What is an influencer and how does it fit into your digital strategy?

Today I was writing a book chapter on digital marketing for tourist destinations and just as I was listing the 6 basic techniques of marketing communications and I have written “Influencers"As part of a public relations-based strategy, I've wondered if people really know what a influencerSo here goes this article to clarify concepts.

Academic definition of influencer

The academic definition of influencer is that of “an individual who exerts his influence above the average”, but this definition does not help much to understand the concept. There is another way of approaching the academic definition that seems more interesting to me and that is based on reciprocal influence, that is, in the same way that companies have mechanisms that change the perception of consumers, there are consumers who are capable of changing the perception of other consumers regarding a company. This is the definition developed by Ives Fasin (Sorry, you can only read the article if you are connected from a university library)

What are influencers for?

In a digital marketing strategy the Influencers fit within public relations actions. That is, when you plan what you are going to communicate on social media, in press releases and at your events, you should also plan Which influencers are you going to contact? and what are you going to explain to them? They are another tool in your online marketing campaign and are especially important if your communication is aimed at the millennial generation, that is, those between 23 and 35 years old approx. For this segment, techniques such as advertising are only a marketing tool used by companies to manipulate them into consuming more, so it is not going to be effective. Influencers, on the other hand, are not perceived as a marketing tool, although the truth is that they are becoming more and more so and millennials are also beginning to be suspicious of their messages… we are already late. They were a very good communication tool a couple or three years ago.

How to be an influencer

This is one of the questions I get asked most in class when we get to this point. How can I be an influencer? And it is that Influencers are the star system of millennialsI am very happy to realize that you don't know who Pantoja is but that you adore Rubius. It's much healthier.

But back to the question, How to be an influencer?

First, brands will be interested in you if you have the audience they need, so you can specialize in a market segment, for example, women between 35 and 45 who like cosmetics, men between 30 and 40 who go mountaineering... there's no need to be sexist, you can also specialize in men between 35 and 45 who like cosmetics or women between 30 and 40 who practice mountain sports. The important thing is that you have about 10,000 followers and that you have a very specific target audience. The more difficult it is to get that audience, the easier it will be for brands to pay attention to you and hire you for public relations campaigns.

When you have your 10,000 followers on Twitter commenting on things about mountain destinations, Go Pro or its competitors will surely lend you cameras so that you can film your videos, North Face or its competitors will lend you clothes so that you can appear with them in your videos and other brands of clothing, accessories, equipment, tourist destinations, etc. will also be interested in you talking about them and will incentivize you with money.

Once you know who you are targeting, choose a network, create quality content that interests them, and make yourself known as quickly as possible. You also need to get people to interact with your posts, so work on emotions and call them to action when you post. For example, if you are crossing a suspension bridge, don't just explain what you are doing, talk about the fear you felt and ask your audience if they would dare to cross it or if they have ever been on a similar bridge. Fear will make you connect with them and the question will make them participate in the conversion... which is what brands want.

There is a hilarious article about how to be an influencer here: how to be an influencer  The bad thing is that I don't think the author wrote it as a joke... but is it really funny?

How many followers do I need to be considered an influencer?

It depends on your target audience. If it's very general, you're going to need a lot of followers to be considered "somebody." 30,000 followers is fine. If your audience is much more specialized, like in the examples above, 10,000 is fine.

There are agencies that will help you market your influence whether you are a generalist or a specialist (search on Google: “Influencer agency” and you will see) there are also portals such as Twync where you can register as an influencer and find brands that are willing to pay you to talk about them.

I hope this article has been useful to you, whether you are a company looking for influencers or an influencer looking for companies.

A hug