Best Dads to Follow on Instagram

Scrolling through Instagram it’s hard not to come across a mommy blogger; they seem to be everywhere these days. And while we love our mom bloggers and everything they do, we also can’t forget about the dad bloggers on Instagram.

Father’s Day can sometimes get overlooked in comparison to Mother’s Day. After all, around $10 billion less is spent each year on Father’s Day than on Mother’s Day.  However, the number is growing each year. According to nrf.com, Father’s Day spending will reach a record high of $14.3 billion this year. One reason for this could be the rising number of stay-at-home dads in the US which has doubled in the past 20 years to around 2 million dads, according to pewsocialtrends.org. Which means a lot more fathers are now doing the grocery shopping and housework, making dad influencers a new revenue opportunity for brands.

So this Father’s Day we wanted to highlight some of our favorite Dad Bloggers. Whether they are stay-at-home storytellers or constantly on adventures with the kids, here are some dads who make for great influencer partners!

 

1. dad_or_alive

Adrian Kulp is the man responsible for the hilarious dad blog, dadoralive which chronicles his life as a former television executive turned stay-at-home dad. This father of three shares DIY crafts, dinners, and travel with kids all with a whole lot of humor!

 

Average engagement per post: 30 likes (.8%)

 

2. Adventurous_dad_of_5

The ideal dad influencer for anything and everything to do with the outdoors. Steve is, like his name implies, one of the most adventurous dads on Instagram. This father of 5 will inspire you to take your family out to simply enjoy nature and all that surrounds us.

 

Average engagement per post: 500 likes (5%)

 

 

 

 

3. daytripsla

Another outdoorsy dad on the list, Ralph DeFelice and his two kids are an LA family with adventurous spirits who can be found doing anything from mountain climbing to camping under the stars together. Ralph also runs the blog daytripsla.com and has around 6,000 followers on Instagram, making him and his kids the perfect micro-influencers.

 

Average engagement per post: 300 likes (5%)

 

 

4.thatdadblog

With close to 94k followers on Instagram, this art director, website designer, and photographer shares with us the joys and challenges of being a father on his blog. Alan Lawrence and his adventurous family can also be found on thatdadblog.com

 

Average engagement per post: 3,000 likes (3%)

 

 

5. Jsperling

Yet another outdoor enthusiast, Jason Sperling is a dad and adventure blogger that advocates for connecting kids and nature. You can follow this Colorado native on his blog and be ready to be inspired to plan a family backpacking trip!

 

Average engagement per post: 370 likes (7%)

 

 

 

6. Dadandburied

If you’re looking for a dad blog that’s going to make you laugh, look no further. Dad and Buried (also known as Mike Julianelle) holds nothing back as he describes raising two sons. Filled with humor and sarcasm, this dad blogger speaks his mind and knows his audience, making him a great influencer.

 

Average engagement per post: 300 likes (1.4%)

 

 

7. Everdaygirldad

Here we have the ultimate girl dad, Mike Reynolds. Along with writing about raising two daughters, this Canadian blogger also tells short stories to encourage parents and kids to read together on his blog puzzlingposts. He has even started his own clothing line with shirts to empower young women and inspire all fathers to be proud feminists!

 

Average engagement per post: 50 likes (2%)

 

 

8.davidavidavid

This picture perfect family made up of David Clark, his wife Amber, and their two children, are often found traveling everywhere from Japan to Ireland, or even just exploring their own picturesque home of Hawaii. David’s beautiful content and scenic photography have earned him over 150,000 followers on Instagram and have even led him to partnering with some major brands!

 

Average engagement per post: 12,000 likes (8%)

 

 

 

 

So whether you’re looking into influencer marketing for Father’s Day gifts, the latest in summer grilling, or back to school shopping, don’t forget the power these dads have to benefit your brand! And, if nothing else, follow along with them to get some entertaining and helpful hints on parenting from a dad’s point of view.

 

4 Ways to Authentically Engage Influencers for Your Summer Campaign

Summer is right around the corner, and with it we know your advertising and branding campaigns are heating up. Influencer campaigns have been one of the leading strategies for consumer marketing this year, and since social activity increases in the summer – by over 26% according to Facebook – it’s no time for your marketing efforts to take a vacation.

To help get your gears going on how you can authentically engage influencers during this peak social season, our team has put together four ways you can incorporate influencers into your campaigns this summer:

 

Grilling and Entertaining

Besides the holiday season, there’s no other time of year where life revolves more around food than summer. Summer brings about grilling and barbecues, picnics and parties, ice cream and ice cold beer. In other words, lots of opportunities to have an influencer feature your brand in their delicious recipes or gorgeous food spreads. As we look ahead to the summer season, our brand partners and influencers are taking full advantage of being able to inspire and reach audiences with food-focused content that authentically puts brands at the forefront. These opportunities aren’t limited to food and beverage brands – there’s grilling gear, patio products and retailers, serveware, and even electronic companies (what’s a barbecue without some fun tunes in the background?) getting in on the fun.

 

Vacations

 What’s one of the best parts of summer? . . . Vacation!! According to Travel Pulse, 45% of Americans take some sort of travel vacation in the summer and Enterprise reports that nearly 8 in 10 Americans will spend at least one weekend away. That is a lot of people to reach and influence for your brand, and partnering with travel influencers that consumers already look to for insider tips on the best places to go and what to do, is a great way to bring awareness to your hotel, airline, car rental service, restaurant, travel gear, travel tours, etc. Influencers can share photos, stories, videos and even reality videos of their experience with your brand. Just one word of caution – make sure to partner with influencers whose audiences align with your target market. As an example, are you a luxury hotel brand? Just because the influencer travels to high-end locals, doesn’t mean their audience has the means to do so as well. Before selecting an influencer, make sure to gather some insights on their audience’s buying habits and trends to be sure it’s the right fit.

 

Movies

You can blame it on blockbusters hitting the big screens, days being longer, or even the cool air-conditioned theaters providing an escape from the humidity and heat; but movie sales peak in May, June and July according to Investopedia. Even with overall movie sales being down, it’s still more than a 4 billion dollar business annually. But, even before ticket sales start coming in production companies have made a huge investment in their latest release, so utilizing marketing strategies that deliver a big ROI is crucial. Across all industries, influencer marketing averages a $6.50 return for every dollar invested according to Content Marketing Institute so it’s a pretty good strategy to hang your hat on as far as returns go. Influencers can not only talk about their favorite flicks that are coming out or give a review of the latest big screen they’ve gone to see, but they can incorporate stories that get more feet through the doors of the theater and into the seats watching your big films. We have mommy influencers talking about their family night activities, millennial women talking about girls night outs, couples sharing about date nights and even the rough and tough guys talking about going to see the latest action flick with their friends. Movies are one of America’s favorite past times, and influencers are a great way to inspire others to see your film.

 

Back to School

Even though we may never want summer to end, back to school is a reality of the season. The good news is that means lots of consumer spending, and every year that spending goes up and the shopping starts earlier. According to Deloitte, parents will spend $488 dollars on their children during back to school season. Deloitte also reports that digital technologies and social media will continue to shape the shopping journey, with 61 percent of consumers researching online before they make an in-store purchase. But, this comes as no surprise; parents are already looking to social influencers for parenting advice so it’s intuitive that they’d look to them for advice on where to shop and what to buy as well. Mid-level influencers are especially effective in the mommy world, because they have large reach – think 10K – 500K, but still have the bandwidth to have one to one conversations with their followers which makes for a very highly engaged audience that really takes the influencers’ advice and recommendations to heart. When thinking of back-to-school, don’t feel limited if you’re a brand that doesn’t fit into the school supplies category. This is also a big time for families getting back into routines, which could include dinners, lunches, cleaning, etc. Back to school also means getting ready for cold season for a lot of families, so they’re tending to stock up on cold/flu medicines, tissues, hand sanitizers and more. Families of college students are also thinking about dorm supplies, and maybe even first time apartment furnishings. If moms are your market, back to school is a key time to tap into the power of influencer marketing.

A few other important things to keep in mind . . . Timing is critical – on social media getting ahead of the trends or season is a must so that consumers feel inspired to incorporate your products and brands into their upcoming plans before the moment has passed. Don’t forget to include custom hashtags that tie the content back to your brand as well as applicable trending hashtags to reach a larger audience. And, finally even with a good theme and the best hashtags it’s really important to find the right influencers for your campaign. We’ve shared recommendations on how to do that here.

If you’d like more information, inspiration or help with your influencer campaigns, let us know. At Mattr we partner with brands and agencies to recommend and activate full-service campaigns with the right mid and micro level influencers on a cost-per-engagement pricing model.

Here’s to a happy and fun-filled summer with lots of likes, shares and impressions for your brand!

3 Millennial Moms You’ll Love for Summer Campaigns

Our babies are growing up (and having babies)! Millennial Moms are hotter than Hamilton tickets for influencer campaigns. And because they’re savvy about such things, there are a lot of them out there. Better choose wisely.

Finding the “right” influencers is the most demanding task in a campaign. And now, with influencer marketing taking off faster than Chris Pratt shed weight for Guardians of the Galaxy, the choices can quickly cause you to give in and have that glass of wine now. So what makes the “right” influencer? Take a peek at these amazing millennial moms–but first, read what makes them so impactful. It may just ensure you hit that home run!

Gotta be Authentic

You hire an influencer then, in a week, a colleague texts you a post of the same influencer promoting a competitor. Your heart flutters, and not in a good way. So you want a non-compete. If your product relies on brand loyalty, you may be surprised at how expensive it is to get a non-compete from an influencer. And if you’ve blind-picked-and-clicked through an influencer marketplace it would be impossible to monitor even if you were promised a non-compete.

So you need to find that perfect set of influencers who’ll happily provide you with a non-compete, but for little or no extra fee, yet still have good reach, and you can easily monitor, right? “Mid-level” influencers can hit this sweet spot; they can be fiercely loyal to exceptional brands. And since many are professional or semi-pros, they’re invested in delighting you and want you to hire them again. But you need more than authenticity. You need your campaign content to be something you’re proud enough of to call your own.

Quality over Quantity

Let’s add another wrinkle into the ask: You want beautiful content. And oh yeah – the posts need to be FTC compliant for your industry and country. Luckily, gorgeous images are available from that device we used to talk into. But the really exceptional content creators are skilled at composing the shot. Last, you should insist on reviewing that post before it goes out for quality, compliance, and content. And remember this: Give guidance; not a script!

Again, mid-levels hit the sweet-spot for quality and compliant content. Super micro-influencers can be hit or miss, especially if they’re only making $10-25 on the post or being paid with your product. Mid-levels have excellent photography/videography skills and, because they authentically love your product, they’ll represent it like your CMO would. But not so fast–there is one last bit of criteria, which could mean the success or failure of the campaign–even with authentic and quality content.

The “Right” Audience

What you really want is a consumer who loved the influencer’s post who’ll actually buy your product. Achieving alignment between the audience and your brand is especially effective at weeding out the aspirational consumers. So dig into the audience demographics and psychographics – their interests and buying attitudes. By ensuring your influencers’ audiences look like your ideal consumer, you’ll increase the impact of the campaign and reduce the risks of vapid or inappropriate comments.

Mia’s audience is very responsive to her sponsored posts, which is quite unusual. They’re  big into healthy living, babies, and fast fashion. And her photography is beautiful! Find her here on Instagram or get more info here.

Tiff’s audience is big into organic – no fast food for them! They love active summer holidays and pets. Find her here on Instagram or get more info on Tiff here.

Sina has amazing engagement and gorgeous photography. Her audience chooses expensive home and food and hits a couple custom segments we developed, too! Find her here on Instagram or get more info on Sina here.

There you have it. If you remember: Authenticity, Quality, Audience – your influencer campaigns will be on budget for engagement and you’ll get that share of voice bump over your competitors you promised.

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About MATTR

MATTR is the only full-service influencer marketing provider with detailed audience insights from PersonaMesh™. We go beyond demographics into psychographics such as values and interests so that your influencer campaigns align with your campaign targets.

 

Jack Holt

CEO of Mattr. Named A World Top 50 Marketing Company