3 Ways to Utilize Influencers During the Holidays

We all know that the holiday time can be stressful, people are consuming more information than they typically would during other times of the year. For brands, it can be difficult for their messaging to get through the clutter, but one way to push through that is to utilize influencers to help get their message to the right audience.

With that said, here are three ways that your brand can partner with influencers to make sure that your message doesn’t get lost in the holiday muddle.

Twitter Parties

If you haven’t heard of a Twitter party before, here’s the Spark Notes version. A Twitter party is typically an hour long themed conversation using a specific hashtag where participants can win prizes.  These parties can occur in two different ways; they can be hosted by the brand channel or they can be hosted by influencers and sponsored by the brand. When hosted by the brand channel it’s always a good idea to include influencers to help drive the conversation since a lot of them are well-seasoned pros at hosting Twitter parties.

Or you could host a 24-hour Twitter party and take your brand page private like our client Club Carlson has done in the past. Only people that are following the brand handle are able to see the content. One thing to keep in mind if you use this route is to ensure your prizing is exciting enough to warrant a private lock down.

HashtagHotelPromo

Sponsored Post

Word of mouth is one of the most powerful things when spreading a message, even if it’s as simple as how one feels about a particular product or a brand. People tend to trust what their friends have to say or influential individuals that they follow on social media such as fashion bloggers, tech reviews, etc. A great method to get the word out about a new product, a limited edition release or just a simple reminder of a well-established brand being out there is with the use of influencers.

Influencers can be provided with products to test, they can be provided with a vehicle to drive for a week, they can be sent to an event to experience it on behalf of the brand… the options are endless and it serves as a great way to reach your audience. Also, providing influencers with a product to offer their audiences as a giveaway is a great add on and drives additional traffic and awareness, whether it’s a free night stay at a hotel or a prize pack of products.

A great example of this comes from our client APC Schneider Electric, who raised awareness of their product by providing influencers with APC Back-­UPS Connect’s for a Blackout and tasked them to create content over how they would handle the situation using the hashtag #NoWifi.

#NoWiFi

Content Creation

Influencers don’t just write blog posts anymore, the term ‘bloggers’ is being used less and less. They are more frequently known as content creators because essentially they create high-quality content for your brand that can be used on branded social channels with the right permissions. This is a great way to get some new and engaging content by hiring influencers to generate some quality imagery, recipes or tips/tricks relating to holidays and incorporating your brand.

For one program, influencers were asked to provide recipes that incorporated our client ReddiWhip to generate some great content and recipes that people would continue to share long after the campaign had concluded.

ReddiWhip

These are just a few examples of how to utilize influencers during the holiday season or really anytime during the year. If you’re interested in learning more how your brand specifically can work with influencers, feel free to reach out to us!



Ignite Social Media