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Experiences being realised online and amplified at scale post-event is something experience marketers strive to achieve. Exactly how we achieve this can be a dark art, and more often than not, over exaggerated. But with the rise of influencer marketing we have an effective channel to achieve this scale, while also adding credibility and targeting.

Giving influencers the opportunity to take part in your brand experience and genuinely capture their imagination can be an extremely powerful tool. But using an influencer isn’t as simple as getting them to push out your event and content.

The use of influencers is an art, not a commodity that can simply be bolted on to your campaign. They are publishers in their own right, with dedicated followers. So how can we avoid wasting budget on attempting to stretch an influencer outside of their comfort zone?

Select them

Firstly, ensure you’re approaching the correct influencer in the first place. It may seem obvious, but use your intuition and common sense. Ensure they fit within your client’s brand DNA and focus on the depth of engagement they receive. Attempting to get a gaming blogger to talk about your brilliant FMCG client’s brand experience just because they have the perfect audience with a high number of shares and likes isn’t going to do you any favours.

Shares and likes never have and never will equate to true engagement. What you need is true conversation. That is where the power of influencers comes into a realm of its own. Therefore your choice of influencer shouldn’t be swayed by the number of followers they have, rather how engaged that following is.

Respect them

Many discredit what influencers actually do. However, through working direct with them via our influencer network Cycle, we know and understand that they are creative experts in their field. They truly get the channels they work with, and they take their time to craft content that engages with their audience. These influencers understand their own community better than any brand manager could imagine, and we need to respect that.

Work with them

This should be built within the respect aspect, but you have to give them the freedom to create content that will drive your message to their audience. Combining this with the chance for them to act as they feel at your event will not only create a strong relationship between yourself and the influencer, it will also create incredible content for your client.

Track them

Finally, and the most important part client-side: evaluate the performance of their content in real time. While influencers have a strong voice in their own specialised community, they won’t have as big a voice outside of it. This can be helped through the use of bought media to increase their reach and help your experience live on way past the final guest leaves. Every website visit, social conversation and like, and picture posted online can be stored and analysed, yielding oceans of data that can be used to deliver valuable insights about your target market and your influencer performance.

The landscape of influencer marketing is changing rapidly, especially as more marketers develop influencer strategies within their campaigns. The rules of the game will no doubt change. The key is to understand the medium’s evolving dynamic, which is key to realising the value of influencers in the coming years.