Real Influencers of #FamilyTravel

August is almost here, which means despite the children’s protests, summer is coming to a close. Parents looking to make new memories with their families before the school bell rings can find some great inspiration from everyday social media users who publish various travel-themed posts.

Using the Mattr app, we searched specific family travel keywords and hashtags to identify and dynamically categorize micro-influencers from across the social media ecosystem.

Check out these summer vacation ideas recently published on social: Charmin of TheMomiVerse and her family just enjoyed a trip to Rocky Mountain National Park. Katie of La Jolla Mom has over 8,000 amazing images on travel, bucket lists, and visual tips pinned to her Pinterest board to provide hours of family inspiration. And Eden of TravelingMom.com just published a must-pack list of items for overnight camping. Follow and view more of these savvy traveler moms’ content below:

 

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A Startup’s Guide to Micro-Influencers

(Originally published in Entrepreneur.com)

Celebrity influence doesn’t come cheap. Macro-influencers with massive followings could probably get away with charging two months’ payroll to promote awareness of your brand among their millions of followers. But, take heart: Set your sights a bit lower and you’ll be able to widen your reach and get better uptake for less money.

First, understand who micro-influencers are: the everyday social account gurus who are passionate about their topics.

Second, think of micro-influencers as angel investors: They’re passionate about what you do and personally invested in it. These influencers provide authentic promotion, have 10,000 or fewer Twitter followers and don’t have agents; most are happy to talk about brands in return for just a free sample.

Photo by Finnish photographer/ travel blogger/ micro-influencer Jukka Heinovirtam.

For instance, a travel business might target a macro-influencer such as J.D. Andrews, who has more than 171,000 followers. Or the same company could save some serious capital by going with a micro-influencer such as Finnish photographer and travel blogger Jukka Heinovirta, who has 8,000 followers.

For startups, every decision needs a high ROI. Going after micro-influencers instead of the typically sought-after bigger names may well reveal an untapped gold mine.

Capitalizing on micro-connections

One great example of how micro-influencers can really boost your brand is Shoes of Prey. In 2010, that women’s custom shoe company wanted to scale up its business without breaking the bank.

Micro-influencer Blair Fowler brought 3x the traffic for Shoes of Prey in a couple of days.

Rather than go for a celebrity, the brand chose a micro-influencer: 16-year-old beauty vlogger Blair Fowler. Fowler hosted a giveaway on YouTube, which led to a permanent 300 percent increase in sales for Shoes of Prey. And the benefits didn’t stop there.

After the video giveaway notched 750,000 views and close to 30,000 comments, Shoes of Prey received mentions in Business Insider, The Wall Street Journal and a host of other national publications. The success culminated in an exclusive U.S. partnership with Nordstrom.

Micro-influencers are more accessible and authentic than their A-list counterparts. Shoes of Prey received top-notch results at a bargain price by using an influencer with dedicated followers. Finding the right partner for your business is the key to getting the exposure your startup needs.

Searching for friends in lower places

To find the perfect micro-influencer, scour social media. Determine which platforms your target personas frequent, then search for the keywords or hashtags relevant to you. For instance, a boutique hotel might sift through the entries for #Travel and #NY to identify relevant influencers.

In some cases, your ideal micro-influencers may already be following you. Look through your own fans and followers for potential candidates.

The makers of Kano, a do-it-yourself computer, raised more than 10 times their $100,000 milestone after tapping into the company’s existing contributors via Kickstarter. Of course, it certainly helped that Kickstarter co-founder Yancey Strickler and Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak were among the bunch, but you’ll never know which of your followers is an influencer until you look.

After making some connections, you should guide your new followers through the best ways to support you. Here are three action steps to successfully use microinfluencers:

1. Boost the signal.

A press release on your website makes about as much noise as clapping with one hand. Embedding pictures and linking to videos can help, but you’ll get the most mileage from messages from your microinfluencers. Ask them to amplify your latest release because the information will mean a lot more coming from them than from you.

2. Recruit new talent.

Money is essential, but recruiting the right talent is divine. Connect with influencers in your area, and ask them to let their followers know that you’re hiring. You’ll get talented applicants who are already interested in your industry.

3. Set the course.

Micro-influencers can be a bit rudderless at times, but your guidance can set them on the right path. Make sure your influencers know the top talking points and share the hashtags your target audience tends to view, to get more engagement from your influencers’ tribes.

While micro-influencers may not have world-renowned names, they do have loyal, relevant followings that will take action for a price that can’t be beat. Don’t waste your money on A-list celebrities — you can save a few bucks and get much stronger results by targeting the right micro-influencers.

 

Talking Influencers in Cannes: What’s Next in Influencer Marketing

We’re settled back in Austin after a few days of Azure coasts, bleached sands and the constant roar of a dozen languages that epitomizes Cannes where Mattr was named one of Unilever’s Foundry 50. Dubbed as a “festival within a festival” within Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity, Foundry 50 is an initiative led by Unilever to find leading marketing technology startups to help brands better connect, engage and relate with people.

The Cannes Foundry 50 kicks off with an engaging session themed around Brand, Agency and Start-Up partnerships.

I had the opportunity to present our vision on technology and how it’s shaping the world of marketing and advertising. And as we heard from attendees and other startups, it’s clear that the two most pervasive marketing challenges continue to pop up: (1) Getting a brand’s content seen and (2) Getting that content to the people who you care about.

Consumers want the next new thing.

Years ago, we peered into the very clear crystal ball to see the rapid decline of digital advertising. Andrew Chen’s law of sh**** click-throughs is immutable and moving upslope with millennials, who refuse to click on any kind of ad, no matter how perfectly retargeted.

Then the sands shifted towards content consumption and creation, which has exploded with the meteoric rise of social media. To better understand a brand’s target audience online, it would be too slow and insufficient to deploy surveys and traditional market research.

With the Mattr platform, brands can see instantaneous results, which are driven dynamically from content – from Twitter, YouTube, Instagram, Vine, and Tumblr. 100% passive, historical to real-time.

Last year, brands and creative agencies were unceasingly tasked with identifying and engaging with those who do content creation best: social media influencers.

But now the challenge lies in recruitment, contract writing, activation, monitoring and engaging with these influencers, which, even for the largest PR and advertising agencies, can be arduous and very time-consuming.

Simplifying the influencer marketing landscape.

We at Mattr think that influencer marketing should be as easy as renting an apartment in Paris through Airbnb. Can you imagine trying to rent a studio in Paris for two nights, then one in Florence for three, before there was Airbnb? The work behind recruiting, contracting with, and monitoring influencers is just as fragmented and inefficient.

Starting this summer, Mattr is rolling out a Virtual Agent feature, which allows brands to select and activate one and up to 100 influencers with just a few clicks. Mattr handles everything turn-key.

Mattr’s new Virtual Agent feature will make influencer marketing as easy as finding an apartment on Airbnb.

This new feature is reeling in a huge amount of interest not only from our audience at Foundry50, but with prospective clients in the travel industry as well.

Calling All Travel Brands!

If you’re a travel brand that’s as excited as we are about new possibilities in influencer marketing, we’d like to hear from you to be one of our official beta brand clients. Email us at [email protected] and we’ll respond with details about how Mattr’s Virtual Agent can connect you with the right travel influencers on Instagram.

Jack