The influence of #hashtag "Influencers"

[MEL_Traveller]

Yes, but this in reference to the person that's contacted the hotel for a freebie and given out their social accounts already.

But the rejected 'influencer' can leave a review under any name, at any time. It doesn't have to be their own account. Or their own email, or anything else. You could create an account solely for the purpose of leaving a negative review, and not all 'one-time' posting accounts are automatically discarded by readers. Sometimes someone has such a positive or negative experience that a single post can have impact. It's extremely hard to track these things.

That's one of the problems with fake reviews.

 

[Happy Dude]

If they even attempted this after ha IMG their proposal declined, it would only take that email to go up on Twitter and the "influencer" would get shamed into oblivion, much like what happened with that hotel in Ireland (link further up thread)

That influencer didn't seem to have any shame. Or dignity. Exhibit A for the case of Baby Boomers v Millennials.

 

[harvyk]

The simple thing is, if you have to introduce yourself as an influencer, you're not an influencer.
It's on the same level as if you go around telling people how 'cool' you are.

 

[MEL_Traveller]

The simple thing is, if you have to introduce yourself as an influencer, you're not an influencer.
It's on the same level as if you go around telling people how 'cool' you are.

Not necessarily! While it is true you have probably 'made it' once you are recognised and people seek you out, it could well be the case that a person has influence but the owner of a business just hasn't heard of you. Someone could be an influencer in a particular market that you never thought of before, and having them introduce themselves is just like any other consultant in any other business. Many services need to advertise.

 

[Deleted member]

I like the term “influencer” it reminds me of marketing speak.
I believe it should be avoided at all costs.

 

[burmans]

I'm glad the conversation has turned from social media influencers to "influencer" in general because I must admit I was a bit bemused by some of the initial comments. By this I mean that there have been "influencers" in our society for quite a while now, this would be very clear to anyone in the media business, politics, marketing, advertising to name but a view, social media is just a new channel for that activity.

And within this group there have always been some who are better than their jobs than others, that's pretty much a given. Some will give it a go and fail miserably but I'm not sure that's a reason they shouldn't try. To give a parallel, most if not all advertising fails to hit the mark with me, it just isn't effective and frankly a bit annoying. And yet the advertising business continues, it's obviously successful in some cases and I have learnt to live with it. I don't see social media influencers as basically any different.

 

[ALH]

The simple thing is, if you have to introduce yourself as an influencer, you're not an influencer.
It's on the same level as if you go around telling people how 'cool' you are.

….or how wealthy you are

I like the term “influencer” it reminds me of marketing speak.
I believe it should be avoided at all costs.

You must remember the hand towel dispenser In the loo at James Cook University. Labelled:

MARKETING DEGREES
Please take one!

 

[leadman]

Absolute coincidentally I received this e:mail from my LinkedIn account;

"Hi xx_xx_,

It’s great to connect with you on LinkedIn.
Just a quick one, we recently released a book on how to generate more business from your LinkedIn profile. Thought it could help.
Here is a link to download a free copy in case you'd be interested:

hpps/xx_xx_xx_xx_X

Kind Regards,

xx_xx_ xx_xx_X
Influencer Project."

All about selling a book and method by using LinkedIn as your sales vehicle. His reply to my question ("influenced" by this thread of course);

"What is an influencer? A paid advertorial?"

was,

"Nope... someone who is a leader in their field/industry."

Have not bought the book yet!

 

[Quickstatus]

Why would anyone who is tops in their field sell books.

Maybe s/he is tops in the field of selling books...

 

[jb747]

You must remember the hand towel dispenser In the loo at James Cook University. Labelled:

MARKETING DEGREES
Please take one!

Presumably had HR added to it now.

 

[harvyk]

Not necessarily! While it is true you have probably 'made it' once you are recognised and people seek you out, it could well be the case that a person has influence but the owner of a business just hasn't heard of you. Someone could be an influencer in a particular market that you never thought of before, and having them introduce themselves is just like any other consultant in any other business. Many services need to advertise.

A genuine influencer can convince someone to buy based on the power of their endorsement alone. Think for example all those celebrity "products" which are basically the same products made by other companies, but that one has a starlet's name signed all over it. In that instance that celebrity is an influcencer since there are people who will buy the product without ever looking at other options, purely because of the endorsement, nothing more.

What these bloggers are offering is nothing more than an advertising channel. Sure cooldude86 might have stayed somewhere, blogged about it and then I decide to stay there because I read about this place on his blog entry and decided I liked the look of the place. But I am not staying there based purely on cooldude86's recommendation alone. A true influencer would have people stay there simply because they stayed there.

I'm not saying that a blogger asking for something free in return for advertising on their blog isn't a legitimate form of commerce, but let's call it what it is, an advertising deal paid for in services rather than money, nothing more.

 

[jb747]

Modern marketing....give something a name that describes what it isn't. Influencer....probably has none.

 

[Denali]

This is Society Barbie. Society Barbie has 974K followers on Instagram, Society Barbie was quite an influencer until Barbie's owner declared that instagram ".... wasn't real life".

 

[SOPOOR]

An influencer who wants freebies will tend to have followers who also want freebies.

Millennial snowboarders then to not stay in places like this iconic on snow hotel

Call me an old fart but the majority of these people are talentless, qualificationless people who just want their 15 mins of fame and/or easy riches.

How we've maybe I'm not their target market

 

[tofidog]

Unfortunately they can. Many ways to achieve this

Sad but true.

 

[Archphoto]

Oh dear, I suppose you still have a car with a carburettor and a manual choke?

I do, but the car they're attached to isn't a Morris Minor either.

 

[blaz]

Yes, ridiculous. But the point is that not all travellers are savvy, and may be influenced by a glowing review , especially if they were treated as a "special" guest. An experienced traveller knows that every hotel has at least a few ordinary rooms, and a few extraordinary ones, and everything in between...the trick is to look for consistency not the exception. A really good hotel knows this, but if they feel that the reviews will hit the right market, then $3,000(in foregone revenue..not cost) may be seen as a prudent investment.

 

[Quickstatus]

I came to AFF for various reasons:

To gain insight into the Dark Arts of Points harvesting and redemption
To find noninfluenced trip reports and travel insights
Accidentally also discovered that I enjoyed the prose of the varied membership. Yes Prose!

 

[romney]

For reference, I have a travel blog, and I would love to make money from it someday (just starting the process of changing it from a "friends and family" blog to a more business-like one!) but I am not yet even close to being an influencer, and definitely no expert on this. I have been learning about the travel blogger industry, and in general, I think even most travel bloggers would look down on this offer. It's people like this that make it hard for other bloggers who can offer value.

Firstly, asking for any more than two nights of comped accommodation is seen as being a bit greedy. Any good blogger should be able to make an assessment of the property/service in that time. If you want to stay longer, pay for it. Most people will also not ask for meals to be included, but sometimes they are offered by the property as another way to promote it. I also tend to agree the reach of 500k only on instagram is, well, not ideal for this sort of offer. By the time the stay is over these posts will have faded into history. A good travel blogger will have a website and a SEO-optimised post that will (hopefully) show up in Google searches for more than a few days.

That being said, for the top travel bloggers, an investment of this type would possibly be worth it for a luxury property if the blogger is in the luxury travel niche. It could also be appropriate compensation for the blogger's time and expenses. The blogger would write a full blog post with beautiful, edited photos, promote across multiple social media platforms and their email list of engaged and interested potential customers. The blogger would probably spend hours equalling 3-4 full days work, and also need to be compensated for not only the costs of running a website, but photography equipment and software, and all other costs a self-employed person has! The property needs to ask for more information from the blogger to make the assessment though, and many places do ask for a lot more statistics rather than just followers.

I myself have absolutely no desire to do sponsored stays. I really would feel obliged to say only good things about the property. No matter how hard I would try to be impartial, everything would be seen in a good light because it's not being paid for. Also, the staff would know you were there to promote the property and the service received would likely be above and beyond the norm.

Anyway, just another point of view...

 

[Quickstatus]

I think just like a TV ad, any sponsored comment/blog should be self evident as an ad.

Some time ago a radio shock jock was pulled up for doing “cash for comment”. I think there are regulations in the commercial licensed radio space about such activities. The disclaimer has to be contemporaneously juxtaposed such that the sponsorship is clearly declared when the comment is made.

The blogsphere does not have these conditions/controls as that space is unregulated - for better or worse.

Don’t get me started on the TV infomercials which superficially appear to be a commentary but in fact is an ad.