Influencer marketing has taken off as a valid and viable marketing channel in the last few years. It’s not just useful for fast fashion brands though, it’s also a powerful tool to use in turning your space into a place.
When you’re working on a flexible office marketing campaign, it’s hugely important that you know who you’re targeting and how to reach them. In some cases, influencers are perfectly positioned to spread the word to the people who matter to you.
If you’re looking for a new way to attract ideal occupiers, why not make 2021 the year you utilise the snowball effect of influencer marketing to grow your place’s fanbase?
What are influencers?
Influencers are individuals that have a significant following or fanbase made up of people who are influenced by what they say or do. A couple of decades ago, celebrities were arguably the biggest influencers on the planet. Now though, influencers are much more likely to be social media stars on platforms like Instagram, Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn.
There are the varying degrees of influencer that range from those with millions of followers (including more traditional celebrities like Richard Branson, Oprah Winfrey, and the Obamas), to so-called micro-influencers with over 20k followers and a high rate of growth.
The influencer snowball effect
These micro-influencers hold the power of what we can call the snowball effect. This influencer marketing phenomenon allows fledgling businesses with small budgets to reach huge audiences with relatively little effort. Working with just a few micro-influencers can snowball into a colossal reach.
Need an example of just how powerful micro-influencers and the snowball effect can be? You only have to look as far as Arcadia Group, who failed to build social media and influencer marketing into their strategy for brands including Topshop, Dorothy Perkins, and Wallis. They paid the ultimate price as savvy online brands like PrettyLittleThing and Boohoo have crowded them out of the market they once dominated.
On the flip side, if you are an early adopter of social media and influencer marketing, it can transform your business and put you head and shoulders above your competition. To use a political example instead of a commercial one (the theory is the same!) – leading up to the 2008 election, Barack Obama was the first presidential candidate to embrace the power of social media to build his brand. He went from a relatively political unknown to the elected official by spreading grassroots efforts, pulling the rug from underneath the political establishment.
How to make influencer marketing work for your flexible office
Whilst fashion retailers and car manufacturers tend to work with influencers boasting millions of followers with the power to transform a brand overnight with a single post, influencer marketing for commercial property brands requires a more local approach.
If you can identify key influencers within a 5km radius to promote your property, then you can begin a bottom-up approach to spreading the word about your flexible office. Along with local micro-influencers that you can discover on social media networks, this might also include influential local businesses, your local chamber of commerce, and the BNI network. All of these influencers have the ability to drive new businesses to rent your office space.
The snowball effect then has the chance to kick in. If you can get one great local influencer to mention your product then other influencers in their network will see it and might share it with their network too. Their network will then share it with their own network and before you know it, your flexible office is the talking point at networking events all over the area.
Harness the power of your fans
Treat consumers or customers as your fan base and utilise them as your greatest influencers because it’s your fans that will decide your success or failure. You can focus on marketing and one-way communication as much as you want, but it’s all about sharing and social proof.
Many companies have already reaped the benefits of building a strong case of social proof through the use of social media and influencer marketing. Here are some examples of how they’re doing it:
Clarendon
Clarendon keep their customers engaged by interacting with them on social media in trivial but meaningful ways. For example, a customer might tweet about it being pizza day at their property and they’ll retweet it. They also post about the office managers and administrators to add relatability and let potential customers get to know the people who they may be interacting with if they decide to work there.
Like many other competitors, they use their Instagram Story highlights to showcase their various properties. These highlights include photos of the space itself, events held there, lunches, and customer photos.
Co Space
Co Space have created virtual tours – video walkthroughs showing off their properties – that they host on their social platforms. They also share relatable content that doesn’t always have a direct correlation to their business, but that they know their followers will be interested in, showing their understanding that social media is not always about trying to sell people on something.
They also encourage their customers to share a review on their Facebook page, which is a great way to cash-in on great customer relationships and entice new customers.
Platf9rm
Platf9rm put a lot of focus on their members with much of their content being about the work they’re doing. They’ve created a video series called ‘Get to Know’ where they do a quick interview with their members to find out more about what they do, perfect content for amplifying reach through organic shares.
They also share helpful resources about the area their offices are in and local things to do, providing more value for their members. They host a lot of events that they promote on social media including iMovie nights, food events hosted in the workspace kitchens, speaker panels, and more. All these events let the reader know they will be getting much more out of this workspace than just a place to work.
x+why
x+why use a very succinct and easy-to-understand bio on their social media channels, using emojis as bullet points. They also utilise a lot of hashtags that can help other users find their content and organise their post content in a digestible and engaging way by breaking up long text and using emojis.
But one of the best things they do on social media is featuring their members in their workspaces and the work they’re doing. This is a great way to get your customers involved and willing to share content that’s about them and your company at the same time. You can even encourage these shares by incentivising them with a potential shout-out post that promotes the work they’re doing.
Use social media and influencer marketing in flexible office marketing
These are all great examples of how your competitors are utilising social media and their local influencers to benefit from the snowball effect. Now it’s your turn. If you’d like to chat about how to engage local influencers and increase the reach of your marketing for your flexible offices, get in touch today.
starting to build links in your local community to rethinking your internal processes to prioritise the customer. But the biggest wins come when you tackle the whole placemaking concept as a single project.
Spaces to Places offers placemaking services and consultancy for coworking and flexible operators who are keen to get ahead of the competition. We have a holistic approach to placemaking, and can see projects through from analysing the potential of new sites you’re looking at, all the way to putting the final touches to your customer journey map.
Book a free call with us and we can talk you through the details of our service to see how placemaking can help you.