Emerging influencers are now being targeted by brands looking to further tap into the growing social media marketing industry.

Public relations and brand strategist Naomi Garrick said despite these nano and micro influencers having smaller audiences when compared with celebrities, brands are picking them up because their platforms have significant engagement and are seen more as communities offering followers great value. Garrick was speaking on the latest episode of Taking Stock with Kalilah Reynolds.

Additionally, in the Jamaican context, she said the influencer space has become saturated with the same influencers being used across multiple campaigns.

According to Garrick, nano and micro influencers typically have an audience of less than 30,000 followers.

“What we’ve noticed is that a lot of brands are starting to target those smaller influencers that can actually do a lot more creative content and engagement, and their posts don’t get lost amongst a sea of content that’s going out everyday like if it were a mega influencer,” she reasoned.

Garrick said brands are trying new strategies to strike a balance based on their offerings and to see what really works. She added that at the end of the day, marketers just want to reach a specific audience. This, she said, presents an opportunity for anybody that has some sort of influence across social media platforms.

“That’s what makes it feels like a more organic and authentic partnership. It’s no longer ‘buy my product’, or place a product ad on your page, because people don’t resonate with that. It’s how I can incorporate this brand into my everyday life,” she said.

The global influencer marketing industry has been reported to be at a billion US dollars and growing. While no formal industry has yet been created in the region, there are a number of influencers working on campaigns with top brands. At the same time, Garrick said companies are not saying goodbye to traditional media, which still accounts for large audiences.

She said they have, however, added influencer marketing to their overall strategy, which provides them with real time data to determine quickly if a campaign has been successful or not.

“If you place an ad in the papers, you actually don’t know who saw that ad vs social media and social media marketing where you can get into the analytics and know the gender, age, preferential time, if they prefer someone engaging with the product or just a static post or ad. So, you know how to actually tweak and update your content to suit the audience and the brand you’re using,” she reasoned.

Garrick said with influencer marketing, brands are saving money by being able to quickly change a concept should the data show that the engagement of a post wasn’t strong. She compared losing money on production or a print ad if a campaign didn’t achieve its objectives.

Social media has allowed the average person to get involved in influencer marketing; however, Garrick said a lot of potential influencers are also jumping into the influencer space without understanding it. This is part of the reason she said The LAB has incorporated its subsidiary, Scope Caribbean.

“[Some] influencers don’t know what to charge and brands are not really sure what they should be asking their influencers for and so as the space continues to grow, we have to take a lot of learning from what’s happening globally,” she said.

Scope Caribbean intends to streamline the regional influencer marketing space by providing more opportunities for emerging and established talent to be discovered by brands for paid activities. Garrick said the company has invested in artificial intelligence to make the management process simpler.

She added that Scope will not ask for a commission from influencers or talent, nor are they looking to compete with existing talent agencies. However, she said they intend to help influencers monetise their brands.

“What we’re really trying to do is widen the pool with a really massive database with talent from across the region. Instead of having these massive casting calls, we can actually just go online into the database, because all the information is already there, and do the casting through the platform. The same goes for international agencies, companies, brands and production houses that want to work with talent from the region. They will simply have access to the back end to also do a pre casting,” she said.

Garrick disclosed that since its launch last month, Scope has already provided several persons with an opportunity to work on “some great campaigns” with big brands in Jamaica.

New episodes of Taking Stock with Kalilah Reynolds premiere Tuesdays at 7pm on YouTube and kalilahreynolds.com . Watch here: www.youtube.com/watch?v=YG2WuvrsGc0