reach for your Facebook community.
Check your Facebook analytics. Inside the Facebook Creator Studio you get great tools to inform your community management efforts. You can track the performance of each piece of content you post in your Facebook group or to your business page:

Views
Engagement rates
Followers gained (or lost)

Also, it helps you filter, organize and respond to messages and comments all in one place.

By frequently checking and analyzing your analytics, you can see what worked and what didn’t, and use what you’ve learned to manage your Facebook community even better in the future.

Instagram community management: It’s all about approachability

With over 2 billion monthly users and the average user spending 297 hours per year on the app, Instagram is a great place to build your community.

On Instagram, creators are highly accessible to their audience. To manage your Instagram community well, you should be ready to interact on a whim.

It’s also important to “keep it real”:

The audience skews younger than Facebook, and they appreciate simple, down-to-earth communication. It’s common for even bigger accounts to still respond to DMs, sometimes even go through their followers’ profiles, like their posts and leave thoughtful or funny comments.

If you want to excel at community management on Instagram, you could adopt the same strategy.

How to build a community on Instagram

Make your IG profile beautiful, interesting & helpful

The first step in building a community quickly is to create an outstanding Instagram profile.

This will drive up your conversion rate: A higher number of those who visit your profile will choose to start following you if your content is both visually appealing, educational and/or entertaining. It’ll amplify all your other growth strategies, because a higher percentage of the traffic you’re driving to your profile will convert into followers.

Search popular hashtags

When you’re first starting to build your community on Instagram, go where your target audience is already interacting. Join the conversation, comment on other people’s posts, and add your own relevant content under the same hashtags.

Follow the most relevant hashtags, and be sure to participate where you can. If your own profile is somewhat enticing, people will start following you.

DM people in your niche

Once you’ve identified those who are engaging with topics in your industry, you can strike up conversations with them via Instagram’s DM feature. These can be bigger accounts, but also your regular would-be customers who are active in your niche.

You’re starting to make real connections – creating the beginnings of your thriving Instagram community. Not only will the algorithm preferentially show your content to those you’ve interacted with via DM, but you’ll start an even more valuable relationship with your followers and peers.

Real interactions are how community is built. Be it in real life or on Instagram.

Work with influencers

To jump-start your community building, consider working with influencers in your niche.

You can have them promote your account on their Instagram profile, sending people over to your brand community. Or have them take over your own account to drive up the engagement there and spur new growth. Instagram influencers can lend instant credibility to your budding community and help you “humanize” your brand

And they’re experienced at building social media accounts – so it could make sense for you to borrow both their authority and their expertise to grow your own.

Engage your audience using stories

Instagram stories are a great way to engage your existing followers, but also to build your community by reaching new people.

Every time your brand is tagged in someone’s story, a percentage of their followers will click on the tag to visit your profile. If they like what they see, they’re going to stick around – some of them might become your most engaged fans in the future or buy your products.

Make your stories real, fun, and informative:

Present your products or services in an interesting way
Show insights into the day-to-day behind the scenes
Educate your audience about popular topics in your niche

Tag your fans

Do you have “Superfans” inside your Instagram community?

Those who like every post, always add insightful comments, and share all of your content?

Then make sure to tag them from time to time in your stories and profile posts. It’ll make their day – and they’ll continue to feel great about being your brand ambassadors.

Also, if anyone mentions you in their post or story, be sure to repost.

Engage with your Instagram followers, authentically, as friends. You’ll build a strong, lively community.

TikTok community management – It’s all about engagement

Your brand shouldn’t think of your TikTok community as just another social media outlet to be managed in a one-way fashion.

It’s an entertainment platform where people dive deeply into connection and co-creation with others.

If you show up as someone real, i.e. your brand acting as an authentic person – participating daily in conversations inside your community – you’ll see the best results on TikTok.

Here are a few actionable ways to make that happen:

Host hashtag challenges

Your TikTok community will thrive on user-generated content (UGC).

How do you manage to have your fans create UGC around your brand’s niche? You come up with your own ideas for hashtag challenges. If your challenge goes viral – which happens frequently with TikTok’s algorithm – you could grow your reach exponentially. Not to mention how it’ll make your followers grow closer as a community. One example of this is the THOMY Mayonnaise dance challenge, where influencers like Kevin Bannier and Faye Leonie challenged their community to share their #thomyhappydance as well.

Hop on TikTok trends

Likewise, people love to take part in the latest trends across TikTok. You can ride that wave and gain a lot of momentum with your TikTok community. As there’s always new trends emerging on the platform, you’ll never run out of opportunities to engage your community.

Brands that know how to attach themselves to trends on TikTok, win.

Show your products in an entertaining way

Be it with special dance moves, unique outfits and makeup, or the specific way you speak about your product: You’ll engage your TikTok community if you manage to present your offers to your audience with fresh, engaging, and creative content that spreads your brand’s unique message. Manor provides a good example: on their TikTok channel, they publish recipe ideas, the hottest outfits, makeup tips and much more, and also interact with their community through quizzes.

Organic TikTok content can be a fantastic way to showcase your products and services to your audience – whether on its own or supplemented by paid advertising methods.

Build a narrative

Beyond fun, building a story connecting you and your fans can turn your TikTok community into something special that people want to be part of.

One important aspect of community management is keeping that story alive with each new piece of content you publish and each conversation you have with your fans.

A feeling of community goes deeper than superficial social media metrics.

Do you want our help turning your community into a thriving, engaged environment – priming your followers to become loyal customers and brand advocates? Then take advantage of Kingfluencers’ community management services.

Stay tuned for Part 3, where we’ll dive into 3 great examples of a brand’s social media community management.

Trends Observed in 2023

Posted on January 13, 2023December 7, 2023 by Yoeri Callebaut

In early 2023, we published, “13 Social Media & Influencer Marketing Trends to Look For Now.” We’re looking back at 2023 to see some examples of these trends… and one where we got it wrong.

1. Social media platforms are experimenting

2023 saw no shortage of innovations in social media! The biggest of which is the metaverse. We’ve written a series of 4 articles now. One key takeaway: it’s still early days, but the metaverse is currently a huge green field with many opportunities. We’ve predicted that a critical mass of users is still three to five years away, but brands should start thinking now about how to engage communities there. The guidance of experts and support from agencies will be more critical than ever.

Users have been wanting more authenticity in social media, and the hot new app BeReal is meeting that demand. BeReal has been downloaded millions of times, held the No. 1 position in the App Store, and received interest from investors.

Social media platforms have long copied one another and BeReal seems to be the one to emulate. Instagram launched a new ‘Dual’ camera mode, and TikTok announced the expansion of their suite of creation tools with TikTok Now, “a daily photo and video experience to share your most authentic moments with the people who matter the most.”In July, NPR wrote that Facebook is making radical changes to keep up with TikTok. Despite efforts to copy it, TikTok continues to dominate.

2. Social Media Platforms Emerge to Target Increasingly Smaller Niches

Our second trend is the one we admit we got wrong. Some influencers are focusing on increasingly smaller niches, making nano-influencers effective partners for brands to connect with their target audiences. We did also see platforms, such as BeReal, grow and expand, but that app was founded in 2023 and while it has a unique appeal, it’s not targeting a small niche.

However, 2023 didn’t see the emergence of any entirely new platforms targeting a small niche, so we acknowledge that this prediction was inaccurate

3. Digitalization of everything, including growth VR/AR & metaverse

We wrote about emerging retail trends, some of which fuse the physical and digital. With the inclusion of social commerce and even AR, brands aren’t selling to distinct, separate audiences with isolated tactics. New retail involves connecting with your audience in innovative ways and merging the point of inspiration with the point of purchase.

According to Accenture, 39% of consumers have had a consultation in a virtual or augmented reality environment on topics from health and wellness to DIY projects.

4. More love for nano and micro-influencers

Lauchmetrics found that micro- and nano-influencers made up the most Media Impact Value (MIV) in beauty. At Kingfluencers, we added 98 new nano influencers in 2023 into our creators’ community. Kingfluencers has run numerous successful campaigns with micro- and nano-influencers.

One highlight was Vacherin Fribourgeois. We ran a campaign to build awareness and create a sense of belonging to a community through the “Instants Vacherin Fribourgeois AOP.” Our concept encouraged influencers to talk about their different traditions while eating fondue and the secret ingredients they use to make it an even better experience. Over 3 weeks, 5 micro and 1 mid-tier influencers made a total of 69 posts on Instagram and Facebook. Total impressions were 232K, 60% higher than forecast, with over 1.239K interactions and a total engagement rate of 4.81%.

5. Creator content will become more widespread

The domain of influencers continues to expand beyond social media platforms. Kingfluencers was part of the opening night of the Zurich Film Festival (ZFF). We welcomed the biggest Swiss content creators on the ZFF Green Carpet, including two of last year’s Swiss Influencer Award winners: Adrian Vogt and Brian Havarie.

As Fabian Plüss, our Co-Founder said, “We’re proud to see that the work of content creators is also recognized and respected by the ZFF. This shows that the festival has a diverse perspective on video productions of all kinds and thus welcomes the creators’ scene.”

For Pro Juventute, we organized a campaign against cybermobbing in which three TikTokers, including Kris G, shared their tips on how to deal with offensive comments and messages. The reach of the campaign expanded beyond social media, as it was also featured in an article on Watson.

Trends Observed in 2022. Adrian Vogt — Adrian Vogt

6. Creator economy will boom as content becomes currency

One fascinating, innovative use of influencer content is the “Influencer TV Spot,” a new exclusive advertising format that we launched last year. In case you missed our “2022 Recap” article from 13.01.2022, we dove into this new exclusive advertising format in our, “Exciting News” section.

Video is dominating

Video is one of the most important formats on social media. PPCexpo states it is, “The single most important content marketing strategy today.” Video has revolutionized marketing across all channels. Landing page videos are able to increase conversion rates by 80%. 92% of mobile video consumers share videos with their social network, and over 80% of businesses say video generates a good marketing ROI. The number of digital video viewers is expected to reach 3.48 billion in 2023. With video content dominating, YouTube is now the second most popular website in the world.

Short-form videos are also an excellent tactic for informing and connecting with your audience, such as the Pro Juventute campaign against cybermobbing. Pro Juventute offers children and young people a confidential telephone line to talk about their concerns, as well as helpful tips on its website 147.ch. Six influencers, including Kris G, talked about their own experiences with mental illnesses in a total of 6 TikTok videos. Impressions were more than 866k with a reach of more than 598k, achieving a 26.7% engagement rate and 45.13% growth in followers. The campaign was also featured in an article on Watson.

7. Influencers face increasing pressure to innovate

TikTok released its Year on TikTok 2022 which included many innovations, such as a song set to Tariq’s, aka Corn Kid, enthusiastic description of his tasty snack. Among the breakthrough stars, “#SpaceTok opens up to a new dimension, thanks to European Space Agency Astronaut Samantha Cristoforetti, who takes us on out-of-this-world adventures.”

Qualtrics spoke to more than 33,000 consumers in 29 countries to find out what businesses need to do to win their loyalty. The answer? Act more human.

Uster, the third largest city in canton Zürich, worked with Kingfluencers to emphasize the human impacts of littering. The campaign targeted young audiences to reduce littering in Uster and around Lake Greifensee. Comedy influencers communicated to their audience that littering is not cool under any circumstances. The curated content was very appealing to the audience, as shown by the immensely high engagement rate and the large quantity of positive comments. 3 macro influencers on Instagram and TikTok published a total of 12 posts (videos and stories) + 2 additional pieces of content. The interaction rate was 7.1%, and the engagement rate was 30.9%.

As influencers innovate, they must continue to be relatable and authentic. These attributes are what drive high levels of engagement. To their community members, an influencer can feel like part of their friendship circle. Partnering with influencers is a powerful tool for brands to build trust and connect to consumers, delivering exactly what consumers want – acting more human, and helping fuel growth.

8. Long-term partnerships between brands & influencers

Here at Kingfluencers, we’re thrilled to have ongoing relationships with influencers that are now stretching into their fourth year, including L’Oréal, Nestlé, and Mondelez.

Kingfluencers worked on campaigns to promote V6 chewing gum, a Mondelez brand. To highlight the unique health and well-being benefits of V6, the team chose influencers focused on health, nature, and an overall positive outlook. In one campaign, influencers shared a story in which they received the most beautiful compliment and why it made them smile, then encouraged their communities to share their own stories, achieving a total engagement rate of 3.9% on Instagram and Facebook.

Eyeglasses maker AFFLELOU worked with Kingfluencers on a campaign lasting 12 months, with the goals of expanding brand awareness in French-speaking Switzerland and generating new customers. Influencers were selected to inspire the audience with cool looks and give the brand credibility and familiarity. The campaign achieved a total engagement rate of 3.72% so far (the campaign is still running).

9. Heightened awareness of the risks of social media

Social media has had tremendous impacts that have reverberated throughout the year. We examined the complex issues around combating misinformation. Individual responsibility is vital. Stopping the spread of misinformation at scale is problematic. Algorithms haven’t proven effective at differentiating between criticism and advocacy.

As awareness of the potential downsides of social media increases, we’ve also seen a focus on the risks of toxic beauty standards. Governments have taken steps to combat toxic beauty ideals, while brands have actively promoted healthy attitudes toward beauty.

Unfortunately, no one is safe from fake followers, which can reduce your credibility on social media. Our article describes how to recognize them, how to remove them, and, above all, how to avoid them. Businesses of all kinds are aware of the many risks they’re facing. A PWC survey shows that more than 95% of businesses expect to face a crisis within the next two years. All of these issues reinforce the importance of crisis management, including ensuring your influencers know your contingency plans if things go wrong. While social media can be the source of a crisis, fortunately, it can also be a vital tool in managing one.

10. All about Gen Z

We predicted that the existing focus on Gen Z as a coveted demographic will continue, and recommended that brands should consider Gen Z in their campaigns. Kingfluencers is well-equipped to help our clients connect with Gen Z, as 37.5%* of our new creators are Gen Z (*of those Influencers who provided their birthday.)

But one trend that is not all about Gen Z is TikTok, as we wrote, Gen Z is not synonymous with “Gen TikTok.” Different generations use TikTok differently.

In the next article, we’ll take a look at what trends await us in 2023 and also give the trends our personal Kingfluencers touch and evaluate the trends. Be curious and stay tuned!

Author: Yoeri Callebaut, Kingfluencers AG

2022 Recap: Exciting News, Productive Events, & Highlights from Our Growing Content Creator Network

Posted on January 12, 2023December 7, 2023 by Yoeri Callebaut

Join us on a short trip down memory lane as we share some favorite moments from our fun and productive year. Kingfluencers started 2022 at our new office in the heart of Zurich. After the successful Q1, we not only redecorated our office rooms but welcomed over 10 new employees throughout the year.”

Campaign Highlights

In 2021, Kingfluencers completed over 150 campaigns. Our total increased to 213 in 2022 (+40%). Implementing all these successful campaigns was only possible thanks to our amazing creators. We worked with 308 different influencers in 2021, which increased to 346 in 2022 (+12%).

Kingfluencers Recap 2022. Creators we work with. — + 12% Creators

Kingfluencers Recap 2022. New creators. — + 12% Creators

While it’s difficult to choose our favorite campaigns, we’ve selected a few highlights.

Wakeaway enjoyed her Starbucks Signature Chocolate Drink for Starbucks Switzerland. Over 11 creators contributed to our Comparis campaign, including Janosch Nietlispach and Anaïs Decasper, who showed us what can happen if you don’t have the opportunity to compare services.

We did a total of 46 campaigns for L’Oréal, and a campaign with Toblerone included a giveaway with Emma. For Pro Juventute, we organized a campaign against cybermobbing in which three TikTokers, including Kris G, shared their tips on how to deal with offensive comments and messages. The campaign was also featured in an article on Watson.

For Nesquik, Fabio Zerzuben shared the breakfast action movie soundtrack that he always wanted. Alayah made an excellent seasonal fall dish with Migros. Our annual Ochsner Shoes campaign included over 30 creators. Highlights include Aamina in December, Ana Maria Marković, and Alison Liaudat both in April, the latter one was used for our Influencer TV Spot, which we’ll dive into as part of our exciting news.

But also our wonderful clients shared their thoughts on working with us this year:

Tatiana Traulsen, Marketing Manager @Nestlé Cereals:
“I have really enjoyed working with Kingfluencers for our two cereals campaigns this year. Everything went smoothly, even despite tight timings, thanks to very reactive and transparent communication, as always! Kingfluencers brought smiles and excitement and a perfectly managed successful campaign. Thank you for making it so easy.”

Rebecca Pohlmann, Digital Manager @Pierre Fabré Suisse:
“We are very satisfied with the cooperation with you. You work very reliably and bring a very high degree of flexibility to fulfill our wishes. We are very much looking forward to presenting our brand together with you in the next year according to the current social media trends in the networks.”

Our Growing Creator Team

In 2022, Kingfluencers welcomed 579 (vs. 489 in 2021) new influencers to our team. In this section you will find a small mini-honor from Kingfluencers to the categories:
Newcomers, Most reliable, Most creative, and OG Influencers.

Starting with THE newcomers 2022: Noah Bachofen, who shares cooking tips with beautiful scenery. Cooking with Jey also shares quick and easy recipes from healthy to indulgent, along with glimpses of her adorable cat. Basel-based design and fashion influencer Gian-David posts funny videos on topics such as traveling and relationships. Kingfluencers’ most reliable creators in 2022 are Vivienne Burkhardt, Aline Made, and Ramona Brüniger. The most creative were SwissComedy, Margaux Seydoux, and T-Ronimo. We continue to run successful campaigns with our numerous OG influencers, including Alison Liaudat, Minea, and Family of 5.

Minea Jud for GUNNA — Alison Liaudat for Gucci Bloom

Creators’ Favorites from 2022

Reflecting on the year past, our creators appreciated the nicely organized projects with pleasant and uncomplicated cooperation. Creator Alison Liaudat’s favorite campaign was watching the champions league finale with Just Eat in Paris, which included building brand awareness rather than specific product placement for a “natural approach.”

While creator Laura Bante struggled to select her favorite campaign, the Steampod launch campaign stood out for her. “I was able to closely experience the evolution of each generation and was able to test the latest generation before everyone else! This also contributed to the interest and curiosity my followers had to see what new features were in stock.” Fabio Zerzuben stated that, “all campaigns were unique and really cool. Especially Oreo (Batman), but also Generali were great collaborations.” Other highlights were the Rundfunk event and his visit to the KF office for an exchange “in real life.”

Exciting News

This year, Kingfluencers launched the “Influencer TV Spot” service, a new exclusive advertising format. Kingfluencers and Admeira give brands the opportunity to broadcast their influencer marketing content as a TV commercial. Merge the power of TV with the trustworthiness and unmatched appeal of influencer marketing to gain unbeatable reach at an accessible cost.

One of the first success cases was within the Ochsner Shoes yearly campaign which is based on seasonal events throughout the year, with influencers skillfully setting the stage for each pair of shoes. The Influencer TV Spot premiered on July 13, 2022, on SRF2, achieving a Gross Rating Point of 21.6% and more than 1 million impressions. Broadcast in November, the second Influencer TV Spot campaign with Ochsner Shoes and Christa Rigozzi achieved a Gross Rating Point of 32.0% and more than 1.488 million impressions.

Kingfluencers also worked with a leading Swiss technology company in 2022, helping connect to their B2B audience and building an employer branding strategy. Finally, Kingfluencers also manages social media for Manor’s TikTok account since July 2022, where our team has enjoyed planning their account & engaging with their communities in regard to content creation with creators like T-Ronimo, Ericwdrae or Fatjona.

Productive & Fun Events

2022 was filled with a variety of exciting and productive events. In April, Kingfluencers and Pathé held an exclusive screening of the much-awaited “The Batman” movie.

Thanks to our new collaboration with the Zurich Film Festival (ZFF), Kingfluencers was part of the festival’s opening night in September. We welcomed the biggest Swiss content creators on the ZFF green carpet, including two of last year’s Swiss Influencer Award winners: @aditotoro and @briann. As Fabian Plüss, our Co-Founder said, “We’re proud to see that the work of content creators is also recognized and respected by the ZFF. This shows that the festival has a diverse perspective on video productions of all kinds and thus welcomes the creators’ scene.”

Also in September, we had the opportunity to celebrate one last beautiful summer night in Zurich at our exclusive client mingle event at Rundfunk, where we connected with some of our top clients and amazing creators in a fun and inspiring way!

In October, our team organized a get-together for our content creators in beautiful Ticino, providing an opportunity to better connect with our Swiss, Italian-speaking creators, while enjoying stunning views of Lugano Lake.

The 3^rd annual Smile Swiss Influencer Award Show was held in November. With over 1,000 VIPs and a combined reach of more than 50 million followers, the event was a success with “Hollywood-ready social media moments,” according to Fabian Plüss, founder of SSIA and co-founder of Kingfluencers. Before the award show, we organized a pre-event with L’Oréal Switzerland, transforming our office into a beauty world. Makeup artists and hair stylists welcomed our lovely creators and styled them and our team for the big night.

In order for brand partners to benefit from impeccable and solid advice in the field of influencer marketing in the future, Kingfluencers will now also become the official sales partner. As the official distribution partner for #SSIA2023, we will offer exclusive partner packages.

Our autumn also included multiple speaking events at WebStage Masters, Startup Nights, Nights Conference, and Social Media Gipfel.

We finished up the year with our sparkly Kingfluencers Christmas Party, where we were spoiled with the best Swiss cuisine while creating some TikToks.

2023 will be an exciting and colorful year with a variety of thrilling events. Kingfluencers will also have a startup stand at one of the biggest marketing events – so stay tuned for what’s to come!

KF @ Swiss Influencer Award — KF @ Ticino Event

Joyful Team Building & Charitable Fundraising

In October, we held a team-building event where our Co-CEO Anja filled the day with creative challenges and a beautiful hike from Lugano to Gandria. Along the way, we were asked to build strong, cooperative teams and learn more about our corporate values in order to better live them in practice.

Reflecting on 2022, Anja said, “My highlight every year is my team and everything they do. It fills me with joy to be able to accompany so many great people on their way. I’m also especially proud of our #KFcares initiative, which gives new meaning to our work and allows us to support important organizations every month.”

Through our charitable work with #KFcares, we’ve donated a total of 2,521 CHF. Starting in March due to the Ukraine war, where every post felt so pointless and wrong, we launched our own #KFcares project. This way, each of our posts gets added value and meaning. In March we donated to the Ukrainian organization Voices of Children, and in May & June, our donations went to Unicef & Pro Juventute. For November we donated to Iran and the Center for Human Rights. An initiative we are very proud of!

As of 13 December, we’ve made a total of 174 social media posts and 666 stories from our own Kingfluencers’ channels.

Coming up next week, we’ll take another look back. In early 2022, we published, “13 Social Media & Influencer Marketing Trends to Look For Now.” Throughout the year, we saw many excellent examples of these trends… and one where we got it wrong. Follow Kingfluencers on Instagram and TikTok to learn about 2023’s exciting events and even to occasionally follow along in real-time.

Author: Yoeri Callebaut, Kingfluencers AG

Social Media Community Management: An Insider’s Guide

Posted on January 7, 2023December 7, 2023 by Yoeri Callebaut

You’re consistently posting great content on your brand’s social media account. Your follower count is growing. People clearly like what they’re seeing from you. They’re responding positively to what you have to offer.

Now what do you do with that attention? Do you just let the hype evaporate – like it usually does on social media? Obviously you want to avoid that at all costs. You’ve spent much time, energy and money crafting your social media posts. Don’t waste that effort.

What you need to do now is channel the momentum you’ve built up:

Turn mere followers into a lively community of fans.
Manage that community. Use the right strategies to “keep the fire going”.

In our work at Kingfluencers, we’ve helped many brands bring their social media presence to life – building engaged communities through our social media community management services.

Below we’ll share our lessons from over six years of building social media communities: The exact strategies, processes and best practices you can implement to create the thriving community your brand deserves.

Let’s take a deep dive, shall we?

Effective community management: What it is and why you need it

Your community are those people who consume your content, your brand’s existing and prospective customers, and anyone who interacts with your business online in any way.

Managing the relationship of that audience and creating value for them – both with each other and with your brand – that’s what we call community management.

Social media marketing vs community management – the big difference

For most brands, most of their interactions with their community will take place on social media. So social media is where the community “exists” – and where your community management efforts will be directed.

What this doesn’t mean is that community management is the same as social media marketing:

ocial media marketing is building a strategy that works for the audience, creating your branded content, publishing it on a social media platform and learning from reported stats to optimize KPIs.

Community management is what you do right after posting and throughout your daily presence – talking to your audience, encouraging them to exchange ideas with each other, and having them participate on your social media. It’s about building connections and achieving brand love, as opposed to just sending out your brand message.

It’s a two- or three-way exchange of information (and emotion!) vs. a one-way-channel.

What a thriving social media community offers to your followers

People join your community not because you asked them to – but because they receive something from it. And it’s something valuable that we nowadays increasingly get from online vs. real world interactions – a sense of belonging:

It instills a feeling of belonging and we all want to be part of something.

And it’s likely among those who:

have similar interests
enjoy the same activities
believe in the same values
like the same products as we do

that we find our tribe.

Community management makes a brand that seems so far away totally approachable. In today’s world, this is a super important aspect to be successful in the social media game and to get closer to the consumers.

Your brand can tap into this natural process. If you do community management right, you can channel this instinct to “tribalize”:

You’ll be the connector between like-minded people. And your audience will be grateful for it as it builds authentic relationships between your audience and your team.

Not only will a well-managed community connect your followers with each other. They’ll also get to know, like and trust the members of your team – who they’re engaging with daily on your social media accounts.

This is why it’s vital to “keep it real” when managing your community. People don’t want to interact with someone who:

isn’t in tune with their followers
sees them only as a number and a dollar sign
doesn’t “speak their language”
sounds too corporate or robotic

Integrate (if possible) also faces and brand voices into your community management, as for example Edeka did, whereas an influencer took over the Tik-Tok account. Make your brand as close to people as possible, because people trust people and not brands.

Your followers want to feel like they’re talking to humans like them. To friends, even. And that’s when a tribe will start to form around your brand. Because people like to be part of something cool – but also something real.

Do you want to grow and manage your community and make your followers feel valued and included? Check out Kingfluencers’ social media community management services. We’re all about creating brand loyalty with real connections.

What benefits a community offers your business

Now let’s dive even deeper into how your engaged tribe of fans on social media is going to benefit your business.

Sure, they’re loving you for the way you’re managing your community – but how exactly does that affect key metrics? After all, we don’t want to be chasing vanity metrics: We want to measurably improve our bottom line.

A community lowers your cost for customer support

Your community lowers your costs for customer support

Your community members’ first instinct if they have questions or problems is to ask the peers they know, like and trust. Not to call a hotline or fire up the customer support chat.

In that way, your engaged social media community greatly reduces your need for these positions. When your customers can solve their problems without needing the assistance of dedicated support personnel – that’s real savings on your end.

Active social media accounts drive new traffic at no extra marketing cost and boost revenue for free

Instead of paying a high cost to acquire each new customer, your community will by itself get your name out there, attract prospects, and create buyers.

This means you’ll grow your revenue without having to dip further into your marketing budget. Whether on its own or combined with traditional methods of customer acquisition – an engaged social media community around your brand can significantly grow your bottom line.

Brand advocates multiply your reach

Your brand’s social media is also where your “Superfans” hang out.

They’re in love with your products, care deeply about your brand, and are highly engaged in your community. These are the customers who will sing the highest praises about you and refer all their friends and family to your business. With a thriving community, you’ll help create more and more of these hyper-loyalists.

Each new Superfan is creating more ripples in the market, attracting new prospects and customers to your business.

Your community can give you ideas for business growth

Have you ever thought about crowdsourcing ideas for the following?

New products, services, or features
New markets to enter
More efficient processes
Creative marketing campaigns

Your community will give you all these ideas for free – without you having to pay for any consulting.

Whether it’s by brainstorming ideas directly or simply talking about their experiences (and possible issues) with your product or service, you’ll be able to glean much data to help you improve your offers or create new ones.

How to build a community around your brand in 7 steps

We’ve seen all the benefits you’ll gain from building a community on social media around your brand.

What if you’re just starting to build it? How do you actually go about it? A thriving community is not built overnight – you’ll need effort, dedication, expertise, and continuity to make it happen.

Let’s look at the necessary steps, one by one:

1. Listen & understand: Gain vital audience insights

Start by listening to the conversations your customers and social media followers are already having.

Also actively encourage them to share their thoughts and feedback. Your goal is to get a complete picture of who you’ll actually be targeting. Their background, their circumstances, lifestyle, tastes, problems and desires.

Only then can you come up with a strategic plan to create an online community perfectly matched with that target audience.

2. Be strategic

If you want to make your social media community a success, it is worthwhile if you’re strategic about it. Your effort needs to be applied to the right actions. You need a plan and guideposts on your way to creating a tribe around your brand.

Before you start, be mindful about several things that are crucial to the success of your community building efforts:

Choose the right channels to build your community with
Determine (and lay out) the types of content that make sense for you to share
Set a posting frequency that keeps your audience neither bored nor overwhelmed, but perfectly engaged
Be sure about the tone of voice you’ll be using when you address your community
Create a complete content framework, planning out your themes and topics

Once you’ve created this strategy, you’ll be much better prepared to successfully build and manage your online community – in a focused way that’ll pay off for you.

Not just in the short run, but sustainably, for years to come.

3. Mind your branding & channel their passion

To really make an impact, your community needs to feel like a natural extension of your brand.

To achieve this, also apply your company branding to your social media activities. Your branding is how you stand out in the marketplace – and it will make your community members proudly stand out, too.

This comes down to how your content looks and sounds, but also how you refer to your followers and what they call each other. Ideally, your community members will share unique ways of expression, ways to view the world, and a special code of conduct.

A passion around your brand’s distinguishing features will be created, and people will be proud to be part of your in-group.

4. Rally around a social mission

It’s even better if your community’s passion can at the same time be used to rally behind a worthy or noble cause. They’ll feel a sense of purpose behind engaging with what you do – and they’ll stick together as a group even more.

Being “part of your brand” is now about more than great products and services, more even than connecting with like-minded people. It’s about enjoying all those, while making the world a better place at the same time.

Build a social media community right and you’ll be able to create something you, your members, and the world at large can feel good about.

5. Be real, approachable & create connections

In all your work to build up your community, never forget the key ingredient: Keeping it real.

It starts with:

You choose to sound like one friend talking to another – instead of a company talking at its followers
You regularly ask your community for feedback
You actually act on their feedback: share your learnings and what you did to improve
You foster two-way communication between you and your followers by hosting giveaways and quizzes
You also have them suggest new content ideas, features, initiatives and events
You let your followers co-create with you – by encouraging user-generated content on your social media or website
You turn your community members into brand ambassadors by giving them access to referral programs / discount codes
You help everyone develop new, positive relationships every day

By being approachable like this and focusing on keeping it real and creating connections, you’ll turn your online community into a special place that your followers will cherish.

Another powerful way to create a connection with your fans is to involve influencers (who they already like and trust) to strengthen that relationship. Many of our clients have successfully used that approach to build engaged communities around their brand.

6. Share stories

Make your community come to life: Share authentic stories with a good storytelling approach.

People want to be part of something exciting. Everyone loves to see stories unfold. And in an age where some of the content shared on social media holds up false appearances or is altogether fake, stories told in a real, down-to-earth way are refreshing. Real stories create a real bond between you and your community.

Think about what kinds of stories can have maximum impact: It’s revealing behind-the-scenes insights into your brand, telling your team members’ stories, showing your real and vulnerable side.

But also highlighting stories right out of your community. You’re giving your loyal followers a platform to share about themselves and their journey. It all ties back to your brand – you created this opportunity for them.

This is how you build a tight-knit online community that lasts.

7. Execute masterfully

You now know what a successful community should look like and what parts are important. You have your strategy to build it all mapped out. Now you need to put it all into action.

How do you make sure you’ll actually create this tribe of engaged followers, without the process of building it fizzling out at some point?

Ensure a continuous content production flow
Post new content often and interact with your community every day
Always look for new ways to engage and grow

That’s how you create a thriving social media community in a nutshell.

You do need the drive and discipline to put in daily work to keep it going. This is why it might be a good idea to create the dedicated position of “community manager” in your business.

Either way, if you keep executing on your community-building plan, you can expect your efforts to increase customer loyalty – and ultimately, your bottom line.

Stay tuned for Part 2, where we’ll go into the nitty-gritty of what you’ll do to always keep the engagement inside your community at the highest level, and further differentiating between Facebook, Instagram and TikTok community managements.

The Top 10 Instagram Agencies in Switzerland (2023)

Posted on January 7, 2023December 7, 2023 by Yoeri Callebaut

Finding the best TikTok agency that’s based in Switzerland can be a challenge.

So we’ve gone out and researched for you which Tik Tok agencies there are in Switzerland – and summarized them in the following directory of the top 10 Swiss agencies for Instagram content and advertising, sorted by city.

Of course, we’re also recommending our own Instagram agency, Kingfluencers!

The directory is not complete, you’re welcome to tell us about other agencies that belong on this list and we’ll be happy to add them.

The 10 Best Instagram Agencies in Switzerland

Zurich, Basel and Bern are the three big Swiss cities offering Instagram agencies. While the amount of agencies you can choose from is overwhelming, the world of social media marketing is growing fast and new players are popping up all the time.

So let’s dive into the 10 best Instagram and Instagram agencies Switzerland has to offer:

Instagram Agencies in Zurich

Kingfluencers

Kingfluencers is Switzerland’s pioneer of influencer marketing since 2016. Our team provides you with a full service including every aspect of influencer marketing on Instagram. Our agency follows highly efficient and rock-solid processes with proprietary and AI powered in-house technology in order to generate the best outcomes on Instagram for your brand from day one of our collaboration. From strategy to implementation and ongoing community management to reporting and optimization, we bring your message to life and generate more brand love. With our network of more than 3,000 creators and our multiskilled diverse team of experts, strategists and creative minds, we deliver exactly the services and support that you need, when and where you need it, so your brand presence will hit the mark. Creativity and quality are our drivers, going the extra mile to perform is our constant state of mind… because we love doing what we do!

To get the real full-service omnichannel approach, our influencer marketing content can be recycled and broadcast as a TV commercial thanks to our new service “Influencer TV Spot”. With our partnership with Admeira, all brands get the opportunity to benefit from the power of TV with the unmatched appeal of influencer marketing at an accessible cost for more reach.

Kingfluencers is based at Hohlstrasse 188, 8004 Zurich, Switzerland.

Ramble

As a Swiss Instagram agency, ramble designs tailor-made content strategies for your company, plans and produces all content for your social channels – if you wish, they can also take over the entire community management. Instagram is one of the most popular social media platforms in the world. The Facebook subsidiary has seen enormous growth, especially in recent years. The perfect channel to position your advertising message in a young and dynamic environment.

ramble’s Instagram agency is based at Räffelstrasse 26, 8045 Zurich, Switzerland.

Suchhelden

Suchhelden has the resources and know-how to fill your Instagram account with high quality posts and increase your reach. As an Instagram agency, they focus on stimulating the growth of your Instagram account. While you can continue to focus on doing what you do best. Suchhelden takes care of posts in the form of photography and videography that fit your company. In their role as one of the known Instagram marketing agencies from Switzerland, they’ll help to make your message understandable and suitable for Instagram.

Suchhelden’s agency is based at Hagenholzstrasse 83b, 8050 Zurich, Switzerland.

Instagram Agencies in Basel, Switzerland

MindStudios

An appearance on Instagram is not aimed at generating likes – at least it shouldn’t. Swiss-based agency Mindstudios works with you to develop a strategy that is fully aligned with the goals of your company. While private Instagram use is often characterized by spontaneity, they recommend comprehensive editorial planning for professional use, which guarantees the necessary consistency of content publishing. They’ll support you in this or take over the task completely in consultation with you. Mindstudios agency’s Instagram experts create all kinds of content, always tailored to your target groups and your goals.

Mindstudios is based at St. Alban-Tal 43, 4052 Basel, Switzerland.

OnlineKarma

The Instagram agency onlineKarma implements campaigns for companies from large to small, supports channels from A-Z and provides support for the complete Instagram marketing.

Achieve your goals with profitable Instagram campaigns and effective influencer marketing. From strategy, planning and implementation, they look after brands and provide support for complete Instagram marketing. onlineKarma is one of the leading Instagram agencies in Switzerland. They would be happy to support you professionally for effective and successful campaigns.

OnlineKarma’s agency is based at Hebelstrasse 52, 4056 Basel, Switzerland.

Sidekicks

Sidekicks’ agency helps you to determine the target group and to record the targeting. They set up your TikTok campaign and constantly optimize it for optimal performance. They also report on the results of the campaigns in monthly reports, based on your needs. For the Swiss agency, it is important that results and figures are understandable and that every customer has a contact person for all concerns regarding their TikTok campaign. Sidekicks help to define the goals and target groups. A campaign can only be successful if there is clarity about this.

Sidekicks TikTok agency is based at Steinentorstrasse 19, 4051 Basel, Switzerland.

Instagram Agencies in Bern

Social Media Agentur Bern

Social Media Agentur Bern takes over your complete Instagram appearance with unusual ideas.

Social Media Agentur Bern takes care of everything from planning to implementation to posting and maintaining the account. So you don’t have to worry about anything. With a professional social media appearance, your company will be seen as modern and innovative.

The Swiss Instagram agency helps you build up organic reach through professional content and thereby generates new customers.

Social Media Agentur Bern is based at Unterdorfstrasse 5, 3072 Ostermundigen, Switzerland.

Creasquare

As part of an Instagram campaign, Creasquare’s agency quickly gets you new contacts with potential for conversion. With Instagram, they’ll target your target group very precisely and address them personally. Creasquare agency differentiate into two areas, your Owned Media and Paid Media. With organic owned media you can serve particularly well existing contacts and customers and remain present sustainably. With paid advertising, on the other hand, you gain reach, traffic or interesting contacts.

Creasquare is based at Morillonstrasse 11, 3007 Bern, Switzerland.

Iqual

Instagram Ads enables you to reach a specific target group and to interact specifically with the largest user group, between 18-34. Swiss Instagram agency Iqual would be happy to advise you and help you achieve your goals with Instagram advertising. In order to ensure the sustainable operation of the Instagram advertising account set up by them via Facebook, clean and targeted support and optimization is mandatory. Iqual can also take over and maintain accounts that they have not set up themselves. However, they know from experience that one revision or even new addition is in many cases worth it.

Iqual’s Instagram Ads agency is based at Morgenstrasse 131B, 3018 Bern, Switzerland.

Found the right Swiss Instagram agency for you?

We hope this list helped you to choose the best agency for yourself!

Our clients’ success with Instagram marketing has shown that if you choose the right agency to partner with, it’s an amazing way to grow your brand and recruit new customers.

To see what’s possible with the right strategy on Instagram, check out our success stories.

The Top 50 Social Media Marketing Agencies in Switzerland

Posted on January 6, 2023December 7, 2023 by Yoeri Callebaut

Switzerland has a number of agencies who can help you grow your brand by taking over your social media marketing.

In this article we’d like to give you an overview of the Swiss landscape for social media marketing.

We’ve listed the agencies by the major cities in Switzerland.

3 important criteria for choosing a good social media marketing agency

Here’s a checklist you can use to pick the best agency to work with:

Experience. When choosing a social media marketing agency, make sure they have enough experience working with clients. Ask for their client portfolio to see past projects they’ve completed. It’s easy to simply call yourself an agency and go into business – actually getting results in the real world is something different.
Services offered. Check if the agency is providing the exact services you’ll need. Often you’ll have a specific kind of social media campaign in mind to grow your brand. You want them to be able to achieve your goal.
Price. While it’s generally not a good idea to just look at the price and go for the cheapest option, you still might want to shop around before deciding on a social media marketing agency to work with. It’s important to only pay for services that’ll actually benefit you. If you can have the agency tailor the campaign to work only on what’s essential, you might be able to stay within budget more easily while reaping all the rewards.

The best social media marketing agencies in Zurich

Zurich has by far the most social media marketing agencies of any city in Switzerland – which makes sense with it being a hub for business in the region. You’ll find everything from small start-ups to big agencies that have been around for decades.

Following are the best social media marketing agencies in Zurich, Switzerland:

Basel’s top social media marketing agencies

If you’re looking for an agency in Basel to help you with your social media marketing efforts, there’s multiple to choose from.

Some of these have been in business for over 10 or even 20 years. While certain agencies focus on social media marketing, many are full-service agencies providing help with all sorts of digital marketing tasks.

Here are the best social media marketing agencies in Basel:

The top social media marketing agencies in Bern

Bern boasts a number of high-quality social media marketing agencies as well.

Some of these, like ads&figures, are known for services such as Google Ads – but they’re equally talented in social media marketing. As another Swiss city with great marketing expertise, you’ll surely find an agency who can create a campaign to your exact needs.

The most well-known ones are:

St. Gallen’s premier social media marketing agencies

Getting into some of the smaller cities in Switzerland, the marketplace for marketing services will become a bit smaller as well. Yet, there’s still a number of agencies in St. Gallen that are worth your business.

The best social media marketing agencies we’ve found in the city of St. Gallen are the following:

Best social media marketing agencies in Winterthur

In Winterthur you’ll find a small number of Swiss agencies specializing in social media marketing. Some of these are well-established and have been around for a long time.

As always, it pays to shop around and compare different agencies with regards to expertise, services and pricing.

Here are the top social media marketing agencies in Winterthur:

The top social media marketing agencies in Romandie – Genf, Lausanne, Fribourg

If you’re looking for social media marketing services in the Romandie region, you’ll be able to find several agencies who can provide those for you.

If you don’t like what you see in one city, you might have to check out the next. But overall there’s still a wealth of options, so in the end you should be able to find the one who can carry out your social media campaign to your satisfaction.

The best social media agencies in the Romandie region of Switzerland (Genf, Lausanne and Fribourg) are:

Wrapping up

There’s at least 50 social media marketing agencies in Switzerland worth mentioning, and among them you’re sure to find the perfect one for your own campaigns.

As was to be expected, Zurich has the most choice when it comes to social media agencies. It’s also where Kingfluencers is based.

So if you’re in Zurich and looking for a reputable agency to help you with your social media marketing, don’t hesitate to contact us at Kingfluencers. With our large portfolio of successful client work, we have the experience and skills to multiply your results on social media.

Make sure to check out our social media service s.

Swiss Influencer Award x Kingfluencers – a partnership since 2019

Posted on December 9, 2022December 7, 2023 by Yoeri Callebaut

On November 17th, 2022, the Smile Swiss Influencer Award (SSIA) with over 1,000 VIP guests aka the biggest creator event in Switzerland took place for the third time in Zurich’s Kaufleuten. In addition to the musical performance by Kings Elliot and star DJ Cruz, the most successful and inspiring 10 influencers in Switzerland were honored – and Kingfluencers being part of the jury.

Swiss Influencer Award 2022. over 1,000 VIP guests.

Swiss Influencer Award 2022. The biggest creator event in Switzerland.

This year’s winners

The award show was celebrated with a following of over 50 million people in the sold-out Kaufleuten club. But who are this year’s lucky winners that will be following Mimoza, Aditotoro, Andri Ragettli, and others? The jury, consisting of Anja Lapčević (Co-CEO Kingfluencers), Farner, ElleSD, HWZ, and SSIA, evaluated the feeds by paying attention to creative, authentic, and diverse content. In addition, the reach, especially of the Swiss community, and the engagement rate of this year’s nominees also played a major role in the final evaluation.

And here they are, the winners of the Swiss Influencer Awards 2022:

Joung Gustav (Category Entertainment)

Nathi Style (Category Lifestyle)

Whitney Toyloy (Category Beauty)

David Geisser (Category Food)

Linda Fäh (Category Music)

The Alpinists (Category Travel)

Anna Maradan (Category Fashion)

Arina Luisa (Category Sport)·

Fabio Zerzuben (Category Family)

The Newcomer Award, for which one could qualify by participating in various brand challenges, was won by Patrick Scherz. He convinced the jury with his innovative and entertaining content created for the Smile Insurance Challenge.

Kingfluencers as the new distribution partner

In order for brand partners to benefit from impeccable and solid advice in the field of influencer marketing in the future, Kingfluencers, which previously supported SSIA as a media and influencer relationship partner, will now also become the official sales partner. As the official distribution partner for #SSIA2023, we will offer exclusive partner packages. Brands from a wide variety of industries can benefit from a comprehensive presence on all channels with a unique combination of classic sponsoring elements and a new influencer marketing concept.

New challenges for 2023

After the Swiss Influencer Awards is before the Swiss Influencer Awards – the new challenges for the fourth edition of the #SSIA will start again on 1 January 2023. These newcomer challenges, where new talents are scouted with the help of micro-influencer campaigns by various brand partners, can last for several months until the nominated All-Stars and newcomer winners are presented at the end of October 2023.

Creators are not only creative people who offer brands perfect opportunities to get their messages across to their audiences in an authentic and impactful way. They provide their followers with daily information, inspiration, entertainment, and much more, which is why influencers have the ability to build bridges between people, brands, organizations, and their communities. “We are therefore very excited to have the opportunity at SSIA to further recognize these talented people as sales partners and acknowledge all the hard work they put into their art”, says Yoeri Callebaut, Co-CEO of Kingfluencers.

Eager to learn more? Check out some more info on the side or reach out to us anytime.

Great additions for #SSIA2023

Fabian Plüss, founder and initiator of the event is particularly satisfied: “The Smile Swiss Influencer Award was a successful evening with many unforgettable and Hollywood-vibe social media moments. It was absolutely great how many content creators were involved live on-site as well as online.” He goes on to promise “really great additions” for the next edition, so stay tuned!

Would you, as a brand, like to learn more about the #SSIA2023 partner packages? Reach out to our Consulting Team to get to know your opportunities. Would you like to get some insights into this year’s Smile Swiss Influencer Award Show first? Click here for the official after movie.

Author: Ramona Kälin, Marketing Support @Kingfluencers

No, Gen Z doesn’t Equal “Gen TikTok”

Posted on November 24, 2022December 7, 2023 by Yoeri Callebaut

If you’re a casual observer of social media, you might believe the common myth that “TikToker” and “Gen Z” are synonymous. The myth is common among many marketers and brands and seems to be widespread overall. Googling, “TikTok Gen X” yields results about… Gen Z. (I had to confirm I’d typed in the right term!)

To be fair, the platform was initially more popular among the group born between 1997 and 2012, currently aged between 12 and 25. But the truth is that the popularity of the app is increasing among a range of demographics.

Being most popular among Gen Z is decidedly not the same as being not popular with other generations. The percentage of users might be highest in Gen Z, but plenty of others still love it.

Just because Gen Z may have led the way doesn’t mean other generations haven’t also moved to embrace TikTok.

TikTok is the first non-Meta app (and the fifth app of all time) to surpass 3 billion downloads. In 2021, the platform remained the most-download app globally, with 656 million downloads.

No app grows to this phenomenal level of popularity by having a narrow appeal.

For example, some popular Swiss TikTokers on the cusp of GenX and millennials include _ohheyvivi_, who posts about fashion, beauty, food, sports, and being a mom, and soleil_fatima, who posts about sports, women’s issues, health, and fashion. Jonny Fischer shares his attempts at trends enjoyed by younger TikTokers, as well as amusing juxtapositions between youthful partying and his godfather role of Manu’s young kids aka his comedian partner from famous Cabaret Divertimento. Doris Flury posts healthy recipes, including vegan and gluten-free cookies.

Millennial TikTokers are among our “Swiss Influencers & Content Creators to Keep an Eye On.” Eric Lüthi creates comedy content on his own or with his friend T-Ronimo, where they often present two female characters, Bresha and Selina, in funny situations.

The hashtag #genX has 6.6B views and includes posts on parenting teens, nostalgic memories from the ‘90s, and aging. Popular GenX posters include Jack Black, a comedian whose WAP dance earned more than 5 million views. Finance expert Marie shares line dance tutorials and recreates ‘80s and ’90s dance moves with her friends and family, including her Gen Z and millennial kids.

TikTok Plays a Role in The Lives of Gen Zers

TikTok appears to be the go-to search engine for Gen Z. Prabhakar Raghavan, Senior Vice President who runs Google’s Knowledge & Information organization, said, “In our studies, something like almost 40% of young people, when they’re looking for a place for lunch, they don’t go to Google Maps or Search. They go to TikTok or Instagram.”

Stanford scholar describes Gen Z as a highly collaborative cohort that cares deeply about others. Their social justice advocacy extends to TikTok. A coalition of top Gen Z TikTok stars is pledging to cease all work with Amazon until the company meets the demands of the Amazon Labor Union. The group of 70 TikTok creators boasts a combined following of over 51 million.

Different Generations Use TikTok Differently

Plenty of older people also enjoy dance videos, and who doesn’t love a silly animal video? My Gen Z son showed Gen X me this funny parrot one recently and I very much enjoyed it. AARP (formerly American Association of Retired Persons) outlined some ways in which use for older people may differ. “Some older adults join TikTok to bond with their kids and grandkids… TikTok is full of diversions that may help older folks, or people of any age, feel less bored or lonely.”

According to the Deloitte Digital Media Trends Survey 15th Edition, 84% of all consumers say they use social media platforms, although there are generational distinctions. 27% of Gen Z likes to watch TV shows and movies via social media, as does 23% of Gen X. However, only 25% of Gen X listens to music, whereas 44% of Gen Z does.

Different Generations Use TikTok Differently

Older generations use social media differently than Gen Z… but they still use it.

TikTok, in particular, is used by 10% of Gen Xers, and 5% of baby boomers, according to a study conducted by Fortune and SurveyMonkey, but is rising fast. 40% of Baby Boomers view social media as an essential part of their lives. Engaging on social platforms is a top 3 entertainment activity for 17% of Gen X and 11% of Boomers. Kingfluencers has also worked with numerous influencers including and beyond Gen Z, such as CorEstilo Style, to build successful collaborations for L’Oréal.

TikTok is About Communities & Connection

NPR recently wrote that Facebook is making radical changes to keep up with TikTok. “TikTok’s got one fundamental thing that Facebook doesn’t have, TikTok is cool. And it’s very hard to recreate cool,” said Matt Navarra, a social media consultant, and analyst.

As users continue to spend a lot of time on the app, TikTok promotes a variety of positive, uplifting activities. TikTok also offers extensive support to content creators – even those creators who author content that’s consumed outside of the platform. Most recently, TikTok has partnered with Barnes & Noble and their creator community to launch the #BookTokChallenge, which encourages people to read new books and authors, and then share their reactions.

Even TikTok ads are enjoyed by a wide audience. Kantar’s latest Media Reactions Report ranked TikTok #1 for “ad equity,” a measurement of the audience’s attitude and preference towards ads. “TikTok’s branded solutions aren’t perceived as just “ads” by audiences. In fact, TikTok tops the list for delivering branded content that actually resonates with online consumers.”

Building a Strong TikTok Presence

Back in May 2021, TikTok was insisting that no platform has that reach without “something for everyone” while pitching marketers and looking to shake up perception that it’s a Gen Z phenomenon. TikTok’s continuing growth in global popularity reveals just how untrue it is to claim the platform is the exclusive domain of Gen Z.

Kingfluencers works with brands to build a strong TikTok presence. Contact us to get started developing and implementing a successful TikTok strategy that will generate multiple benefits, today and in the future.

Author: Megan Bozman, Owner @Boz Content Marketing

Fake Followers and How to Deal With Them

Posted on November 11, 2022December 7, 2023 by Yoeri Callebaut

Fake Followers and How to Deal With Them

Especially with followers, more is not always better! With the phenomenon of social media and the increasing attractiveness of becoming an influencer, the number of “fake followers” is also increasing. For many people, the desire for more and more followers and a great reputation is huge. An even more tempting offer to help with the number of followers through money and follower purchases.

The problem: You run the risk of losing your credibility on social media. Then it’s as simple as that: You get nothing out of it. In this article, we would like to create a general understanding of why fake followers are bad, how to recognize them, how to remove them, and, above all, how to avoid them – because, unfortunately, no one is safe from them. Moreover, we’d like to clearly make the recommendation to never buy any fake followers.

What are fake followers anyway?

Fake followers are artificially created profiles that can look like normal profiles, but which do not represent a real person. Fake followers are not necessarily but often so-called “bots” that show no real reactions and therefore do not interact with any content. This virtually non-existent interaction can significantly reduce a person’s market value.

When appearances are deceptive

The first impression of a profile on social media may not always be what it claims to be. A high number of followers does not necessarily mean that you are a successful influencer. Fake followers deceive appearances and give a false picture of how “real” someone actually appears on social media or within their community. Basically, these influencers adorn themselves with numbers and profiles that don’t actually exist. Anyone can buy followers, but that doesn’t mean that you’ll automatically be successful on social media or in influencer marketing. Especially with the further development and the current situation in the creator’s business, the number of followers is no longer the decisive KPI for success, but above all the engagement and reach, along with credibility, connection to the community, and authenticity.

“Buying followers can be a booster, especially for the beginning, in order to push oneself or one’s own brand further” – a claim often made. However, one should always keep in mind that these fake profiles will hardly ever like or comment on posts and therefore there is no real engagement. It won’t take long for the community and potential brand partners to get behind the fake followers. This is a bad start for diving into the world of being an influencer. And the price you pay is high. Instagram, for example, recognizes more and more profiles with a high number of fake followers and automatically deletes them as soon as fake activities are detected. Not only do you risk having your account deleted, but you also risk becoming a victim of spamming and phishing attacks.

You should also be aware that you will be missing out on important and valuable feedback from an honest community. How are you supposed to know if what you share is well received, pleases your followers, and delivers added value if a large number of fake profiles are behind your account?

How do I recognize fake followers?

Luckily, it’s not too difficult to spot fake followers right away. Here are some things you can look out for:

No profile picture
No or very few followers
Follows many profiles
No or very few posts
Spam-like or cryptic usernames
Low interaction rate
#FollowerForFollower

If you notice a sudden increase in your number of followers, you may have become a “victim” of a fake following attack. This means that someone else has bought followers for you. Yes, that’s right – even random other accounts can buy followers and thus influence or even ruin you or your business. According to our Google research, we found that fake followers can already be bought at very low prices. Currently, 1,000 followers cost around 13 dollars. So unfortunately, this is not a big obstacle for people who want to harm an account.

A creator’s case study

Swiss content creator Margaux Seydoux was the victim of just such a fake following attack. She tells us: “One morning, I woke up and suddenly saw 5,000 new followers on my Instagram profile with the description ‘new’. From then on, I immediately realized that these must be fake followers. Someone was buying me followers to harm my account.” Margaux then reached out to us and set her account to private for quite a while. She also explains: “I waited a few days and even changed my username so that no new followers could be added. I had to manually delete one fake profile after another. That took forever.”

Kingfluencers case

Unfortunately, we as an agency were not spared from a fake following attack either. At the beginning of July, almost at the same time as influencer Margaux Seydoux, our Instagram account suddenly had over 10,000 new followers overnight. This was the first time we had to deal with such a fake following attack internally.

Like Margaux, we set our account to private to avoid getting even more fake followers, because we knew it wouldn’t be easy to get rid of them. After internal consultation and intensive research, our solution quickly became clear: from now on, fake followers have to be deleted manually every now and then, time permitting. So we created a guideline internally on how to recognize fake followers and based on this, they were then manually identified, blocked, unblocked, and removed.

As of today, we are almost back to the follower base of that time – thanks to the internal help of the Kingfluencers team.

Statement from Meta

Being faced with the problem of fake followers all over again, we contacted Meta and asked for a statement from their side. Daniel Kramer from Meta explains:

“We get the question about fake followers every day. Unfortunately, these cannot be prevented from the outset and experience shows that this comes with increasing success. In the meantime, however, there are well-functioning systems that can recognize these profiles. The fake profiles are then deactivated within a few days. It is also possible to deactivate individual countries if one notices that many followers seem to come from certain countries. Besides manual deletion, there is, unfortunately, no automated process yet”, says Daniel.

So how do I get rid of fake followers?

The question remains: What can I do if I have become a victim of such a fake following attack? The safest and probably most time-consuming method is to manually check your account. You can remove all followers who have a spam-like username or who have no interactions. Fake accounts must first be blocked and then unblocked and finally deleted. It is important to remember that your own Instagram account should not have hundreds of blocked followers – hence the renewed “unblocking” after blocking the fake profiles. But beware: this process will take you a lot of time. Especially if the number of fake followers is in the hundreds or even thousands range.

Another hybrid method would be to use a tool or app that can easily filter out your fake followers. The problem is that these apps are not 100% secure with regard to privacy reasons. The advantage of this method, however, is that the apps can create a list that you can then manually go through yourself, making it easier to identify and delete your fake followers.

Here we have compiled a list of good and not-so-good tools:

Combin

Combin is free for a registered account and lists the followers classified as fake followers by name.

Nindo

Nindo shows you graphically how many fake followers your account has, but does not list the fake accounts. Nindo is also subject to a fee and you need a minimum number of followers to be able to use the tool.

Followinglike

Doesn’t have any filters for fake followers, but is merely a platform for generating reach through bots.

My Ghost Follower

An app with bad reviews. In our opinion, not to be recommended.

Followers-Insights

Does not show fake followers, but only followers who do not follow an account back. Also an app with bad reviews and, in our opinion, not recommended.

Tips to avoid fake followers

As already mentioned, fake followers are bots. They usually follow an account by using the most popular hashtags to search for an account. We, therefore, recommend: Avoid using these hashtags. The following link shows you the most popular hashtags that bots could use. Among them are hashtags like #popular #instagram #trending #follow #like #instagood #explorepage #likeforlikes #followforfollowback #instadaily #famous #photooftheday #followme.

Unfortunately, you can’t completely avoid fake followers. With increasing success, the probability of being confronted with the problem of “fake following” is simply higher.

Kingfluencers recommends:

Keep it real! Remember – people want authenticity. Real people, real profiles. You cannot achieve success by adorning yourself with the wrong numbers.

Therefore: Present yourself as you really are. Stand by your followers. If an attack of fake following should happen to you, don’t hide it, deal with it transparently and share it with your customers and your community.

Build your community naturally. Regular, qualitative, and authentic content will help with this. Don’t ignore your community. Get feedback, respond to requests and criticisms, and interact with your followers. This will not only increase your engagement rate, but also the likelihood that even more people will see your posts.

If you need help building a community, increasing your reach with organic content, or you’re just not sure whether you’ve become a “victim” of a fake following purchase, feel free to contact us. We can help you with community management, social media content, all things TikTok, Instagram, and Co., or general questions about digital influence.

Author: Tijana Simic, Marketing Support @Kingfluencers

« Previous 1 2 3 4 Next »