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This article explores Naver’s take on influencer marketing, by making the search engine a creator-friendly platform and allowing the rise of Naver influencers. It allows both Korean influencers and influencers outside the country to create and deliver relevant content to the searches typed in by Naver’s users.
Naver Corp is one of South Korea’s most influential Internet companies, most famous for the Naver search engine. The search engine is designed predominantly for the Korean market because it was founded in South Korea. Keep reading to find out how this search engine has redefined influencer marketing platforms with major upgrades to the search results displayed when users utilize the search function.
What Is Naver’s Influencer Search?
Naver’s influencer search function is a new function, brought to life only in 2020 after testing its beta service in late 2019. Although many influencers have been using Naver for their blogs, this intervention by Naver to promote Naver influencers meant the influencers would have something to give and take from the company itself. This feature allows users to see the work of content creators relevant to their search, from the influencer’s Naver Blog, to their content posted on Naver TV, and even their connected social media accounts like YouTube and Instagram, with the influencer being paid for their contribution.
Naver introduced this feature after extensive influencer research to understand the impact of social media influencers who have completely changed the scope of how people connect with an individual or business. The understanding was then used to develop a system that would improve Naver’s search engine.
How Does the Influencer Search Service Work?
Using the influencer search service is simple. Naver added an “influencer search” tab on its front page, easily accessible by its search engine users. Users can search for keywords in the Naver search bar, or view the contents of professional influencers by topic. They can also improve their search by filtering by ‘My Keyword’ (occupation), age, etc. through the ‘Select’ feature.
Users can follow their favorite influencers and be the first to see what they’ve posted, like on typical social media platforms. They can view content such as the influencer they love, the influencer recommended for them, and more at the top of the search results. Users can also view unique and fresh content filtered by topic directly reconstructed by professional influencers on Naver’s main page.
Who Is a Naver Influencer?
A Naver influencer is an individual that signs up for Naver’s influencer program and creates content for various niches that will be displayed when a relevant keyword is inserted into the search bar. The content can be in various forms, from blogs to posts, images, and more. Any individual with or without experience with the typical influencer fashion of social media can still apply to become a Naver influencer. Influencers can also participate in “Keyword Challenges’’ and curate content to showcase under a specific category.
Naver’s popularity in the South Korean market is no surprise to anyone in Korea or to businesses and individuals who use Naver to promote their products and services to Korean consumers. This makes an introduction like Naver influencers play a vital role for the influencer, search engine users, and Naver. Influencers can promote themselves while helping Naver show more user-generated content that is informative and helpful to its search engine users across various categories, from beauty to retail, fashion, lifestyle, and more!
The Benefits of Being a Naver Influencer
Being a Naver influencer does not come without a series of benefits offered by Naver itself. Apart from the traffic and growth influencers experience, as they expand their brand and gain followers, they can use advertisements for their content, earn revenue through it, and even collaborate with businesses to create branded content for them. Below, we’ve explained in detail how being a Naver influencer can be beneficial to individuals inside and outside of South Korea.
Increased Revenue and Exposure through Advertising
Unless a person is doing a free service, nobody wants to run campaigns or create content that brings them no returns. Brand awareness is indeed one of the significant goals of any influencer’s efforts, but without any monetary income, people will eventually shift to other platforms that help them monetize their work.
Naver’s influencer program is excellent in this way, not only allowing influencers to increase revenue income for their existing content creation but also allowing them to use advertisements and earn off of their results too. The advertisement options range from general, premium, and head view advertisements, which influencers and content creators gain access to depending on how impactful and prominent the influencer is on Naver.
Influencer Home (Website Creation)
Each influencer has their own home page and is given a plethora of ready-to-use templates and handy tools that can be used to build a website with a user-friendly and appealing interface. This helps influencers organize everything they want users to know about them clearly, and share their work from other platforms by simply linking them to their home channel. Influencers can also use directly communicate with their fans, build a community and deliver curated content more efficiently.
Priority on Naver’s Search Engine Results Page
Naver’s search algorithm works to prioritize the content of creators based on its quality and relevancy on both the Naver integrated search and the influencer search tab. This can be done by directly registering the content for the relevant search terms. The influencer search tab is the best of it, finding only information from influencers across all the information the search engine holds. Another wonderful search exposure opportunity provided to content creators is that they can use the ‘MyType’ filter, which allows the search engine to filter and show results to users who have similar preferences.
Brand Connect – Collaboration Opportunities with Brands
Naver is a network of powerful AI technologies, businesses, and people. This program gives Naver influencers opportunities to meet brands that are suitable for their followers and their interests and allows influencers to create and showcase branded content for their partnered brands on Naver. Brands can compensate the influencers based on engagement metrics with the content, sales generated through the promotion, and more.
Influencers can be chosen based on their niche, the number of followers, quality of work, and other criteria according to business. Naver is also a very close-knit community, so measures to ensure no metrics can be tampered with are strictly overseen by the company. So brands don’t have to worry about fake followers and other unfair practices.
Growth Support Program
Naver is focused on ensuring Naver influencers don’t stay stagnant and can improve their content creation methods, consequently improving the content. Naver provides a dedicated Naver Influencer Center to support creators, along with several other tools and services that help content creators keep up with trends and make the most of their influencer marketing efforts on the platform. They also have an annual event at the end of the year to celebrate and motivate influencers.
Online Name Cards
This is a simple tool that allows influencers to design a custom online name card linked to their influencer home.
Creative Studios for Better Content Creation
This is one of the best offerings by Naver, giving content creators access to the Naver Partner Square. Naver’s Partner Square is a series of offline spaces in Seoul (Yeoksam, Jongno, Hongdae, Sangsu), Busan, and Gwangju in South Korea. All influencers are required to have an influencer home to have access to the offline space.
These offline spaces are studios that are equipped to improve the content of creators, along with collaborating with other influencers and learning from each other. However, there are other specific criteria that influencers have to meet to get this opportunity, especially with the Hongdae branch.
Higher Publicity Through Naver Super Ads
Influencers can use their unique content and participate in the keyword challenge. The content of influencers selected by a jury can be promoted in Naver’s representative area, as super ad banners. Users can easily click the banners and are directed to the influencer’s website and see more content from the influencer, which easily increases the chance of gaining a significant increase in revenue.
Access to Creator’s Workshop
Content creators get to see useful information and guides on how they can improve their creative process. From logo creation to writing ad copy, the creator’s workshop has an easy-to-follow guide for every process that can help creators optimize the ability of their content to help the influencer grow. It’s obviously not just the two categories mentioned above, but many more. The endless resources are free to access and provide immense value to a creator’s influencer marketing strategies.
Want to Know More about Naver Influencers?
Naver is South Korea’s most used search engine, and the platform experiences this success for many reasons. One of which is its constant efforts to produce high-quality and useful content for its user base. While many businesses and bloggers publish content on Naver, a Naver influencer has a more inclusive program designed to focus on giving users access to user-generated content that they can relate to. Naver included the “influencer search” tab on its front page, allowing users to specifically browse through content from influencers.
A Naver influencer receives higher revenue and a whole load of other benefits from advertising revenue, website creation templates and tools, priority on search results, a network of brands to collaborate with, and a growth support program to keep reaching new heights. This is a splendid opportunity for influencers in Korea, and businesses too. If you’re interested in getting your business marketed or advertised in Korea, Naver influencer marketing is a wonderful avenue to consider!