How does one become a social influencer? What are the opportunities? Is it accessible to anyone?

I had the opportunity to speak with an international student at EM Strasbourg who is deeply involved in the Influencer Marketing world : Giuseppe Giorlando

https://instagram.com/p/BbotBxcHBFR/?utm_source=ig_embed

Giuseppe, you have 121k subscribers on Instagram. That is quite impressive! Can you speak a little bit about you and your role as an influencer?

My name is Giuseppe, I am 23 years old and I come from Palermo, Italy. I am a university student, currently studying in my third year of my Marketing Master’s studies at Strasbourg Business School.

My work as an influencer includes featuring brands. Basically, I get contacted by brands that would like to work with me and I include their products in the content I produce and share with my community.

When did you start to consider yourself an influencer?

How did you start this adventure? Why?

It all really started as a game. In the beginning it was nothing but a hobby. I am a passionate photographer and I love to travel which is why I started to tell personal stories through photographs on my Instagram profile. People seemed to like what I posted. Step by step my follower base increased. In fact, I was surprised about how much my followers started to engage with me. The community grew every day. And one day, a wallet brand approached me, asking me if I could feature one of their products in a picture of mine. That is how I discovered the potential of running this like a “Business”     I then started to increase the quality of my contents and took care of my profile more and more. Through this work, I perfectly combine both my interest in Marketing and my passion for photography.

Why did you choose Instagram to share your content? 

I chose Instagram because I believe that the best way to convey emotions is through pictures. It is pictures that catch people’s attention. I also like Instagram because of its unique hashtag system which allows me to find large amounts of content on the topics I am interested in – only through one key word. In comparison with other social network, I also find it much easier to reach a suitable audience on Instagram. It is the perfect place to get noticed by people that share the same interests and passions.

Where do you find your inspiration?

Of course, I started all by myself, but as I developed further my profile, I also took inspiration from other big profiles that I follow.

I was impressed by some social influencers I follow myself and I tried to understand how they manage to create such a great connection with their followers. From them I got meaningful insights about product placement and with this knowledge and inspiration I developed ideas for my own content.

Is this part of your life connected to your career goals?

Since I am a business student, there is obviously some link to my (future) profession. What I do helps me to build a network with all kind of business people, from founders to Marketing managers of famous brands. My work has also given me the opportunity to take part in exclusive events where I got to meet many experts in the field of my studies. Since I study Marketing, I am, of course, interested in topics that are related to the creation and delivery of digital value. My work is deeply related to the rise of online Marketing techniques and I learn a lot about how to address consumers in the 21^st century through the experts that I talk to and my own community.

How do you obtain your partnership? How many brands do you work with?

Most of the time, a brand approaches me through Instagram or email, but if I am interested in featuring a specific product I do not hesitate to contact them as well.

Since the collaboration between brands and social influencers is becoming popular nowadays, an increasing number of platforms have been launched which connect influencers with brands. Through such networks, I find it easier to be reached by brands that I am interested in. Until now, I have collaborated with hundreds of companies, from really big brands such as Pernod Ricard, Foodora and Clipper to start ups or new fashion brands.

Do you have some obligation or contract with them?

Yes, of course, I have some obligations to respect, for example I have to meet the deadline or follow some guidelines that the brand provides. Most of the time, the collaboration is developed and maintained just through email with a mutual level of trust.  Sometime, however, real contracts are involved.

According to you, what are the advantages for the brands to work with you?

The brand can reach a huge amounts of potential customers through me  – with relatively low costs in comparison with traditional advertising techniques. Furthermore, they can target perfectly the audience they are interested in by carefully choosing influencers of a particular kind. In my case, brands often want to reach a young community, 18 to 35 years old people, who are passionate about travelling and fashion – university students in particular. Connecting a brand with a popular influencer profile can affect positively not only sales but also brand awareness and brand image.

Do you believe that influencer marketing remains just a trend or is there greater potential to this kind of marketing? 

In my opinion, influencer marketing is going to be the future of marketing and advertising. From my own experience, I can say that there has been growing interest in what I do. I truly believe, we will see a significant growth in influencer marketing efforts throughout the next years, as more and more companies explore the potential of it and dedicate a larger portion of their budget to it. One should not forget that the selection of the appropriate influencer can be time-consuming and costly in the end.

I personally dedicate much time to constantly improving the quality of my profile and I do my best to satisfy the specific needs and expectations of the companies I work for. In any case, I will be finishing my Business and Marketing studies next year. After that, I would like to support companies with their digital marketing strategies. My experiences and skills that I have obtained through my role as an influencer will be helpful, for sure. Until then, I want to be involved in many more projects as an influencer. It is an exciting experience with lots of opportunities to be creative and meet all kinds of interesting people.

We thank Giuseppe Giorlando for having shared his experience as a digital influencer with us. We hope you enjoyed this sneak peek into the life of someone who makes this strategy come to life. We believe influencer marketing is on the right track to become the future of communication.

As this was the last part of our series, we hope you enjoyed some insights to social influencer marketing, and that we have provided you with some ideas to guide you with your online marketing strategy. Perhaps you even got inspired and want to work as a social influencer yourself? If you have any questions you would like to ask to our expert Giuseppe, do not hesitate to ask them in the comment section. He will be happy to answer you.

If you want to find out more about Giuseppe and his profile, feel free to visit: www.instagram.com/giuseppe.giorl