Strategic influencer campaigns are one of the many tools used by PR professionals, especially in the visually-driven travel and hospitality industry where successful campaigns can yield big results. When effectively executed, working with influencers can support overall public relations and marketing efforts by increasing brand awareness with a targeted audience, providing organic lift to websites and building a portfolio of unique photo and video content. As a travel and hospitality PR firm that regularly creates and manages strategic influencer partnerships, MYPR has crafted three essential guidelines for creating strong and successful campaigns that deliver results.
Vet Influencers Thoroughly
Each influencer has a select set of topics they focus on and through their continued coverage, they become credible experts in these areas. Taking the time to scroll through a user’s feed will paint a picture of their areas of expertise to determine if they align with a client’s objectives. This will also show whether the content they create will visually fit with a client.
The next step in the vetting process is understanding the number of people who take the time to engage with an influencer’s content through comments and action. The following are a couple of ways to determine if an audience is truly engaging with the influencer’s content.
– Check the comments. Comments are where the audience engages with the content, asking for recommendations, noting that they’re excited to visit a destination or sharing an experience of their own. When it comes to comments, quality and content relevancy are key and demonstrate active and authentic engagement. If comments regularly seem questionable or unrelated, that may be a red flag.
– Scan their followers for fake accounts. A few signs of fake accounts include lack of a profile picture, absence of bio information and limited personal posts. These fake accounts are useless and a high number of followers of this type should set off alarm bells.
For those interested in making an investment, there are several subscription-based research platforms that can recommend influencers and analyze profiles including Klear, Awario and Buzzstream. MYPR uses these tools and platforms, allowing clients to access this key information.
Content and Messaging are Key
Predetermining the desired content and messaging outcome of an influencer partnership is an essential step to ensure the campaign supports overall marketing and pr goals and objectives. We suggest sharing clear guidelines with influencers that outline specific image needs and any key messages to be shared with their audience. Establishing these guidelines provides a framework to successfully tap into the influencer’s expertise in developing relatable and authentic content that connects with a desired target audience.
For example, a hotel may want to showcase a new amenity and help guests understand how the property’s investment will enhance their trip. This is a great opportunity to bring in an influencer to highlight this new feature. Communicating expectations ahead of time will ensure the influencer showcases coverage of them enjoying this new amenity to their audience and that they provide the hotel with appropriate content that can be repurposed for use on the brand’s website, social channels and more.
Maintain Lasting Relationships
Building lasting relationships with influencers can be both beneficial for future coverage and to develop stronger ties with a target audience.
For example, “throwback” photos of past trips and experiences continues to be a popular social media trend. A memorable trip and solid relationship can result in more coverage and engagement long after an influencer’s visit. Strong connections can lead to future partnerships with more opportunities to engage with the influencer’s audience or work with them to promote packages and new developments in the future, knowing that a new campaign may be successful thanks to tangible past results.
These three essential guidelines can assist in crafting strategic influencer campaigns, however, the team at MYPR is always available and more than happy to work in partnership to produce top-tier campaigns for clients from start to finish.