How influencers help in boosting brand experience

In a world where the audience’s attention spans are dwindling and the competition between brands is on a constant rise, improving your brand’s presence is crucial. Traditional marketers are realizing how live events improve engagement and prove the authenticity of a brand. Another group that can really help in boosting brand experience is of social media influencers. Of late, influencer marketing is on the rise and several reports clearly indicate that marketers will be investing more in social media marketing through influencers.

Here’s decoding why influencer marketing is the booming mode of marketing and how we can leverage this popular phenomenon.

We all know how far-reaching and impactful social media can be. Brands and companies use it to reach out to their target audience, who in turn share information among their networks. In terms of an event, social media gives those not attending it an opportunity to still be informed and not suffer from FOMO. Influencers attending events can amplify an event’s presence. Also, if you have an influencer posting about your event, there is are higher chances that customers will take note of it. Audiences instantly relate to influencers because they find similarities in their personalities and overall likes and dislikes. Thus, if an influencer is posting about your event/brand, the attention it receives goes notches higher.

So, how can you leverage the phenomenon? There are several factors that you need to gauge before roping in an influencer. There are just too many influencers out there but not all fit your brand image or the purpose of your event, do they? Make sure to conduct thorough research based on hashtags and past campaigns, and engage in industry-specific this influencer online forums to make a list of influencers that will work for your event. And from the shortlisted ones, select the most suitable one basis on their past work and attention they have garnered for campaigns and events.

This is very important – ensure these folks are influencers for real. Everyone wishes to be an influencer today and most of them are out there only for the followers. Many of them just have followers but no engagement on their posts. If you dive deeper into their profiles, you may discover that several of their followers are linked to fake accounts or aren’t related to the subject matter expertise of that influencer. Be cautious and make the smart choice to improve your brand’s experience.

Stick to the adage Honesty is the best policy. There has been a lot of controversy around influencer transparency. Have a strategy in place where influencers publicize the fact that they are in a paid partnership. More importantly, make sure to include this detail in your contract in order to avoid any hassles. Let the consumers be aware that a commercial relationship prevails between your brand and the influencer. Being authentic is key and ensure the influencer/s you rope in understand that. Influencers need to understand what your event strategy is and what the event stands for. Brief them on how your event is unique and why it needs to stand out, but offer the liberty to retain their personal style.

Post-event analysis is as important as all the planning you did before and during the event. Once the event is over, take a look at the stats and determine how well the influencer approach worked. Dissect the event stats as to how the brand organically worked to generate engagement and how much more effective was it to have an influencer. Once that’s determined you will know if to use the influencer method next time around.

In conclusion, influencer marketing may not work for every live event. But with the right kind of research, the influencer marketing approach can work quite well for the event as well as the brand.