How Puppies, Placements, and Influencers Will Make You Great at Content Marketing

For more than a decade now, we’ve seen the rise of user-generated content and influencers. Early creators have grown to become media entities on their own while everyday, passionate customers continue to be brought into the collective marketing fold by forward-thinking brands. We’re still at the very beginning of it all.
User-generated content outperforms traditional content on almost every front: authenticity, creativity, reach, and engagement. As a result, brands and marketers continue to tap into the potential of this content as their editorial calendars and platform coverage expands. Above all else, partnering with customers, fans, ambassadors and influencers gives every marketer a scale they cannot replicate elsewhere.
While seemingly any content indexes well on social, there are some clear winners worth taking note of. Consider this Top 6 list (based on Instagram tag volume):
- Fashion (397M)
- Food (229M)
- Travel (198M)
- Beauty (181M)
- Babies (111M)
- Pets (31M)
Naturally, any time you can combine these themes, you’ve got potential social media gold. Brands have experimented with this in the past and today that trend continues to accelerate. Business Insider reports:
There has been an uptick in the number of beauty and fashion brands inquiring to partner with pets in recent months, confirmed Loni Edwards, managing partner at The Dog Agency, an influencer agency that specializes in matching brands with pet influencers.
First, yes, there is an agency dedicated to pet influencers. Second, brands are making connections between their products and these influential pets. Third, and most importantly, this definitely can seem forced.
While most permutations of these topics are possible, it’s also equally, if not more possible to do it wrong. For brands looking to delve into these kinds of opportunities, it’s important to remember that what drives the interest in these creators is their authenticity. First look for inspiration, then alignment before attempting to collaborate.
When planning content, first know your audience specifically, then rely on these popular themes to help bring your message together. Be careful though, this must be a reasoned process, not a cut-and-paste template. Everyone knows when you’re trying too hard.
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Gregarious Narain is a serial entrepreneur and product strategist. A reformed designer and developer, he writes on his experiences as a founder, strategist, and father on the regular. Work with him at Before Alpha, connect on LinkedIn, follow on Facebook, or say hi on Twitter.

