Creating an initial buzz around your brand might simply require you to pay a few key influencers to spread your message. But apart from a short term influx of traffic, and maybe a few sales, will this tactic really bring tangible value to your brand’s overall digital presence? If a blogger or social media star is paid a lump sum to either publish a blog, tweet and/or post a link on their Facebook wall, one has to wonder if they will ever work with that brand again for free? Will they provide the relationship between brand and influencer? Will the influencer provide more value then what is stated in the agreement? Will they create a long-lasting social synergy to stay true to their original recommendation? Maybe, maybe not.
We once consulted with this digital brand that used this technique to drive new members to join their newsletter. The brand paid a notable blogger over $4,000 to tweet to her 100 000+ fans about this great new website. The results was a sudden influx of new sign-ups, but then… nothing much happened. This campaign didn’t have a lasting effect because it fell short on a few things.
First, the blogger had to be convinced with money (a lot of it) that the brand was one she should tweet about. Since she had no emotional connection to the brand itself she didn’t feel the need to provide additional value to the brand other than what was stated in her agreement.
Second, she simply didn’t have the right audience. She had hundreds of thousands of fans but if the brand had paid attention they would have noticed that her tweeter feed did not have the right type of followers. The brand sold luxury products in excess of $500 but when you looked at the blogger’s fan base, you could easily notice that her fans were young adults who, although longed for these types of products, could, more than likely, never truly afford them.
We also came across a similar situation when we managed the social media channels and blog of a famous Canadian personality. She was under contract with a dairy brand to tweet sporadically about the products. We were actually shocked when we read her agreement: every one of her tweets was pre-planned by the brand months in advance! She didn’t even have the authority to create her own tweets! We know for a fact that her tweets resulted in very little results. She barely wanted to send them out; her fans, who followed her every move, noticed the “fake factor” of every one of these tweets. It was obvious they weren’t really hers. A real shame.
An influencer campaign can be successful if done the right way. Paying bloggers and social media influencers to share your message can work, if you identity the right influencers and create the right campaign. You should then ask them to create engaging content that fits their audience. Give them the tools and the leeway to come up with the campaign with you. They understand their audience better than you; they know what works and what doesn’t; and they sincerely hope for your success. These influencers have usually achieved the social success you are longing for, so you might as well listen to their tips and recommendations.
If you need to find influencers in the luxury travel niche, check out our blog on the top 145 Luxury travel social media channels to follow in 2014. Or even better, contact one of the luxury bloggers we have interviewed in our Blogger Spotlight series.
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