How to use influencers in Tourism Marketing

Of all the categories of blogs and social media posts online, it is safe to assume that a very high percentage is related to travel and tourism. Platforms like Instagram and Snapchat seem almost custom-built for travel, tourism and allied topics like food and fashion. Needless to mention, the ranks of social media influencers are swollen with followers of this niche. However, very little is common among these influencers. Take travel for instance. The spectrum ranges from shoestring budget travellers, to backpackers, through adventure travelers all the way to luxury and bespoke travelers. This becomes a challenge for tourism digital marketers who hope to reach out and recruit influencers to help with their tourism marketing campaigns.

This post deals with some tips to choose the right influencers and the things one can do to make the most of the symbiotic relationship. Specifically, how the right influencers can help grow the brand online.

Finding your influencers

Before you go about trying to locate the right influencer, it is important to know who your brand's current audience is. Where does your audience hang-out online? Whom do they follow in social media channels? Who influences them? What is the authority of these influencers? As you listen to online chatter and monitor social media, you will come up with a lot of insights. Not all thee insights will be in line with your planner positioning for your brand. All of them however will reflect the interesting ways in which your audience chooses to interact with your brand. Spend time finding and mapping these out.

Choosing the right influencer

It is important for a tourism brand to choose the right influencer. In order to do so, one needs to definitely look beyond the numbers. The questions you need to ask yourself before you shortlist influencers to help amplify your tourism or destination marketing efforts are as follows:

• Are they relevant to your category? - No point using a fashion blogger as your influencer if your niche is travel and tourism. Unless your destination has some fashion-association you need to amplify!
• Are they an authority? - Do they have a follower base that follows them for their unique style or insights? Do they have an original point of view about topics relevant to you?
• Are they regular and active? - Do they post consistently? Are all their social outposts updated regularly?
• Are they engaging? - What kind of traction do their posts on social channels get? How often are they shared or liked? Do they get comments? Do they respond to comments? What is the true reach they have?
• Is there a brand fit? - Is the prospective influencer a good fit for your brand? If you are focusing on luxury travel, a budget travel blogger might not be the direction you want to take, irrespective of the authority and numbers!

Do you have any personal travel and tourism bloggers you follow? Please send me your preferences.

Inviting your influencers

Today, a number of companies exist which claim to work with a set of social media influencers across verticals. However, my personal experience with such outfits has not been great. While it is true that they take the hassle out of managing an influencer campaign (think logistics, communication, emails, responses, clarifications, billing etc.) they often don't have the ability to give you a truly custom-built experience. As a tourism marketer, it is expected that you know your brand and its strengths & weaknesses better than any 3rd party agency. Hopefully you are also passionate about your destination or product. Spend some time trying to reach out to influencers to convey this passion across to them. Trust me - they will appreciate it.

What works best is a personal appeal to each identified influencer. When you get to know them, their style, their audience and their work, you will know exactly how they can add value to your brand. And when they see that you've taken the time to understand all of these aspects, their respect - and consequently engagement with your brand - will only grow. It also helps to follow them on social channels and to start sharing some of their relevant updates to your own audience/followers. Remember that you are not engaging with a vendor; you are actually trying to establish a relationship with an influential authority who can help your brand grow.

Getting the most out of your influencers

One of the biggest mistakes a brand can make is to treat influencers as an extension of their PR program. Any influencer worth her/his salt will never be comfortable with simply posting a press release issued by a brand on their channels. Remember that these influencers have spent an enormous amount of time and effort to cultivate an audience that trusts them and their opinion. A sure-fire way to disaster and audience loss is to 'plug' brand messages between their posts.

Invite your influencers to experience your brand. Let them savor everything that your product or destination has to offer. Allow them time to wallow in the experience. Let them write/blog/post about it in their own, inimitable way.

Most importantly, respect their beliefs and principles. Don't ask/force them to commit to anything they are not comfortable with. Provide them with the experience, the facts, the data and the information. Let them craft their own story. If you've done your homework, you will be pleasantly surprised!

In another post we will look at the ways in which your brand can specifically benefit from engaging with influencers.