Top 5 Social Media Platforms for Influencer Marketing in 2021

The popularity of influencer marketing has exploded in recent years.

Is the power of influencers real?

After advising dozens of established companies as well as startups --from the tech and design industries--I would definitely say YES. It’s even more than real, as well as the audience reach and sales made by those companies during influencer marketing campaigns.

Are you curious about what social media platforms are the most effective for influencer marketing? Read on to learn more about the pros and cons of the five biggest of them.

How to Choose the Right Social Media Platform

First of all, you should keep in mind that there is no one-size-fits-all approach to influencer marketing. If you have decided to pull your team’s effort into this strategy, you need to perform in-depth research to define where your target audience is the most active.

The choice of a social media platform depends on a specific niche, customer needs, and content consumption habits. All this has to be properly researched. So, I would recommend running a content persona and influencer persona research to get a comprehensive understanding of which social media platform corresponds to your business goals.

Content persona research is very similar to a traditional customer persona analysis. The main difference is that this investigation is focused on which types and formats of content your customers consume, on what platforms they are, and at what time of the day.

When performing this kind of analysis, pay attention to whom your customers are already following on social media. This approach will help you 1) understand what kind of content resonates with your audience and 2) find the right influencers and opinion leaders faster.

Influencer persona research refers to the creation of an ideal influencer you would like to collaborate with. Not to sound too rudimentary, but you need to define a niche in which your thought leader is.

Think of what an average follower base he or she should have. Discover what tone, mood, and format of content you need. Consider that the influencer’s values must align with your brand’s mission. Research demographics, interests, and professions of their audiences.

When customer persona and influencer persona researches are done, you can clearly see what social media platform will perform best in terms of influencer marketing for your brand.

YouTube

The second biggest search engine after Google. Yes, it’s about YouTube, a video-sharing platform with 1.86 billion active monthly users. It is an incredible marketplace for influencers and brands from various industries.

YouTube has been often named the best place for influencer marketing and it's for a good reason. Its long-video format enables an in-depth presentation of the brand or product. It allows delivering more information and engagement than any other type of social media post.

Also, unlike TikTokers, YouTubers leave promotional videos on their channels, so your brand can still receive engagement even over time.

Twitter

The next giant with 187 million active daily monetizable users is Twitter. If your audience is in the United States, Europe, or Southeast Asia, this social network is a good option to consider for your influencer marketing campaign. On the contrary, CIS countries aren’t very active on Twitter.

Saying it subjectively and based purely on my practice, Twitter is a great place to market technology companies, food chains/brands, airlines, and financial organizations.

This platform performs excellent for B2B companies seeking collaboration with tech influencers. B2B influencers are usually recognized industry experts or the owners of their own companies. They regularly share opinions on the subject matter on social media, and Twitter is the first place where they do it.

Instagram

Virtually everyone is on Instagram today. By saying this, I mean not only casual users but also businesses. There are no industry-dependant or territorial limitations. From crypto and auto to food, fashion, and travel lovers all over the world, there is a place for everyone on Instagram. From an influencer marketing perspective, it’s particularly effective for small businesses since they can turn to micro-influencers with local communities of followers.

B2C brands can benefit most from it. According to BigCommerce, 69% of marketers plan to spend the most money on Instagram for influencer marketing this year. That's over six times more than YouTube (11%), the second most-selected channel for top spend.

TikTok

If you are looking for a genuinely innovative way to stand out from the competition, TikTok is a good place for it.

The biggest advantage of this video platform is that it’s new. It makes TikTok one of the fairest platforms for influencer marketing. Since most brands haven’t launched on TikTok yet, influencer content looks organic and less promotional there.

TikTokers set their own strict rules of paid partnerships with companies to maintain their reputation in front of their followers and integrate any kind of promotion as organically as possible. Also, most TikTokers tend to remove promotional videos after a certain interval of time (usually a couple of weeks or a month).

Although it may seem unfair to many companies, TikTok influencer marketing drives amazing engagement even in a limited time. News companies, fashion brands, and literally everyone who can make engaging and visually stunning vertical videos can meet their loyal audience on TikTok.

Note: I wouldn’t recommend financial companies to invest in influencer marketing on this short video platform since it has recently banned its users from promoting financial services there.

LinkedIn

If you are looking for B2B partnerships and B2B customers, you have surely market your brand on LinkedIn. Influencer marketing will help you implement it there. LinkedIn influencers are industry-specific experts known for their unparalleled professional experience in business circles. This social network counts 645 registered users located worldwide.

LinkedIn users build connections with each other based on business interests. Thus, the collaboration with an opinion leader may drive you direct leads and future partnerships at a different scale. LinkedIn influencer marketing is especially efficient for technology, product design, and financial industries, as well as non-profits.

Have you already decided which social network matches your business goals the most? Hopefully, this brief overview of social media platforms for influencer marketing will help you make a better-informed decision.