Leveraging Influencers in the Green Industry
By Jacy Glazier
During this year’s virtual TOCA Annual Meeting, attendees had the opportunity to learn more about influencer marketing – specifically in the green industry. The Influencer Marketing Panel covered topics that were engaging for agencies, companies and media members alike, and featured:
Chant Singvongsa, a serial entrepreneur, came to the United States from Laos when he was 5 years old. Chant grew up living in state housing and on welfare, and he always felt like he never fit in anywhere in life – until he started focusing on his dreams. Chant now owns four businesses: Singvongsa Landscaping, Singvongsa Photography, Imobile Solutions and Wishy Washy Laundromat LLC.
Find Chant on Instagram, Twitter, YouTube and Facebook.
Jason Creel is a leading consultant in the green industry and has helped many people start and grow successful lawn care businesses. Jason sold his first lawn care business in 2012, before creating and selling another lawn care company when his family relocated to a new city. Now, he is building his third lawn care business. Jason has inspired countless clients and audiences with his practical advice, creative ideas and enthusiasm for the industry.
Find Jason on Twitter, Website, Instagram and YouTube.
Stanley Genadek runs perhaps the most premier lawn, landscape and construction YouTube channel, as his “Dirt Monkey” page has more than 500,000 subscribers. On his channel, he showcases his business – Genadek Landscaping and Excavating Inc. in Minnesota – and pushes the products he uses to the limit, showing what they can do to help him and his team get the job done.
Find Stanley on YouTube, Facebook, Instagram and Website.
What does being an influencer mean to you?
The panel started with each influencer talking about their work and how they got started. No successful influencer set out to be an influencer – they began by doing something they loved and were good at, and in turn, people felt connected to them. While each influencer had a different perspective on this question, they all agreed on one common theme – authenticity and relatability.
Stanley: “If you don’t show your mistakes, you’re stealing from the audience. I learn more from my mistakes. The bigger the impact it has, the more I learn from it. We learn from our own and other people’s mistakes. I will be the first person to come out and show everything I do wrong – even if it makes me look like an idiot – because it shows I am a real person.”
Chant: “Being authentic, being original and transparent… I’m just being me and it’s very easy to connect when you’re being yourself. People are people and that’s how we connect.”
How do you balance being authentic while promoting brands?
Establishing and maintaining trust with your audience is essential – especially when promoting brands as an influencer. Brands need influencers to be authentic and a natural way for this to happen is for brands to work with influencers who are already using their products. We asked Jason, Chant and Stanley how they are able to do this and still keep brands happy.
Stanley: “I don’t promote crappy brands. You can work with me, but you can never pay me enough money to tell me what to say and not to say. I will test a product to its limit to show what it can do – not telling, showing. It’s more impactful for a product to be able to live up to the claims and expectations. Your audience will smell out the good, bad and in-between. If you’re not 100 percent behind it, you have to show that as well. Never, ever fake it.”
Jason: “The most natural fit is if it’s a product you were already using beforehand. If you’ve got a brand that approaches you and it’s something you already believe in – to me, that’s the way you keep it the most natural.”
Chant: “I’ve only got three brands I focus on and work with. Being able to use those brands and have those products already makes it easy for me to be a part of that. You can’t pay me enough to get behind a product I don’t use or is not a good product. It’s very simple; just be authentic.”
How should brands start their connection with an influencer?
As with any job, there are always key steps you can take to achieve the best results. We in the industry call these best practices. During the panel, TOCA members learned what some of these look like when approaching influencers about a partnership.
Jason: “Most of the time, I get contacted through e-mail, but ultimately, you have to have a conversation and see if it will be a fit for both parties. For me, I think brands should understand what my business looks like and what my experience is.”
Chant had a similar perspective and pointed out he is looking for long-term connections, requiring authentic relationship building between him and the brand. Members also learned about a lot of don’ts when it comes to working with an influencer or ambassador.
Chant: “Telling us what to do, like a script and not letting us be ourselves or use our voice; that’s the biggest turn off from working with a brand. It’s not that we won’t listen or be open to ideas. But when it starts to wander off to a script, it’s a turn off.”
Jason agreed with Chant and added that brands should be supportive and, most importantly, believe in the influencer they are working with. Stanley also jumped in to talk about the benefit of working with agencies over working directly with companies.
Stanley: “The first way is working directly with the company. The second way is through a marketing agency. An agency smooths out the bumps and puts the relationship on cruise control. They will be managing the expectations of the content creator and of the company they represent. It doesn’t mean you can’t do that directly with a company, but there might be more bumps and edges.”
How has your content planning evolved and how many good ideas do you steal from other influencers?
With so many people creating content and using social media to house it, it can be hard not to come up with similar content. However, there is a difference between stealing and borrowing. It comes down to giving credit where credit is due, but that doesn’t mean that every influencer is okay with this practice. It all depends on the content, your personal brand and knowing where to draw a line. Jason jumped in to point out that even if you do a similar video to something that has been done, it will likely still help out the original creator on platforms like YouTube.
Stanley: “I’ve had videos ready to go, edited. Then, I’ll see someone else post a similar video and I won’t post it. I’ve had people take my videos and do something similar; and, I think that’s amazing if they borrow it and make it their own. Content strategy is continually evolving. Right now, it’s doing less talking and more showing.”
Jason: “Sometimes when people do a video similar to one someone has done, it helps the other person’s video, too, because it gives it as a suggested watch. It’s a balancing act.”
What percentage of time do you dedicate to work versus content creation?
Let’s be real; content creation is no walk in the park. Imagine doing any day-to-day task, recording that task, editing the video and posting it to multiple social media channels. To be consistently putting out engaging content, you’re looking at another full-time job.
Stanley: “People wonder how you can do all this social media and also still run a business. It boils down to building a business that can survive and make money without me there. Because social media and content is essentially another business, if your business is self-sustaining, it opens up time for other opportunities.”
Chant: “It’s another part of a business. I have to schedule it in and make time for it because it’s another source of income. I know it’s only going to get bigger and keep growing, so I have a team that helps.”
Jason: “I’m probably 10 percent social to 90 percent work right now. I struggle with being a little bit of a micromanager, so right now, I am working on getting a team to free me up and shift my ratio.”
How do you feel what you do plays alongside industry publications? Are they peers or competitors?
Although most of this panel targeted agencies and companies, that doesn’t mean there isn’t an opportunity for green industry publications to work alongside influencers.
Stanley: “I feel so adamant about this question; they are absolutely our peers. A rising tide raises all ships. Our audiences should know about each other and we can work together. We don’t have to agree on things, but we should work together. What are we competing against – a view? More than likely, they will click on both at some point. We’re talking about something that is buildable, shareable and we can work together.”
Chant: “There’s no competition at all. It’s a win-win for everybody in the end; nothing is a secret anymore. Everything is on the internet.”
Jason: “I love reading those publications, so I don’t look at it as competition. They’re different. Publications are more polished than I am and I think audiences consume both because they are different angles.”
What about negotiations and compensation?
Attendees also learned about what goes into negotiations. How do brands and influencers determine a fair amount of compensation? Part of this starts with expectations – how many deliverables and posts is the brand looking for? What platforms does this include? Who is the audience we are trying to reach? What does success look like for the particular company?
Stanley: “Let’s talk about all the variables that can impact the price, such as deliverables and expectations. Also, who are you working with – are they experienced, how long have they been doing it, who are they? On my own channel, I like to approach it as a business. I like to outline a clear set of deliverables, expectations, platforms, post amount, reach, etc.”
Chant: “Numbers matter and reach matters. My views on YouTube aren’t as big as Stan’s, but it reaches the right people. I don’t get discouraged by any means, because what I’m doing must be working.”
Jason: “When I talk to people who watch me on the channel, it’s people who are fairly new to the business. You’re going to have a little better chance at converting them to use the brands you are using than someone who is seasoned and is not changing their brands for anyone.”
What is the one thing you want people to take away from this panel?
Lastly, the panel ended with asking all three panelists what they really wanted people to leave the conversation with.
Chant: “I had a meeting with a guy last year, and he told me, build the relationship and the rest will come. The relationship and friendship have to be there. It’s one of the main things I look for when working with a brand and the other stuff comes later – long term – not short term.”
Jason: “As influencers, we want partnerships, but to me, if I were talking to a brand or marketer with a large budget, I would say dedicate a small amount to (influencer marketing) and give it a try.”
Stanley: “Every content creator is going to be different. Right now, we are at the pioneering stage of influencer marketing. There’s really no one formula that’s going to work. When a company comes in, don’t try to control the messaging. Let the creator come up with the strategy and then see if it fits your brand.”
All in all, TOCA attendees learned a lot from this panel and it was engaging for both listeners and panelists. Hopefully, next year, we will see more and more brands, publications, agencies and influencers in the green industry working together to tell great stories and promote great products.