12 Jan 3 Influencer Strategies for Brands in 2016
It’s a new year, well it’s been a new year for a couple weeks, but since we’re still in January let’s talk about how you can look at utilizing influencers in 2016. We previously spoke about how brands should consider working with influencers, so now we’ll take a different approach to arm you with some influencer strategies and get those wheels turning. Here are some examples, supported by our past and current clients, that will inspire tactics to help build more awareness for your brand.
Conferences, Conferences and More Conferences
Back when I first started working on influencer marketing, I was aware of two influencer/blogger conferences; BlogHer and Dad 2.0, but the list goes on and on. There are conferences for just about anything you can think of. Some cover multiple categories to reach a wide variety of influencers, such as BlogHer where participants attend workshops held by some of their favorite influential bloggers. Then there are other conferences narrowed to a specific category, such as the Everything Food Conference and BlogPaws. These events are a great way for brands to connect with consumers, whether it’s by sponsoring an influencer to attend on behalf of a brand or the brand having a physical presence on-site.
Instagram Partnerships
It amazes me how some people have a gazillion followers and receive thousands of Likes on one single photo. Not all their photos combined, but one photo. I don’t even think my account totals a thousand Likes. Partnering with high-tier influencers on Instagram is an excellent way to gain awareness for a brand and connect with consumers, plus potentially get some great reusable content for your brand. Additionally, this tactic can put your brand in front of a large number of eyes as they check in on their favorite photographers. It’s an excellent way to gain impressions, engagement and allow for some fun tactics. Instagram partnerships can also be an extension to a promotion to help gain additional impressions and actions, for instance you could hire an influencer to create UGC (user-generated content) to future push out messaging that leads consumers to a sweepstakes or contest such as a photo challenge.
Guest Blog Posts
There are two types of blogs for the purpose of this blog post, brand and influencer (whether there are more than two we can debate another time). From my point of view, people go to brand blogs by stumbling upon them via the brands website, or if they are passionate about a product and want to keep up to date with everything the brand puts out there. Influencer blogs on the other hand, depending on their focus, are broad categories and you could find anything you are looking for from recipes to the best city to travel to in the New Year. Enlisting influencers to create content for a brand’s blog is another, fairly simple, way to help with driving awareness and bring new eyes on over. Is your brand blog travel related? Hire an influencer to write a post about travel tips they’ve learned or perhaps even sponsor a trip and have their review of the area hosted on the brands blog. When the post is live and the influencer syndicates their content, their readers may hop on over and find additional content that relates to them to keep them coming back.
These are a few broad ways that you can use influencers in 2016 that allow for so many options for tactics. Some that are simple and quick to launch, while some may require more planning and budget. Look at your brand and what their objectives are to help decide if influencer marketing strategies fit your needs.
