Let’s talk about Facebook—influencer marketing’s veteran platform that’s now been around longer than many popular TikTok creators have been alive. Although users aren’t flocking to Facebook like they were in the late aughts, it’s still the most-used platform in the world, and there are still plenty of opportunities to succeed with influencer marketing. The key is finding the right Facebook influencers to help you do it.
We’ll talk about all of that and more in this blog, but first, let’s get to some basics.
Why Facebook influencer marketing still matters
Although Instagram and TikTok tend to get mentioned first in the influencer marketing discussion, there is still plenty of room for Facebook. In fact, there is an argument to be made that Facebook is still critical to success. Here’s why:
Facebook still gets the most traffic.
Facebook still quietly has the most users in the world by a decent margin. Here’s a breakdown of the most trafficked social media platforms worldwide as of 2022:
- Facebook – 2.9 billion users
- YouTube – 2.6 billion users
- WhatsApp – 2 billion users
- Instagram – 1.5 billion users
- WeChat – 1.3 billion users
Still a pretty comfortable lead. But it’s not all roses. Facebook interest has decayed over the past several years, and in 2022 the platform actually lost users for the first time in its 19-year history.
Time will tell whether Facebook can hold on to the crown. But for now, if you want eyeballs, Facebook is as good a bet as any.
Reach an older audience.
Facebook has the highest population of users over 35, with 114.2 million. That’s 22.9 million more than Instagram and TikTok combined.
It’s familiar.
As we mentioned above, Facebook has been around for nearly two decades. Navigating to the app or URL has simply become muscle memory for many users and, for better or for worse, a part of daily life. That means leveraging Facebook influencers is a great way to reach people where they feel comfortable online.
Facebook has prioritized creators on the platform.
Meta made its commitment to creators clear in 2022 with a pledge to invest $1 billion in programs that give creators new ways to earn money from the content they create on Instagram and Facebook.
The Reels Play bonus program offers creators up to $35,000 based on how many views they could get from Facebook Reels. Jason the Great is just one example of the many creators taking advantage of Meta’s offer and producing engaging, high-quality content on the platform.
That said, there is still work to be done to improve creator quality on Facebook to the level of platforms like Instagram, YouTube, and TikTok. However, Facebook’s dedication to creator success proves there is an opportunity to succeed now and in the future.
Understanding Facebook content types
Text posts
Texts posts give your influencers or your brand an opportunity to show some personality. A good text post should be conversational and encourage audience engagement or help tell a story. These posts are also searchable on Facebook, making it easier for people to find the content.
Photos
Photos catch a casual scroller’s attention quickly and can entice them to take a closer look at the content. Their shareability is also a huge plus, especially if your products or brand is making a cameo.
Videos
Video is the most effective medium for achieving content marketing goals and driving conversions, especially for small- to medium-sized businesses. The immersive experience video can provide makes it critical for sharing your brand story and producing educational content to help build trust with your audience.
Stories
Like Instagram, Facebook offers a Story feature allowing users to upload short posts that last 24 hours. Stories can include photos, videos, and text overlays. Overall, these quick hitters give users a way to share their daily experiences more authentically and casually.
Reels
Meta released a Reels feature on Instagram and Facebook in response to surging interest in TikTok’s short-form video format. Facebook Reels can be up to 60 seconds long and come with a variety of editing tools, effects, and music options.
Facebook Live
Facebook was an early adopter of live features among major social media platforms, giving its user base a chance to connect with its audience in real-time. And with the more recent integration of live shopping, it has become an essential strategy for brands and creators alike.
Link posts
Link posts enable users to share a link to an external website or blog in their feed. After pasting the URL into the new post text box, Facebook automatically creates a thumbnail image to help increase engagement on the post. Links are a great way to help increase web traffic or give a shoutout to another brand or creator you think is doing great work.
Native Facebook features to power your next influencer campaign: must-haves and nice-to-haves
Must-haves
Pages
First things first: You’ll need to set up a Facebook Page for your business before you do anything else. Pages are free to make and will be the starting point for customers to discover and engage with your brand. Leverage your page to keep your audience up to date on product launches and any other relevant content about your business or online community.
Meta Business Suite
The Meta Business Suite is a centralized tool where you’ll manage all of your marketing and ad activity on Facebook and Instagram.
With the Business Suite, you can:
- Post cross-platform (Facebook and IG) without switching accounts.
- Manage your inbox.
- Create ads.
- Track insights and trends.
- Review all business activity.
- Access helpful tools to grow your business online.
Ads Manager
The Ads Manager is where you’ll go to run paid advertisements on all Meta platforms. From this dashboard, you can execute and track ad campaigns with real-time insights. A mobile app also gives you all the same capabilities on the go.
Audience Insights
You can find Audience Insights within the Meta Business Suite and leverage the feature to get valuable audience data, including demographics, behaviors on the platform, interests, and device usage. This is a critical tool for understanding your target audience and tweaking your marketing approach to meet their needs.
Nice-to-haves
Groups
Facebook Groups are a great way to connect with your audience and reach people with similar interests. Once your Page is up and running, consider creating a group related to your product or service and start nurturing your audience with resources, polls, quizzes, conversation starters, or anything that encourages engagement and helps you understand your target audience better.
Events
Facebook Events enable you to plan and organize gatherings with your audience. These events can be virtual or in-person, but either way, the strategy adds a feeling of exclusivity for a scheduled event your fans won’t want to miss. Plus, live events feel more authentic than staged content and give your audience a chance to engage with your brand in real-time.
Facebook Shop
Shops on Facebook and Instagram are online storefronts where people can browse your products without leaving the platform. The feature allows for customizable collections and design tools so you can put your best foot forward and connect with your target audience in various ways.
Facebook Blueprint
Facebook Blueprint is a hub for online courses and training to help you better understand all the features the platform has to offer. As you build your business, you might find these courses useful to help you get the most out of the technology at your disposal.
How to find Facebook influencers: 7 steps for finding the perfect Facebook creators and keeping relationships strong
1. Determine your goals.
First things first: What do you want your Facebook influencers to accomplish? Some common goals include:
- Brand awareness.
- Sales and revenue.
- Website traffic and lead generation.
- Content production.
- Brand perception and sentiment.
- Building a community.
Your goals will serve as your roadmap for success, so be sure to take your time and ensure they are detailed and specific. From there, you can start to dial in on creators.
2. Develop your ideal creator profile.
Your ideal Facebook influencer should be nearly identical to your target customer in most cases. When the two align, you’re getting more authentic content that resonates with those you need to reach to be successful.
Consider the following when developing your ideal creator profile:
Demographics
The most important demographics for finding your next Facebook influencer include:
- Age
- Gender
- Cultural background
- Income
- Education
- Occupation
- Family structure
Audience size
There are pros and cons for every size of Facebook influencer.
For example, a creator with a few thousand followers might not have a long reach, but they likely have a high engagement rate and a hyper-targeted audience. On the other hand, a creator with millions of followers will be great for brand awareness but probably won’t have as strong of a connection with their audience as the smaller, more relatable creators.
That said, the ideal solution is to have a solid mix of small and large creators on your roster.
Here is how creators are generally categorized:
- Nano creators – 1,000 to 10,000 followers
- Micro creators – 10,000 to 100,000 followers
- Macro creators – 100,000 to 1 million followers
- Celebrity creators – 1 million+ followers
Engagement rate
Follower count is important, but a creator’s engagement rate will help you better understand the quality of their content and how well it resonates with their audience.
As a general rule, the fewer followers a creator has, the higher their engagement rate should be. Here is an idea of the ideal minimum engagement rate for Facebook influencers by follower count.
- Nano creators – 2%
- Micro creators – 1.5%
- Macro creators – 1.25%
- Celebrity creators – 1%
Credibility
Once you’ve found a Facebook influencer who checks all the boxes for demographics, follower size, and engagement rate, you have to ensure their credibility.
In recent years, Facebook has gained a reputation for spreading “fake news” faster than any other platform. The last thing your brand needs is to contribute to this trend, so make sure to educate creators on your brand and product and only choose those qualified to speak about your specific industry.
Aesthetic
On paper, your prospect might seem perfect. But you have to be certain their aesthetic matches your brand’s. If it doesn’t, both of your audiences will be thrown off by posts coming from the collaboration, and it could seem like a big red flag that the partnership is inauthentic.
3. Find your Facebook influencers.
Search relevant hashtags.
Though less popular than on Instagram and TikTok, hashtags are still an excellent tool for finding influencers on Facebook.
Use niche, location, and demographic-based hashtags, like #StyleBlogger, #NYStyle, and #GenZFashion, to find potential partners.
You might also take a look at what posts are already happening in your niche, and if there is a trend, don’t be afraid to hop on it.
Ask your existing followers.
People already following you are bound to be fans, so look through their profiles to see if they’re particularly influential. If they seem like a good fit, send them a quick message to see if they’d be interested in collaborating on your next Facebook campaign.
Check your site’s purchase history.
If you see specific people consistently shopping on your site,
reach out! They clearly already love your products, and that brand love will shine through on any content they post on your behalf.
Google some keywords.
Did you know you can ask Google to only show you content that has appeared on a social media platform?
Here’s how it works for Facebook:
Type site:facebook.com into Google, then enter some keywords related to your industry.
For example:
site:facebook.com [athletes] AND [supplements] AND [new york]
You can even narrow your search to a specific date range. Like this:
site:facebook.com [athletes] AND [supplements] AND [new york] after:2022-11-01 before:2022-11-30
4. Introduce the creators to your brand and products.
Ideally, you’ll want to find Facebook influencers who are already familiar with your brand and products. But if that’s not possible, you’ll need to take some time to familiarize them before asking them to endorse you.
Start by sending your prospect some free merchandise and asking for their honest feedback. If they love it, ask them if they’re willing to collaborate on a future campaign. Communication is the key to lasting relationships, so be sure to establish early on that your collaboration is a partnership, not a transaction.
5. Activate creators in a campaign.
You have your Facebook influencers, now it’s time to activate them in your next campaign. By this point, they should have detailed briefs that outline what success looks like and grant you access to all the content rights you’ll need to get the most mileage out of the content they produce.
6. Evaluate creator success.
Keep a close eye on how your creator content performs, and keep your partners in the loop. If their content is doing great, make sure they know they’re crushing it and that you appreciate all the effort. If their content isn’t living up to expectations, politely let them know and work with them on ways they can improve.
7. Optimize your approach.
Take a close look at what worked well and what didn’t at the end of each campaign. If you’ve fallen in love with a creator, do whatever it takes within your budget to keep them long-term. If a creator doesn’t live up to expectations, don’t be afraid to cut them loose and restart your search.
Top influencers on Facebook and how they work with brands
iJustine
Justine Ezarik, better known online as iJustine, is a social media veteran who first started creating content about the latest tech and gadgets in 2006.
Many of her videos include product reviews and Q&As for brands like Apple, Google, and Canon, among others. However, she also shares plenty of personal life and travel updates to help build a stronger emotional connection with her audience.
Cooking Shooking
Cooking Shooking is a popular platform run by Indian chef and foodie Yaman Agarwal. Yaman is known for his easy-to-follow recipes using fresh, healthy ingredients for powerful flavor combinations. Over the years, he has partnered with numerous kitchen appliance and food and beverage companies to showcase how the home chef can incorporate the products for professional-grade results.
Roccibella
Roccibella has acquired a massive Facebook following for her makeup tutorials and fashion and accessory inspiration. Roccibella hosts regular contests and giveaways, posts frequent updates about the latest products and collections, and occasionally shares user-generated content from followers taking her fashion advice to heart. She also engages with her audience in the comment section to help build relationships with her fans and trust in her brand.
Guy Kawasaki
Guy Kawasaki was one of Apple’s original employees and has been a key player in developing many other tech companies since. As a prolific author, speaker, and entrepreneur, Kawasaki has built a large social media following of people who count on him for the latest industry trends and insights. He acts as a spokesman and ambassador for brands that can help his audience achieve their entrepreneurial or tech-related goals.
Stephanie Okereke
Stephanie Okereke is a Nigerian actress, entrepreneur, and philanthropist. She leverages an engaged Facebook audience of nearly 7 million people to promote her work in the entertainment industry, clothing line, various charity organizations, and other projects.
Key takeaway: Facebook influencers still have plenty of influence to get the job done for your brand.
It appears for now that the talk of Facebook’s demise might be premature—at least for now. There are still plenty of creators on the world’s most-used platform ready to go to bat for your brand and do so with plenty of success. Hopefully, after reading, you’ll have a much better idea of how to find the ones who can drive the most returns for your brand. Good luck!
Learn more about influencer marketing: Influencer Marketing 101
