MDMC Conference Panel: Influencer Marketing Panel
By: Jared Bryant
On September 22, 2022, the Midwest Digital Marketing Conference (MDMC) took place at UMSL at the Touhill Arts Center. There were five panels held, and I’ll be writing on the first panel, influencer marketing. There were a multitude of important topics discussed by six different individuals with serious experience in influencer marketing. My goal is to be able to accurately describe the parts I found most beneficial.
The first key take away I noticed was how and when to use an influencer. The first essential part of using an influencer is finding the correct influencer who aligns with the message you want to portray. You can do this by identifying your goal and finding an influencer who is already discussing your topic. This will help you find common ground with that influencer and open the possibility of building a relationship with them. Through this relationship, you will be able to begin influencing the market with that individual.
The next key take away I noticed in this conversation was how do we measure the success of a campaign in the influencer marketing field. The first way we measure is going back and looking at the benchmarks we set at the beginning of the campaign. This gives us an easy, yet efficient way of measuring our current success. The next way we can measure is by looking at offline traffic, which is essentially purchasing. Using offline traffic lets us know if the message we are portraying with an influencer is working. Offline traffic also uses impressions and engagements of the target audience to measure current and future success. The last tool we can use for measurement is third parties. Using third parties can show creator content to audiences and survey them, giving us a better feel for what creator content has on their brand.
The third key take away I found important was knowing the difference between a creator and an influencer. To most people, they don’t really need to know the difference. But when you are trying to market your brand, you have to know which individual is better in a certain situation. The first difference would have to be that influencers tend to have an audience, whereas creators create videos and promotional videos without an audience. The next important difference between the two would be that creators can create longer-lasting videos that grab an audiences’ attention for longer. Depending on the content you are trying to create, you should be considerate of what exactly you would want.
The last key take away from this panel session would be the individuals discussing the most unique influencer marketing program they’ve partaken in. I wouldn’t say there’s much material in the stories they were telling, but you could see the enjoyment in their faces. I thought opening up the panel session for them to discuss something like this was very important. I say this because the majority of the panel was informational, this part was just for fun. Personally, I think it showed how much fun we can have through influencer marketing. It provides us the opportunity to meet some great people and connect with the masses.
Overall, I enjoyed listening to this first panel session of the Midwest Digital Marketing Conference. Even though I was unable to make it live this year, I will be sure to go out of my way to be there next year. The topics discussed in all of the panels offer great insight into what it takes to be a phenomenal marketer. I plan to remember some of this information when I begin my marketing career, because it could be very beneficial.