The Rise of the Crypto Influencers
How to understand the world of influencers and utilize them for your blockchain projects
One thing has always been true in the world of public relations, the consumer still trusts the voice of the people before the brand. Six-figure marketing campaigns, billboards, television spots, and press interviews are great. However, nothing holds more weight to an individual in public than word of mouth recommendations. It has been this way even as far back as when 1862 when the United States federal government began circulating paper money. It took word of mouth by your neighbors, local celebrities, and politicians to create mass adoption.
Today, our small towns have been traded for subreddits, town halls for live streams, and local heroes for influencers, making it all more important for your team to understand how influencers can work for your project and where you can find them in the cryptocurrency space. According to data from cryptoinfluence.io, Crypto Influencers on YouTube are currently seeing ridiculously high engagement rates, on average of 40%, but some as high as 90%. There will never be a better time to build relationships with these influencers than right now, while they are speaking so directly to their core audiences.
Philip Trippenbach, head of influencer at Edelman, said he has “never seen evidence” of influencer marketing delivering a good ROI when used to promote specific products, a tactic that is very popular for larger corporate brands to do through celebrity Instagrams. Instead, Trippenbach makes the distinction between selling a product and promoting a brand saying, “I would never recommend a brand get an influencer to say, ‘hey this product is cool — buy this product’, but what I would say is engage an influencer to say, ‘this brand is cool, check out what this brand has enabled me to do’.” This is precisely what ICOs and blockchain enterprises need right now: trust and endorsement of their brand.
When is the right time to partner with influencers
There are two issues to think about when we talk about bringing in influencers to your crypto project. The first is understanding what type of influencer you need as a partner. It seems natural to search for the person with the most substantial following, the most national celebrity, or someone who has exceptionally high engagement rates, but KPIs be damned! What you need to worry about is avoiding Plastic Celebrity. A plastic celebrity is someone who awkwardly poses or postures your products with no meaningful insights or endorsement. Just think about the last time you saw Shaquille O’Neal on a commercial for well, anything. Shaq showcases the peak benefits and issues with influencer partnerships and how at their highest level, they are more beneficial for the influencer than the brands themselves. This matters, because ultimately this is every influencers dream — that makes this Real Sports w/ Bryant Gumbel segment worth a watch.
However, the focus for early-stage companies needs to be on finding the value added not the value given. When picking influencers, it is more important to focus on micro-influencers (10,000–100,000 followers), rather than chasing national names. Working with smaller, key players that target your specific audience not only has the studied effects of higher engagement rates and more ROI for you as a brand, but it also has a more significant potential to cause word of mouth referrals. Large amounts of word of mouth endorsements are the most coveted of all press, and picking the right influencers can leverage that network instantaneously.
Making sure values align
A second issue to consider before partnering with any influencers is making sure your values align with theirs and vice versa. When your brand can enable what the influencer already specializes in, it creates a key overlap in brand and influencer values that becomes a nuanced relationship that seems symbiotic to their audience. A link that doesn’t go out of its way to connect feels necessary, and making your project feel essential to someone’s everyday life is precisely the unique benefit influencers can create for brands. This early on in your companies life-cycle, it is important to consider these issues when combing through potential influencers with to partner.
“Engage an influencer to say, ‘this brand is cool, check out what this brand has enabled me to do.” — Philip Trippenbach
Who is already doing this
A good brand manager or a good agency partner should be able to properly vet and build relationships with the right influencers for you and your brand. Many teams are already utilizing tactics, like strong referral networks and celebrity spokespersons. However, many smaller brands in the crypto space are still choosing to use direct B2C channels exclusive, rather than building a more extensive network of brand voice through influencers in the industry. Some coin operations, like IOTA and Ripple, are showcasing what a strong marketing and public relations strategy can do for the credibility and adoption of your ideas.
Influencers are currently working hard for themselves to build followings because of their personal beliefs in this space and their desires to be leading voices in crypto. They want relationships with ICO teams, blockchain experts, and CEOs. YouTuber’s like The Crypto Lark are showing up everywhere they can and actively urging organizations to come to talk to his audience, Naomi Brockwell is creating content that shows-off the non-technical and fun sides of crypto, The Bad Crypto Podcast is trying to educate through audio, and then there are people like Luke Martin (@VentureCoinist) and @missnatoshi who are leveraging more traditional influencer methods within the blockchain industry.
Whether it is a celebrity, like Ashton Kutcher with Ripple (XRP) or a YouTuber with a few thousand engaged viewers, influencers will begin appearing more and more frequently as the cryptocurrency world gains traction. Building your relationships with them on the ground floor is not only good for your brand and business, but for your own future in this industry, as you never which relationships you make are going to pay big dividends in the future.
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