Content as a relationship-building tool
Beyond sharing a brand’s content, market influencers will genuinely relate and get involved
We live in the so-called “age of collaboration,” where relationships with influencers of all status and interests is on a high. Everyone is searching for the “right way” to engage creators and entice them to organically speak highly of their brand.
Sending content to be shared by a particular influencer just isn’t enough anymore. Today, the influencer wants to have an authentic connection to the content, so there is real motivation to cascade that information. Bringing an influencer into your brand world means giving the influencer a personality, and not simply a task to disseminate. When that person becomes the content, and not just play the role of sharing it, there is a strong connection built to the brand that ultimately adds value to the message.
This is what we did by working with Mercado Livre to create visibility for a portfolio of available books on its platform. We interviewed several influencers about books that have meaning to their journeys and we published each of those conversations on Mercado Livre Ideias blog, alongside an exclusive illustration by artist, Patricia Leda, creator of the Instagram profile @sublinhando.
The initiative went further than publishing the interviews – something that engaged influencers from the beginning. They received a framed illustration at their home, as a gift from the company, for sharing their meaningful stories about what impacted their own lives. The result was a spontaneous and viral sharing effect of the brand’s content, along with strong relationships with the creators and a remarkable connection between Mercado Livre and the editorial environment / world / marketplace.
An interesting point of fact is that regulators/business leaders, opinion leaders, and brands flow in and out of social media, in a flurry of actions and speaking their minds. However, it seems that when there’s something more serious, they naturally revert back to traditional media channels. Trump goes on to TV to talk about the shutdown; Vale organizes daily press briefings to explain the unexplainable; brands will often use newspapers and magazines to make important announcements. This makes me think that perhaps, after the storm, journalism will eventually find its way back.
