Have you ever wanted to learn how to get started as a micro influencer? Which social media platforms are best for micro influencers? In this episode, Chris and Ryan talk with Evan Morgenstein on why micro influencers are the next entrepreneurs.
The world of influencer marketing has evolved with social media, especially in the era of Instagram and TikTok. Evan Morgenstein, an entrepreneur with more than 20 years of experience and CEO of The Digital Renegades, reps some of the most successful influencers in food, fitness, nutrition and beauty. Morgenstein will share his industry insights and tips on how to effectively navigate the world of influence marketing.
Morgenstein knows how to innovate and outpace impending doom and gloom. His 1st company PMG Sports, repped athletes and celebs, CelebExperts focused on consulting brands and companies while his latest firm The Digital Renegades reps some of the most successful influencers in food, fitness, nutrition and beauty.
Here are some podcast episode highlights:
Chris Casale: [00:06:22] We’re really interested in learning more about that whole micro influencers. We often talk about the importance of knowing your audience, the different segments that are within your audience. And I think all of this just aligns.
Evan Morgenstein: [00:07:33] my background was representing NBA basketball players, Olympic athletes, Kris and Bruce Jenner, I like all kinds of people of note and reputation. I’m like, we got to change this. You’ve got the size and power of your audience to be respected like a true celebrity. And so I changed Jen Selter’s business. Therefore, you know, we changed the business of marketing for influencers because there weren’t a lot of people that were representing influencers when I got into this thing. You know, there may have been a couple that, like ancillary had one or two, but there weren’t a lot of people that we’re thinking about, like influencers as a significant investment and putting, you know, a piece of your budget towards it. It was like throwaway stuff. Right. We’ll test. Everybody wants to test, but nobody has a good test anyway. So we started doing that and I built Jen’s business into a multi-million dollar business.
Evan Morgenstein: [00:11:39] If you want to be an influencer, you have to make a serious, serious decision about what it is that you are passionate about. It’s about passion. You know, I hear people talk about authenticity. You know what? I hear authenticity so much. It makes me want to puke because nobody’s authentic. You know, if some company comes along and says, I want to offer you a hundred thousand dollars, I don’t care what it is, you’re going to do that. I’m going to do that deal. Right. So the word authentic is like everybody sort of grows into authenticity. But the thing you can’t fake is passion. And so if you’re a company looking for people to be the face of your brand or to push your brand, your passion, if you are an influencer and you want to be found, you want to have passion. Right. So the word of the day is passion. You need to be passionate or otherwise in this marketplace you’ll never be found.
How can you become an influencer on a platform like TikTok?
- Create short videos: 15s – 30s in length
- Use appropriate hashtags
- Go Live – create live TikTok videos 2-3x per week
- Post 3 – 6x per day
Evan Morgenstein: [00:12:57] Here’s our first tip of the day that nobody is going to tell you this for free, but we’re going to tell you this. So if you’re going to post on TikTok and you want to grow your audience, here’s some tips. Number one, do short videos. Why? Because the algorithm evaluates what percentage of your audience watches the entire video. So if you’re doing a 15 or 30 second video and eighty six percent of your audience watches the entire video, you’re going to start moving up. You’re going to start getting followers. You’re going to start showing up on the For You page. That’s good. That’s really good. So do short videos.
Evan Morgenstein: [00:13:33] Second of all, when you’re when you’re creating content and you’re using hashtags. Make sure the hashtags are very, very specific to what you’re doing. I’ll give you a great example. So let’s just say I’m a cook, right. A home cook. And I’ve got people that follow me because I love what I cook. And let’s say I cook all Italian. So I’m doing chicken parm today, fellas. And I’m going to whip it up. I’m going to edit. It’s gonna be a beautiful video. And now where do my hashtags if I do #foodporn, because there’s 3.9 billion views of our usages of #foodporn. That’s not going to get you anywhere. You’re better off putting a #favoriterecipe, #cookathome, because the algorithm is looking for something very specific to what you’re actually creating content, because there’s a lot of A.I. involved in this, right. So artificial intelligence.
So for three or four years, all TikTok did was learn. It learned. It learned what you do. It learns you know, where you go from here to there, how long and what kind of content you view because they want to know what you are specifically doing so they can feed it to people that are actually out there looking for chicken parm or looking for Italian food or looking for dinner. Right. Or looking for something, you know, a recipe you can get and cook at home. So it’s very, very technical when it comes to that.
Evan Morgenstein: And then really the third thing is when you’re creating content on Tick-Tock and especially if you’re a brand. Here’s what happens on Instagram. You’re like, I got to get an Instagram post on your feed because that’s where most people see it. And I’ve got to get a swipe up, OK? That’s what I’m going for, an Instagram boom on Tick-Tock.
What we found is even though you have a lot more followers that are going to see your content on your main feed, the special sauce of TikTok is the Live because your super fan is going to come to the Live of the people that are going to go to the Web site and buy your product there, come into the Live. And plus, you can run an amazing show on your Live. All right. You can do anything you want. So, like, if I’m working for Fashion Nova and they sent me a boatload of clothes. Well, guess what? I’m going to do an unboxing right there on my Live, just like we’re sitting there in a Macy’s together.
And also they want you to do lives two or three times a week. A week. That’s a lot of Lives. That’s a lot of content. And also, they want you to post anywhere from three to six or seven times a day. I mean, I’m not an influencer, but I post literally six or seven times a day, six or seven times a day, because that’s what it requires for you to be relevant. And that’s what they want. They want to judge relevancy. If you’re just like, I’ll post once a week, you’re not going anywhere. If you really want to make a move and if you’re a brand really looking to work with people that are reaching an audience, you’ve got to be able to do that.
What’s the main difference between Instagram and TikTok?
Evan Morgenstein: [00:19:11] Yeah. You know, you’re like, ok, TikTok doesn’t make any sense to me. But the reason why you want to make sense is look at the amount of traffic it’s creating for your content if you work with the right influencer. It’s massive. I mean, there’s no competition between Instagram and TikTok when it comes to delivering an audience beyond what that follower. So it shows me that influencer has the following.
Chris Casale: [00:19:33] In your opinion, is Instagram oversaturated with influencers? And do you think TikTok is there yet?
Evan Morgenstein: [00:19:39] I don’t think that that’s even an issue. I think I think an influence or only exists because people want to see them. So I don’t think there’s ever an oversaturation, because even if, you know, there’s 10 million people in the food space or health and fitness, everyone’s going to do it their own way. So I don’t think there’s ever an issue of oversaturation. I think it’s about how the companies that run these platforms handle their relationship with the influencers.
Ryan Smith: [00:36:52] What impact have you seen just with COVID- 19 on influencers? Is this something that actually could propel that might grow influencers or become a hindrance?
Evan Morgenstein: [00:37:05] Listen, I am somebody that has been quarantining in my house, my family. We’ve gone out very infrequently last four months. I take this thing seriously. Right. Like people are dying and people have died. And it’s a very sad thing. And having said that, I’ve never, ever had a more incredible rush of business than I’ve had since the thing started.
Chris Casale: [00:42:21] Is there anything that you would tell brands about working with influencers?
Evan Morgenstein: [00:42:25] I tell brands because I can sell brands and I also obviously take brands money. But I tell every one of them, I don’t care what side that I’m on the deal. I tell them the only word that matters for you is patience. If you have no patience, you are going to suck at this. And if you have patience along with a good idea and a strong constitution, then you’re going to be successful. You just got to be a little patience. There is no I mean, there are unicorns, the Kardashians and Jenners, they’re unicorns. Right? But they’re only a few unicorns. So don’t think that you’re going to generate what a unicorn generates because it’s just not realistic. It’s a unicorn. So go back to the following, the thought process of working hard every day and building a community where people want to go and you’re going to get so much opportunity.
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