So you're expanding internationally, now what?
First of all, congratulations on starting an exciting new adventure! One of the first challenges of opening an office in a new country is cultivating a presence. In order to succeed in your new location, you need to build trust with local business partners and potential customers, as well as create awareness. So how do you trust with potential customers who know nothing about your brand, have never seen your website and don’t know they can buy from you using their local payment methods?
The key to this is how you shape your social media strategy overseas. Enter: local influencers.
Local influencers here means international influencers in different countries who are seen as thought leaders in that geographic area. They’re not necessarily famous (although they can be), but have topic authority. They can be micro-influencers or macro-influencers. For example, Madi Edwards in Australia or Gretchen Ho in the Philippines.
You can think of them as “local connectors.” They have dedicated, loyal followings in their country and are known for their engagement within their local community. By now, almost all marketers are aware of how effective influencer marketing campaigns can be.
A successful example can be seen at ASOS, who created “ASOS insiders” to build their international presence. ASOS insiders are fashion influencers from every corner of the globe who use their social media accounts to promote ASOS products.
The traditional method to building trust overseas would be send over executives of your own to meet with local business leaders and partners and hire an outside company to cultivate consumer awareness. Using international influencers is less expensive, less time intensive, and gives you far greater control of the process than trusting it to someone else's hands.
An international social media strategy that incorporates trusted, country-specific influencers will reap the rewards. These influencers are a source of automatic trust amongst the local audience and deeply knowledgeable of customs and etiquette. While many marketers only look at sales when it comes to influencer marketing metrics, you should evaluate them on traffic, awareness, and engagement KPIs. And just like working with domestic influencers, it's always important to conduct a quick influencer audit.
Chances are, if you’re expanding internationally, you’re headed to one of these countries given their attractive business prospects and low barriers to entry: Ireland, New Zealand, Sweden, Hong Kong, the Netherlands, Canada or Singapore. Read on to see the ins and outs of successful influencer strategy in each country.
Facebook is Ireland’s most popular platform, with over 74% of Irish people using it. Instagram, while only used by 24% of the population is preferred by the 18-34 demographic. A recent group of controversies about Irish influencers and inauthenticity-- excessive photoshop, rigged giveaways, and inaccurate healthy advice-- mean that authenticity and relatably should be at the foreground of influencer marketing campaigns that you do.
How to find influencers: If you want to go the agency route, The Collaborations Agency and Irish Blogger Agency are the way to go. For a self-service approach, Influence.co has a strong selection, as does Dealspotr Marketplace for more micro-sized influencers.
Unique quality: While English is widely spoken throughout all of Ireland, there is strong local slang and grammatical patterns that might seem unfamiliar. When you work with influencers in Ireland to convey a certain message, it’s important to let them localize the wording. Travel and lifestyle micro-influencer Niamh O’Sullivan demonstrates this:
YouTube reigns king here, with 74% of the population using it, beating out Facebook by a 1% margin. Instagram comes in third place, and is used by 35% of the population. A good strategy to follow would be pursuing vloggers/Youtubers who also have significant followings on the other major social platforms. Influencers who create video content can give more nuance and depth to your product than a one-off Instagram post.
How to find influencers: If you want to do it yourself, check out Influence.co or Ninja Outreach for a strong selection. For agencies, the most popular local ones are Populr, The Social Club, Curator Social and We Are Anthology.
Unique quality: Travel brands rejoice, New Zealand is a veritable hub of travel influencers given their country's stunning scenery and their people's penchants for travel. Read about some of the top Kiwi vloggers and bloggers like Kyle from Bare Kiwi here.
Sweden has the highest number of active social network users than any of its Scandinavian siblings at 6.6 million. In fact, the World Wide Web Foundation ranked it first when it comes to the social and political impact of social media. Facebook and YouTube are the most popular platforms at 76% and 75%, respectively. While Twitter has been seeing decreasing interest, Snapchat is on the rise, especially amongst the younger female demographic.
How to find influencers: Swedish influencers can be reliably found on Ninja Outreach and Influence.co. On the agency side, Cure Media, United Influencers, and 2 Agency will give you access to Sweden's top influencers.
Unique quality: Sweden is one of the most aggressive countries when it comes to banning advertisements to children under the age of 12. In fact, TV ads targeted towards this age group are banned during prime time house. Brands whose target audiences are children may have a harder time in Sweden. Also, interestingly enough, the government runs one of Sweden's favorite Instagram accounts: @visitsweden.
Hong Kong people are infatuated with social media, especially on smartphones. About 75% of internet users in the city are on Facebook, and WhatsApp and YouTube follow closely with 74 and 73 per cent. Instagram clocks in at around 45%. An interesting feature is that messaging apps are expected to surpass Facebook in terms of news delivery in the next few years. In contrast to mainland China, only 44% of the population uses Tencent.
How to find influencers: Hong Kong influencers can be found on your own via Influence.co, Ninja Outreach, and Heepsy. and For micro-influencers, platform Spread-it grows increasingly popular. If you want to take the agency approach, Explosive, Stargage, AsiaPac, and Withfluence all have clout within the Hong Kong region.
Unique quality: Hong Kong people typically identify themselves as completely separate from Mainland Chinese people. Brands who do not make this distinction may end up grossly offending their audience. For example, captions written in Chinese should be in traditional form instead of simplified form.
If you’re an American brand, don’t start thinking social media is the same for our northerly neighbor! A higher percentage of Canadians use Facebook (84% to the U.S’s 78%) and Youtube (56% vs 48). Linkedin is incredibly popular with 46% usage compared to American’s 19%, so consider influencers strong in these three platforms. Over ⅔ of Canadians report following a brand/company page.
How to find influencers: For self-search, use tools like Influence.io, Media Contact and Influencer Identification, and Dealspotr Marketplace, or check out Influence This’ 2018 Canadian Influencer Report. If you want an agency to handle it, try Made In, 66 Agency, The Influence Agency, or Republik.
Unique quality: A CMF Research study found that Canadians use tablets more than any of the other 10 countries surveyed. Make sure that your whatever form your influencer marketing campaigns take, that the product is tablet friendly.
Whatsapp is the most popularly used social platform in the Netherlands, with 11.5 million users. Facebook comes in a close second with 10.8 million users. YouTube is used by around 8 million people, but saw a 30% increase in daily use within the past year, meaning that video content may be especially valuable here.
How to find influencers: Finding Dutch influencers can be done on the usual suspect Influence.co, but also on Klear, Influo, and Intellifluence. Popular agencies are IMA, Socially Powerful, and Voicey. For fashion brands, a quality list of micro-influencers can be found here.
Unique quality: Brands have a particularly large Facebook presence here. When looking at the top 20 Dutch brands, out of all the different social media platforms they use to post, Facebook posts are 1) by far the most numerous and 2) see the highest engagement.
Singapore is one of the most connected countries in the entire world, with 96% of all internet users having at least one social media account. They're also one of the most discerning about irrelevant sponsored posts: 1/5 say they ignore social posts by brands, making trusted influencers even more important. Whatsapp, YouTube, and Instagram are the most popular at 73%, 71%, and 70% respectively. Instagram clocks in at 44%, but it has grown 50% since 2014.
How to find influencers: Singaporean influencers can be found on your own using Influence.co or Heepsy. There are large number of agencies to choose from, including Gushcloud, The Influencer Network, The Asia Collective, Stargage, and Get Kobe.
Unique quality: Singapore is an very diverse country, with large Chinese, Malay, and Indian populations (76.2%, 15%, and 7.4%, respectively). While popular media mostly shows representation of Chinese Singaporeans, your influencer marketing strategy should seek to appeal to a broader audience.
Building awareness and trust with your local audience in a new country is difficult, but critical to your international success. Working with influencers who have cultivated a strong local presence is a great way to beef up your social media entry strategy.
