It’s a great time to be famous. Social media is everywhere, everyone has a smartphone, and one look at a certain Kardashian’s popularity will tell you everything you need to know about being famous for famous’ sake.
It’s this abundance of social media and effective personal branding hacks that’s given birth to one of the most popular trends of our time – influencer marketing.
What does that mean, though? What is an influencer, and how do you become a popular one? How do you keep a track of personal branding strategies and trends, while simultaneously creating your brand value online? Earlier, being an influencer used to mean that you were at the top of your field – whether that was as a Hollywood celebrity, a noted journalist, or even just a really popular chef.
Now? Things have changed. Potentially anyone could be an influencer, but that doesn’t mean being one is easy. Let’s break it down:
First, you need to figure out what your interests are, and post about those. You need to post regular insights so that you make sure your fans are engaged and interested. You have to communicate with your fans – comment and reply. You also need to be relatable and authentic, choosing brands that reflect who you are. Finally, you should be able to post across multiple social media channels simultaneously.
All of this seems like a lot of work, and it is. There are tons of ways to automate your social feeds and interactions, but it is still a great big chunk of time. Influencers spend hours on fan engagement alone.
Simply opening up and reading messages and comments, not to mention replying to them all, can take a up a big part of your day. But, as we’ve seen above, it’s crucial to your marketing success as an influencer.
How can you spend time crafting perfect content, making sure you post it on just the right channels at just the right time in just the right way, and engage with your fans? Seems almost impossible, right? Not really.
Chat bots: The ultimate personal branding and self-marketing tool
Chat bots are your savior here. What even is a chatbot, you ask? What you need to know is that a chat bot can do all your dirty work for you. A bot is the newest, hottest bit of technology right now, and it’s a great way to connect with fans and brands alike. You’re probably wondering how, so let’s take a look at what a chat bot can do for you and your personal image branding.
A chat bot is a digital version of you that talks like you and mimics your personality. What better way to spread your opinions about anything than to have a friendly little bot do it for you? Imagine that you could teach your bot to talk about your take on the recent elections or give reviews on the latest waterproof lipsticks.
“Did you vote for Trump?” “Do you think he’ll make a good president?” “What lipstick do I wear to a rain dance party?”
Now, what if you were asked that about fifty times a day – and DIDN’T have to answer? A chat bot allows you to talk about things as often as you want – without actually talking!
Imagine that you’re a musician. You could use your very own chatbot to tell your fans how many hours a day you practice, what guitar strings you use, or even what software you prefer. Showcasing insider knowledge through a conversational interface can help solidify your personal branding goals in more ways than one, especially when there’s literally no hard work involved!
What if you fall sick and can’t post for a whole week? Would you rather lie in bed recovering, all the while worried that your fans are getting irritated and losing interest, or lie in bed relaxed, knowing that someone’s taking care of your personal branding efforts and engaging with fans online?
Chatbots give your fans the sense that they’re interacting with you, without you having to lift a finger. So, say you usually post on Wednesdays, but your fans like to login on Fridays. They can still have a quick conversation with your chat bot, see what you’ve been up to – everyone’s a winner!
Picture this: you’re an artist, and you’re creatively stuck. You have no new work to show, but your fans want to know what you’re up to. Use a chat bot to tell them where you get your inspiration maybe?
Fans connect with influencers they think are authentic. Brands love this too – it means they’re targeting their exact audience – the people who have the same tastes as you. One of the main ways to show people what you stand for is not really what you promote on your posts, but who you are as a person.
Your values and tastes are what influence the brands you choose and the ideas you promote. People love getting to know the person behind the celebrity – just look at any celeb interview! “What do you like to eat?” “What do you do on weekends?” “What’s your favorite holiday destination?” Things like this give people an insight into your personality, and ultimately, that’s what makes your stand out.
It isn’t easy to have intimate one-on-one conversations with everyone, but with a chat bot, it’s as easy as texting a friend. Conversational bots allow you to be truly yourself, but share that with the world in a way that doesn’t feel forced.
Say you’re an actor and you love running to stay fit. Tell the world what your favorite time of day is, the shoes you can’t live without and about the snacks you eat afterwards. Or tell them what your guilty-pleasure chick-flick is! The possibilities!
Speaking of one-on-one conversations – who has the time to respond to each and every fan message? Having a chat bot makes that entire process simple – answer a question once and you’ll never have to do it again.
Most fans tend to ask similar questions, and it can get tiring to repeat yourself. Let technology be your best friend here! A chat bot can talk to your fans from across the world, as often as they want, whenever they want. No more annoying pings in the middle of the night from a fan across the world! No more struggling to come up with quirky fan engagement ideas.
As a YouTuber, maybe you want to tell your fans that their positive comments on your videos make your day. Or you want them to ask you about your brand new camera. Wouldn’t it be cool if you had a chat bot managing all of this?
The problem with having so much choice is that it can sometimes be overwhelming especially when you have overwhelming personal branding goals. Songs on Spotify, videos on YouTube, photos on Instagram – if you can’t keep up then how is a fan suppose to?
Are you a blogger who posts on your blog in addition to all your other social media channels? What if you lose a fan because you chose the wrong social media? Chat bots are the solution to that problem too – post something on your feed, and let your bot share it with all your fans for you. Anyone, anywhere can see all that you’ve been up to on all your social media by just going to one place – your bot.
Here at Bottr, a chat bot platform, we’ve already seen all of this and more in action. We’ve brought some amazing influencers on board – we have an actor, a YouTube star, and even a parody account. We’ve seen them come back day after day to feed more info into their chat bots, and we’ve seen their fans go absolutely wild.
We’ve also seen how popular celebrity bots are on existing chat bot platforms like Messenger and Kik. You’ve got SelenaBot, who gives her fans updates about her tour dates, tells them her favorite song and sends them autographed photos.
Then you’ve got a KanyeBot that responds just like the real Kanye – he talks about his life, his music and his wife. You’ve even got an Elon Musk Bot, who’s a sarcastic badass, just like the real version. He even gives you advice!
We’ve seen a huge spike in fan engagement already – fans love the idea of talking to celebrities one on one, and influencers are having such fun with it!
We believe it’s a great way to connect with people – whether those people are fans or brand representatives, and we believe that you shouldn’t have to waste time on things that can be done for you.
Chat Bots are clearly the future of personal branding models, strategies, practices, just name it-- it’s time to jump on board and create your own.
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