Transcript
Speaker: After our last podcast, we got chatting about influencers. So producer Adam, hit record again, and here you have a little bonus episode with Dot talking about influencers and the power of influencing. See like on the sheet that it was like, oh, you know, how can you use leverage influencers and that's it.
Speaker: So many brands want to know like. Influencers, I think is like a huge topic. So we've actually even dabbled with influencers ourselves. More for hotel side. Yeah, more for the hotel side really.
Speaker: But I feel like if you find an influencer that is really in tune with your brand, actually, it's that power of kind of like suggestion and influence, isn't it? that Because I have people that I follow social. Rochelle Humes.
Speaker: Rochelle Humes. Rochelle Humes. But I have certain people on Instagram that I follow because I feel like they're very in tune with me and my lifestyle at the moment. So like, for instance, well, there's two, there? And Davinia Taylor.
Speaker: So well I love gut health, like anything to do with gut health and and healthy living and that kind of thing. and And that mainly stemmed from my daughter who is, just turned eight, is celiac.
Speaker: So I started learning all about like gut health and how you can repair your gut and that kind of thing. So that led me to one set of influences. But then another person that I resonate with is definitely Rochelle Humes. If it's good enough for Rochelle, could be. if it's good enough for Rochelle it's good enough me because she is um a mother she works full-time as well she has children that are very similar age to me and it is that whole power of influence isn't it so talk to us about influences and how they can kind of help with your brand well the power of influence is incredibly influential
Speaker: a Yeah, it's um something that you can create, you know, as a creator, like a social media creator, are their goal is to become an influencer. Yeah. That's a course that I'm teaching. That's what, you know, all of these young kids in high school, they're like, what well, what do you want to be when you grow up? I want to be a YouTuber. I want to be an Instagrammer. Yeah.
Speaker: and I don't understand like why this is such a huge deal, but it's because the influencers and these YouTubers are really guiding and leading our society to like influence what purchases what are we making? Like, what we think is cool? What are we buying? like whatts Yeah.
Speaker: And so it's even like with influencers, you can kind of be influenced without even realizing it, can't you? Just by consuming the content. Yeah. And that's what experts do. Expert influencers do, right? Yes, they do it in the...
Speaker: my in yeah most like sweet way there Yeah, it's actually just organic. Yeah, that would be the word. um We worked, um you know, with Adobe on, you know, on a huge influencer campaign. And one of our influencers, he blends all of his content into, you know, his Instagram, and his TikTok. And it looks it's not even done it doesn't even look like an ad. And no one knows. Yeah. Yeah.
Speaker: That's like the best type. The worst kind is that influencer that you know that it's an ad and you're like, oh, why am I following this person? This literally an advert for an advert. But nowadays they have to disclose like this is an ad. Or even if it's like their brand and it's not necessarily an ad, but because they're talking about they have to disclose it, don't they?
Speaker: Yeah. um But I'm working on this course all about influencer marketing and how you can actually, um you know, utilize influencers to amplify your campaign. Yeah. And for me, working in the influencer space for the last 10 years, it's been, i don't want to say difficult to find influencers that are actually influential. Yeah.
Speaker: It's you know hard to decipher who's actually moving the needle on your helping you you know move the need on your business versus you know somebody that can't sell anything but has a lot of followers. Yeah.
Speaker: So, yeah, it's been a real real challenge, I think, for many brands to decide if they're going to invest in influencers because i I'm pretty sure most people have had negative experience experiences. Yeah.
Speaker: Yeah, because also it's like even with followers, isn't it? You can buy followers or they can be not authentic followers. So how do you decipher who's a genuine influencer and who's not?
Speaker: So we're using a lot of AI. AI. We love AI. So there's these platforms that actually source influencers and influencers can apply to yeah Yeah, there's many different types. I'm not going to name all of them, but we can put them in the yeah show notes, like some recommended ones. And so through, since AI has gotten, you know, into the world of influencer marketing, you're able to kind of see really clearly which, you know, of the influencers are getting engagement and which are not and, you know, how um influential they really are. Yeah, that's quite powerful, isn't it?
Speaker: The thing is, there are still some even like well-known influencers that do buy fake followers and do buy, you know, likes and so forth. So I still have to go in to the system and like look at each one to see if the comments are authentic. Yeah, definitely. Because the AI cannot do that yet.
Speaker: What's your take on micro and macro influencers? Obviously, Leanne is influenced by... micro but for me I think I'm more dubious about it when people are promoting things yeah I'm a salesperson so I buy from sales people oh she does i you know like the worst scenario for me is if I walk into like a makeup counter and I think I'm a salesperson this person just sold me a whole load of things that I didn't need you are literally a marketing I'm a consumer yeah you are I think my macro influencers, like the here, I call them hero influencers. They're very powerful, yeah but they're also very expensive. So if you're in a, yeah if you're working, you know, if you're a brand, this that's an investment for co-branding, but you have to understand it's more for ah branding. Like we're working, you know, with this influencer, not necessarily bringing in trackable sales.
Speaker: Right. So it depends what product it is. Yeah. yeah right like Is this a product that you're going to sell on because it's under $10 or is this like a $1,000 product? That depends what kind of influencers you're working with.
Speaker: The nano influencers or the micro influencers are extremely powerful to generate actual action, call to actions like on their posts because it's such a small niche community that but you can get this into that yeah you can actually get the same let's say click through results and like sales as a yeah big macro influencer as a nano so we've worked on campaigns where you know it's a numbers game so the more nano influencers you get can actually be just as powerful if not more powerful than getting one hero influencer that you know it's more of a co-branding yeah campaign then
Speaker: ah generating actual sales so it depends what your goal is um obviously you know if the campaign is like oh we need more downloads versus ah we need people to buy a product they're like different campaigns yes suppose it depends on the end goal um But that I guess laying out what you guys were saying earlier, the best thing is to find creators and influencers that are actually aligned with your brand. And, yeah you know, it's a long let's make a long term relationship.
Speaker: You know, let's help each other out in the long run, not just for a one off campaign. Those are the people that I would select to work with. I feel like as well, when that's the case, and if you follow somebody and you feel that they are authentic or that they're promoting products that they genuinely believe in, and as opposed to, oh, we push this product for us. It's actually, you know, something that you can see them using regularly that actually they've said, oh, i have to say that this is an ad, but I'm not actually promoting it. It's something that I genuinely believe in.
Speaker: That's the kind of content that I feel I buy into more a person. you And I think it's more with you, Rochelle Humes again, because you know she likes the things that you like, you automatically know that if she likes something, you'll like it. It's kind become part you. Yeah, I like her lifestyle and I like her, ah she is definitely a brand, you know, in what she sells and um how she promotes herself.
Speaker: But then actually, I do buy into that brand and I feel that she is quite authentic. and And I think for me, it is down to that authenticity piece, like with influencers. There's loads of people that I follow, actually, that thinking the other day, need to unfollow these people because I do find them unauthentic. So, you know, i like the authenticity piece and I like and like positive content as well. We're actually coming into your Stacey Solomon season next week.
Speaker: Oh yeah. x yeah Christmas decorations now and decor and yeah, definitely. Yeah, as we see more AI and AI driven content, the more and more important is authenticity and like staying true. 100%, yeah. Staying human.
Speaker: Yes, exactly. I was just gonna say, what are your thoughts on AI content? I'm not a fan because I think it can help speed up your creativity process, which everyone should use that. Yeah. But at the end of the day, like it's not something that's authentic and original to you. that Only you can be, only you are you, right? Yeah. The AI of the sun. I mean, as AI improves, it's going to get there. yeah Right now, it's still the beginning stages. But I think I just saw some like posts recently that was like, did you know that with all of the AI like generated content, it's not performing better than regular human content? can believe that. Yeah, because people don't buy into it. like they said they You relate more to human content. Yeah.
Speaker: So at the end of the day, like we're going to. value human content more than ai content. So I think that's what's going to happen is like, we will say this piece of content was created by a real human. And agree.
Speaker: yeah i agree And it makes it like less uniform as well. Because I've noticed like sometimes what i've I'm not an expert, but what I have noticed is that when AI creates content, it does look very similar or very uniform or very perfect. And actually, that is alive. Yeah.
Speaker: Chat GBT LinkedIn us. Yeah, exactly. and it just makes it not authentic or not true to that person. And everybody starts to sound the same. I completely agree. I've even, you know, for my own personal content, I want to start handwriting it or like at least handwriting it in my iPad because this is, you know, it gives it a more nostalgic and human touch and it's more engaging almost because it's not just like computerized. Yeah, I agree.
Speaker: Or like a graphic, perfect graphic designed image from like Canva or something. Like everyone's yeah Canva stuff looks the same. Yes. Yes. So how can we like make it more human? How can we um make it feel more genuine and authentic by humanizing it, which is, you know, what the dragon strategy is all about? Like, how can we have a human to human connection and a dialogue and be relatable?
Speaker: 100 percent. And I feel like when you have, um when you create content yourself, it becomes more, you know, people relate to you more because they know that that's your tone or that's your style. It's even something like recently, you know, we were doing a bit of an internal event at work and we had to create a like flyers and things for our events and i created one and put it up and our HR manager was like I knew you'd written that out of your group I knew that was you because that is your language and your tone so actually i think having that individual style is how you become relatable as a person isn't it and that's how you become a brand as well yeah be your own brand be authentic and true to yourself definitely
