Cross-platform or single-platform influencer marketing: Which is better?

Influencer marketing is all about choosing the right people to represent your brand with their community of followers. Once you get your strategy right, new possibilities will come to light ? when it comes to marketing your brand on social media. So once you’ve got the hang of how it works, the question arises – should you work with cross or single-platform influencers? A cross-platform influencer has established communities of followers across social platforms, such as on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram. A single-platform influencer only has a solid base of followers on one of the major social platforms.

So, will an influencer with a solid social media following across a few platforms provide your brand with more value than an influencer that has a really large community of followers on one platform?

The answer – It really depends, but it might help to know that consumers increasingly spread their attention across multiple social platforms. As of 2020, the average number of social media accounts per person was 8.4, which means that social media networks are becoming more specialized i.e. Instagram for photos and stories, LinkedIn for professional posts and job searching, etc. That means that while brands working with influencers across many different platforms can make the most of their large audiences, there are some benefits of working with single-platform influencers that have stronger and tighter knit communities to share with.

Photo by Hello I’m Nik on Unsplash

One benefit is that single-platform influencers will usually cost brands less to work with, unless the brand has selected a micro or nano-influencer marketing strategy or they have chosen to work with a mega-mega influencer (like a top celebrity personality).

A second benefit is that it’s possible to really get the messaging and creative content right on the selected platform, which may improve the campaign’s conversion rate. As opposed to throwing your eggs in a bunch of baskets, with single-platform influencers you have one shot to get it right and a bigger potential to “go viral”. It’s also easier to design content that suits the influencer’s target audience, instead of creating something generic that doesn’t attract attention or the right attention that you’re looking for.

A final benefit of working with single-platform influencers is that brands don’t have to invest so much effort into establishing their presence beforehand on a bunch of different social platforms. A lot of times (and unless it’s a major global brand) brands will focus on one or two social platforms (like Instagram and Facebook, or Facebook and LinkedIn) as opposed to investing in three or more. Therefore, if you choose to pursue a cross-platform strategy, you make sure that you have all of your social accounts well managed and tracked.

On the other hand, working with cross-platform influencers can help with establishing brand ubiquity, which plays a role in influencing purchasing decisions; if consumers see branded or sponsored content on multiple social media channels, this prevalence creates familiarity and fosters trust in audiences.

In addition, working with influencers that have solid fanbases on a number of platforms can maximize the effectiveness of each campaign and get you more bang for your marketing buck.

At the end of the day, choosing whether to work with a single or cross-platform influencer really comes down to the goals of your campaign and how much you’re willing to invest. Each type of influencer has their benefits and downsides and until we all transition to the metaverse (maybe very soon?), brands will need to work hard to strike the right balance.