Brand Advisor-Status
Sometimes short term experiences can equip you with the skills you require for the future. That's my biggest take- home lesson from working as a temporary Community Manager at Brand Advisor from late January till end of March 2020. Brand Advisor, a sister company to Beauty Bulletin, is an influencer management company under Brand Influence. The company uses micro-influencers to bridge the gap between consumers and brands.
I joined the Brand Advisor team to run a major campaign for their client -STATUS.
My first task was to come up with a hashtag for the campaign.STATUS had given us #DefineYourself. After thorough research, we discovered that the hashtag has already been used by Playboy. We came with #DefineYourStorySA as the hashtag for the campaign.
My second task was the type of messaging we want our influencers to send out. Our influencers were black males from urban backgrounds around South Africa. From sports to academics and entertainment, we gathered 250 influencers under one umbrella. We wanted them to incorporate STATUS into their daily lives for a period of four weeks. Every week, they would share how STATUS became part of their lives and what their next move would be. We encouraged them to keep their stories short, sharp, visual and cool.
The last assignment was to ensure consistency amongst our influencers, engagement amongst influencers and just all round positive energy around the project. To push for consistency, we drew up a four week plan, sent it to them and put out weekly reminders on the Brand Advisor social media platforms.
Birds of a feather flock together. We used that formula to push for engagement amongst the influencers. We created entertainment, academic, lifestyle and sports groups on an Excel sheet. Each time an influencer posted, the BrandAdvisor account would respond tagging influencers who had similar interests. In this way , influencers began to communicate and form relationships around STATUS.
To drive positive energy during the campaign, we had to entice them with STATUS prizes. Every week, we would send a reminder of what they stood to get from being the best influencers. Another way we kept the good vibes flowing was through using SA lingo. By blending in various languages and slang, everyone felt like they belonged.
Overall, the campaign showed me a youthful and exciting side of community management. It always brought me closer to the community I was managing than ever before.
