Kate Strachnyi, Founder of DATAcated, shares her thoughts on influencer marketing:
Q: What are the key factors to consider when selecting influencers for marketing campaigns?
A: Pick the 'right' content creators for the job. Avoid selecting people simply because of their following size. Sometimes there are 'influencers' with over 500,000 followers that get 5 likes on a post, or get comments but are not relevant to the content. It's important to scroll through the creators feed and observe the engagement rates, as well as content style.
Q: How can data companies measure the effectiveness of influencer collaborations in achieving their marketing objectives?
A: If your goal is lead gen, use a UTM link to track how many leads the influencer brought in. If the goal is brand awareness, look at the impressions and engagement rates from the posts. This will give you a glimpse into how many eyeballs you'll get on your content.
Q: What strategies can data companies use to build long-term relationships with influencers in the data science and AI community?
A: Paying influencers fairly is probably one of the best motivators - especially for those doing content creation full time. Outside of monetary compensation, show your enthusiasm for their content, give compliments on the graphics or engagements. Tell the influencers you liked working with them. We are all people and want to be appreciated.
Q: Can you share some examples of successful influencer marketing campaigns in the data and AI industry, and what made them stand out?
A: Doing something out of the ordinary / thinking outside of the box can help cut through the noise. A few examples of my personal content that stood out was doing a cooking show to talk about data governance, a coffee show for data quality, building a sand castle to demonstrate data infrastructure, and using LEGO to discuss knowledge graphs.
Q: How do you see the role of influencer marketing evolving in the data and AI industry in the coming years?
A: More people are calling themselves 'influencers' so you have to truly cut through the noise. The role will likely evolve in a way that leads companies to gravitate towards influencers that are more authentic and are staying away from too much AI use (e.g. avoid AI-generated content).