How to Communicate with Food Influencers
First of all, what is a Food Influencer?
Influencers are people who are so knowledgeable about social media that their large number of followers can reach millions of new people (by sharing influencer content on their own platforms). There are several types of influencers, such as: nano, micro, macro and celebrities. Influencers gain popularity on social media by posting quality content (photos/videos), and also through personal and authentic engagement with their community. They are true and trustworthy. In other words, they often only promote products that they are truly passionate about.
Why work with food influencers?
How many times have you seen a customer take a picture of their meal before they start eating? With food and beverage being one of the most popular categories on Instagram, it's now essential for businesses in this industry to have a strong digital presence. Just like all food and beverage businesses, restaurants need to use the leverage of influence by partnering with food influencers/bloggers. The goal is that these influencers will share their experiences on social media with their followers. It's word of mouth 2.0.
Here are some of the advantages of collaborating with food influencers
Reinforce brand awareness: By sharing their experience with your brand on social networks, in addition to creating quality content at a lower cost, influencers will offer visibility to your brand. They will also play a role of subscriber by encouraging and recommending their followers to try your food.
Grow your audience: It is crucial that you partner with food influencers who can identify with your brand, your values and whose audiences match your target audience, otherwise the benefits will be less virtuous. By having audiences that are similar to yours, the content that these influencers post about their experience will draw attention to you and ultimately grow your following.
Boost your sales
Working with food influencers on Instagram or other social media platforms can be a more cost-effective way to market than other traditional actions.
Increase social credibility
Hosting multiple food influencers will increase your reputation within the local area.
Understand your audience
Last but not least, the implementation of an influencer campaign is quite easily measurable. The engagement on the influencer's post is a relevant indicator but there are other indicators depending on the initial objective.
How to collaborate with food influencers?
Now that you have an idea of what food influencers are, your next step is to learn how to leverage the power of influencer marketing for restaurants; and then subsequently see your engagement skyrocket.
Some tips
- Do your research to find influencers that match your brand and your offerings in your local area. Then, start building relationships.
- Determine your goal(s).
- Establish a budget you want to allocate to these partnerships.
- Think about the type of collaboration you want to set up (you don't always have to start with "do this and I'll pay you that").
- Communicate with them about what you want and need. Then discuss how to go about making it happen and finding a mutual agreement.
- Work with them to determine the best time for the partnership.