PERSPECTIVE |
|||
|
it ’ s their content that often stands out and stops a social feed scroll . Consider Kimpton Hotels & Restaurants ’ “ Stay Human Creator Collective ,” a group of six diverse influencers who partner regularly with the brand , creating beautiful travel content that reflects the diverse array of real travelers at the same time . InterContinental Hotels Group partnered with Black style visionary Igee Okafor to bring its hotel experience to life through arrestingly beautiful and thumb-stopping travel content .
MEANINGFUL RELATIONSHIPS STAND THE TEST OF TIME So many influencer partnerships are one-off , meaning there ’ s a single transaction , a single stay and then the arrangement is over and the influencer ’ s followers watch them move on to another hotel stay , another paid partnership . What if we looked at the influencers we put so much thought into selecting as long-term brand ambassadors for us ; people who bring our unique guest experience to life over time ? Here ’ s an example : What if hotels hosted the perfect influencer and their partner annually for their anniversary ? Or , if a family-friendly resort hosted a perfectly-brand-aligned influencer family every summer for its annual beach vacation ? How much more believable and convincing is the influencer ’ s perspective when they use words like “ our beloved annual
|
trip to [ insert hotel ]” and when they show themselves delighting in a hotel ’ s guest experience year after year , season after season ? Imagine watching an influencer ’ s kids grow up a little each year , with the hotel as the all-important backdrop .
ENSURE CONTENT LIVES ON So much influencer content gets pushed down the feed once it ’ s published and then the value comes to a halt . Once the algorithms have finished serving up the content , it ’ s almost like it ’ s gone forever … unless you plan for future use . In content marketing , we often use the turkey analogy : plan for opportunities to repurpose content exactly as you would with turkey leftovers at Thanksgiving . For influencer and creator content , this could mean baking things like this into a trade agreement upfront :
• The right to use and edit ( e . g . cut down , add graphic design elements , use in paid advertising , etc .) the content files in perpetuity .
• An Instagram stories highlight on the influencer ’ s profile that highlights their stay with the hotel and lives on for several months ( plus the same thing on the hotel ’ s own Instagram profile ).
• A re-hit post , six months after their stay (“ just reminiscing about my amazing trip to [ insert hotel ]; I can ’ t wait to go back ”).
PARTNER WITH THE RIGHT INFLEUNCERS The best influencer partners
|
for a hotel appeal to that hotel ’ s primary target audience . While this might seem obvious , it ’ s too often overlooked . If a hotel ’ s primary guest is a traveling business consultant in town for a meeting and looking to add a little weeknight fun on top of their trip , partner up with someone around the same age who has a strong perspective on cool things to experience in your city . By contrast , partnering up with a Sprintervan-traveling , homeschooling family with young kids may be interesting to some people , but not to your established target audience . In fact , that partnership could result in that potential guest writing you off as “ not for them .”
BE PRESCRIPTIVE ; AND , SOMETIMES , DON ’ T New York-based influencer marketing agency Fohr argues that you need both “ mirror content ” and “ window content .” They define mirror content as knowing the exact framing , messaging and aesthetic needed for marketing purposes and wanting that reflected back in an influencer ’ s content . Mirror content can be perfect for bringing the guest journey to life or for capturing a particular aspect of your guest experience like a seasonal amenity , new menu launch or a rooms renovation . Window content is different — it creates a portal into a new perspective . It ’ s a way to empower a creator to make magic , in their own way , at a hotel . Give creators a key performance indicator and
|
a few legal guardrails and let them create to entertain , offer their ultra-unique perspective and build trust with their following surrounding your hotel .
TRACK AND MEASURE RESULTS The best indicator of content that ’ s actually meaningful to the people who saw it is called engagement rate . It ’ s the perfect measure of content resonance . It ’ s calculated as a percentage : the number of people who engaged with a particular post ( by liking it , commenting on it , sharing it with a friend ) divided by the influencer ’ s number of followers . Average engagement rate on Instagram is about 2.5 %. Great influencer content should net a 4 % to 5 % engagement rate .
View influencers as artists , keep the value to your own social channels top-of-mind and structure influencer agreements to prioritize the perceptionshifting power of long-lasting relationships . Now , you ’ re armed for influencer marketing success in 2024 and beyond .
Whitney Reynolds
|
64 hotelsmag . com May / June 2024 |