I've experimented with influencer marketing before, mainly with Instagram Influencers for app downloads who would post a video I made for the app on their Instagram Stories, although the experience doesn't reflect paid candy subscriptions so it might not be as useful, this was also a small app I made on the side. I do remember getting 300 downloads from one influencer and the rest was negligible.
I figured out it was much easier to use young affluent females influencers from ages 18-25 who had 10000-15000 followers (not too much, as that dilutes the network and those who had too many followers were too expensive anyway) as they're usually super-connected in their network, "popular" and their followers (usually their friends, etc.) trust their opinions.
Interestingly, I didn't need to pay anything even though I didn't know these people, most were happy to just do it.
With Youtube, it would seem that only the big-name You-tubers are worth any kind of sponsorship. I find that influencer marketing is really about trust and credibility as your customer sales really come from trusting the influencer promoting the product and in turn also meeting that need the customer wanted too.
> I didn't need to pay anything even though I didn't know these people, most were happy to just do it.
Maybe they liked the video and/or the app itself, and that's why they wanted to show it to their followers? So I'm a bit curious about the video, maybe one can learn something from watching it (?).
This was a year ago, I can't find the video I used, it was also max 5-10 seconds. I remember I did the video by recording powerpoint slides, so I used phone or screen recording to record and then each slide of the powerpoint would move to the next one when I clicked or wanted animations. The powerpoint slides had pictures and texts. It was very amateur.
I contacted them through Instagram and explained my app and asked if they wanted to post the video for me. Some said yes. Some didn't. I think I also framed it as marketing experience for them too but I'm not too sure what I said exactly, I didn't really have any money at the time. Also some were friends of friends of friends and it wasn't as strange in asking them to post but I still didn't know these people.
I'm not as focussed on the app anymore and sometimes maintain it, I keep it more as a side project link for my resume.
Overall, you just need to be brave enough to message them, I was a bit shy and unsure at first and then afterwards I got used to it because it's easier to communicate online and it was the cheapest alternative I could think of.
Ok, thanks for the info :- ) I imagine they might have thought the app was a bit cool — to me, "anonymous chat with friends" sounds like something I'd be curious about trying out. Maybe one would get to hear some of one's friends private thoughts, which they now could share, when being anonymous? And maybe they wouldn't say weird and rude things (like often happens in anonymous forums, right) because they were one's friends? — So I slightly suspect the ones you reached out to, wanted to be the first ones, to tell their friends about this new and maybe cool thing.
Yea I based it on the popular and on the rise apps on the appstore which were like anon chat or live video chatting with strangers. Not sure why but they all have millions of downloads and they aren't reported as much in the media.
I figured out it was much easier to use young affluent females influencers from ages 18-25 who had 10000-15000 followers (not too much, as that dilutes the network and those who had too many followers were too expensive anyway) as they're usually super-connected in their network, "popular" and their followers (usually their friends, etc.) trust their opinions.
Interestingly, I didn't need to pay anything even though I didn't know these people, most were happy to just do it.
With Youtube, it would seem that only the big-name You-tubers are worth any kind of sponsorship. I find that influencer marketing is really about trust and credibility as your customer sales really come from trusting the influencer promoting the product and in turn also meeting that need the customer wanted too.