The new wave of opinion leaders in health and fitness promotion
All hail the social media influencers!
By Nicola Finn, Associate Director, OggaDoon PR and Digital Marketing
Traditionally when we think of an opinion leader in health and fitness technology promotion it was always the journalist which first of all came to mind, but now social media influencers are very much an important part of that opinion leader mix.
Here at OggaDoon whilst working on creating strategic direction and delivery for our clients, we would like to share some of our learnings and thoughts on the important elements of the ‘full’ opinion leader mix.
Health and fitness tech — Keypress and publications
Following the strategic plan sign-off, the first step is to do the immediate press and publication research which looks for journalists, publications, and of course audiences that will have a keen interest in the storytelling hooks that we have developed with our clients.
With public relations (PR), we all try our best to get organic coverage as it is more authentic and SEO friendly. However, paid opportunities also need to be considered. Many B2B magazines sit within an event or association pay-to-play business model environment, so revenue is important to keep their operations going. Paid-for media certainly has its place in profile building, eyeballs on a brand in a big publication are a big tick in the brand-building box, however, its authenticity can be questioned, and one needs to also match brand positioning with the political positioning of a publication.
Influencer research and brand authenticity
An important part of the opinion leader mix, especially in this day and age is the social media influencer. The influencer landscape is so interesting and needs to be understood if you are a brand looking to include this in your strategy. Brand fit, reach and content engagement is key to creating an authentic collaboration, then the business models and contractual agreements need to be considered.
Gifting or pay-to-play
Influencers can be split into different categories based on their followers, for example, nano is between 1k to 10k followers, micro is between 10 to 100k, and macro 100k to 500k, then you enter the realms of the brand ambassador which is a different level of negotiation and fee level. Some influencers will collaborate based on special interests close to their heart, others on gifting, but more so on paid or pro bono agreements. It is all about negotiation, which does take time.
If you want a brand ambassador on board, which could be a well-known celebrity you will have to dig deeper into those budget pockets, even one tweet can command 70K of the marketing budget, especially if you are working in those agent fees.
As we mentioned, if an influencer is passionate about a product, service, or proposition then they may support your project with a like, a comment, or a share. However, if a brand is considering a gifted or paid-for collaboration more of a contractual relationship is required and it makes everyone’s lives easier if a simple collaboration contract is drawn up. At OggaDoon we have done this before and can help with this.
Researching the influencer stratosphere
When researching influencers across the relevant social channels, a good starting point is by looking at the hashtags, keywords, and topics the influencer has a following for, of course, the number of followers is important, together with a fit with your brand positioning in the world of product benefits together with brand values. The quality of content and engagement also needs to be considered when selecting and approaching your short list of influencers. Then it's on to the negotiation of the contract and deliverables. Will it be gifted, or paid and what will they share, for how long and will there be a discount code for followers? There are many different aspects to this and of course, if you want help with this OggaDoon is here.
To check out some examples of OggaDoon’s work in PR and influencer marketing, take a look at our case studies with health tech firm Forth and also the fit tech brand The Conqueror.
To discuss your PR and influencer projects please get in touch with nicola@oggadoon.co.uk.
