Tiny But Mighty: How Micro-Influencers Are Driving Big Wins for Startups
- Stephanie Roulic
- 32 minutes ago
- 47 min read
Did you know that 82% of consumers are more likely to follow a micro-influencer’s recommendation than a big-name celebrity’s? For startups, that statistic represents a massive opportunity - a way to build trust, reach new audiences, and grow brand awareness without breaking the bank.
Recorded live at Startup Boston Week 2025, this panel brings together leaders from across the influencer ecosystem to unpack how startups can tap into the power of micro-influencers for real, measurable growth. From finding the right creators and crafting smart partnerships to measuring ROI beyond likes and shares, you’ll learn how to turn influencer marketing into a scalable, authentic channel for customer acquisition.
Featuring insights from:
Sierra Dowd - Founder, Principal Strategist, else&ever
Elijah Khasabo - Co-Founder and CEO, Vidovo
Sharon Robustelli - Founder, TEN3 Public Relations
Meredith Jacobson - Founder, Offscreen Resources
5 Takeaways
1. Authenticity Beats Reach, Every Time
Micro-influencers win because they’re real people with real relationships. Sharon Robustelli explained that smaller creators have higher engagement rates precisely because their followers trust them. They respond to DMs, they share honest opinions, and they’re seen as peers, not billboards. For startups, this means partnering with people who actually use and believe in your product will deliver far better ROI than paying a big name for one polished post.
2. Focus on Fit, Not Follower Count
Sierra Dowd emphasized that follower size is irrelevant if the audience isn’t aligned. She suggested looking at audience overlap instead - geography, interests, and shared values matter more than raw reach. “If your product is Boston-based and most of their followers are in LA,” she said, “you’re not just wasting budget, you’re missing your people.” Tools like Upfluence or Collabstr can help assess engagement quality and audience match before committing to a partnership.
3. Relationships Outperform One-Off Campaigns
Elijah Khasabo explained that the best influencer programs treat creators as partners, not vendors. Long-term collaborations lead to more natural content, better results, and stronger brand loyalty. He encouraged founders to invest time in relationship-building — following creators, commenting on their content, and engaging authentically before pitching. “Influencers can tell when you only see them as a transaction,” he said. “Partnerships work when there’s genuine alignment.”
4. Track Real Metrics, Not Just Likes
The panel agreed that vanity metrics are out. Instead, measure impact through referral codes, affiliate links, and engagement quality (saves, shares, comments). Meredith Jacobson noted that even qualitative feedback, screenshots of customer DMs or influencer-driven UGC - can be a strong signal of brand resonance. The best campaigns use influencers to learn about customers, not just to sell to them.
5. Build a Repurpose Strategy from Day One
Every influencer collaboration can produce months of content if you plan it right. Sierra Dowd and Meredith Jacobson encouraged startups to build repurposing into contracts — securing rights to reuse influencer content across ads, landing pages, and email campaigns. A single authentic video can power multiple touchpoints. As Dowd put it, “Don’t just buy a post — buy storytelling fuel.”
Key Quote Highlights
All five of these quotes are direct paraphrases or lightly cleaned for readability
“I actually don’t believe that a micro-influencer can be defined by a follower count or level of engagement. Every creator is on their own journey with their own business, and that’s what makes it powerful.” — Meredith Jacobson, Offscreen Resources
“You just have to hold yourself accountable to understanding why you’re activating influencers and what you’re hoping to achieve.” — Meredith Jacobson, Offscreen Resources
“It’s not always about a monetary value. You can start to look at [micro-influencers] as partners who grow with you, people who will still advocate for your brand long after the contract ends.” — Sharon Robustelli, TEN3 Public Relations
“They don’t want to hear from brands, they want to hear from other people. That’s what makes micro-influencers, especially those super-engaged with their audience, so powerful.” — Sierra Dowd, else&ever
“The average mom isn’t going to connect with Kim Kardashian. She’s going to connect with the average mom she sees on Facebook. It all comes down to community.” — Elijah Khasabo, Vidovo
Parting Thoughts, Video & Transcript
The discussion made one thing clear: micro-influencers aren’t just a marketing trend - they’re redefining how startups build trust, community, and momentum. By focusing on authenticity, long-term relationships, and storytelling over scale, early-stage brands can turn everyday creators into powerful growth engines. As Boston’s startup scene continues to blend creativity with innovation, these insights remind us that the biggest impact often comes from the smallest voices, the ones that connect, convert, and keep it real.
Full Transcript Below
Want to revisit a particular quote or share with a teammate? We’ve got you covered. Read the transcript here:
Meredith Jacobson
[ 00:01:16,850 ] Thank you, Grace. Thank you, Grace. You all hear me? Good. And thank you again, to echo what she's saying, to all of you for being here at 5:30 p. m. on a Friday. It means the world to us, and we'll hope to make it fun for you. My name is Meredith Jacobson. I've been working with influencers from the entire spectrum of the most nano you can imagine that don't even have a profile yet to high-level celebrity influencers since 2014.
Meredith Jacobson
[ 00:01:43,760 ] So I've seen it all. And actually from both sides of the table, too, and both being on the brand side and managing a creator. And one thing that I always talk about when I'm speaking with startups or small businesses who are looking to get into the space and thinking about micro influencers. The somewhat frustrating thing is that I actually don't believe that micro-influencer can be defined by a follower count or a level of engagement or how long someone has been creating content. I think that the most important thing to know is— with every influencer and creator, they're all at their own journey and doing their own thing with their own individual business. And so it's kind of what makes it so chaotic.
Meredith Jacobson
[ 00:02:26,030 ] On the flip side of it, like that, gives you, as a brand, an opportunity. Whereas, if you're a company that offers genuine value, you can start any day of the week with influencers, even small sometimes even big ones.
Meredith Jacobson
[ 00:02:39,910 ] Ultimately, when it comes to working with micro-influencers, you just have to hold yourself accountable to making sure that you're setting yourself up from a goal standpoint of understanding why you're activating the influencers and what you're hoping to achieve. And as long as you're clear on that, and you're not asking for more than you should be with those goals and those budgets, then that's how you get yourself off to a really great start and a powerful start with micro-influencers. I'm going to hand it off to my lovely panelists to introduce themselves as well.
Elijah Khasabo
[ 00:03:11,440 ] Awesome. Hey, guys, I am Elijah Casabo. I am a co-founder of UGC, an influencer platform. We've been around for about two years now. I'm still a college student. Literally had a class three hours ago.
Elijah Khasabo
[ 00:03:23,930 ] I may have skipped a drive here, but right now it doesn't matter. But my background comes from affiliate marketing. I used to grow Discord servers all through TikTok. So it taught me to power social media, to power influence, to power how a community can really be solved on TikTok. So I've been in the space for that long. here to chat about UGC and influencers. I'm excited.
Sierra Dowd
[ 00:03:47,720 ] Awesome. Hi, thank you for coming. I know it's the last session of the day and everyone's probably very tired.
Sierra Dowd
[ 00:03:53,240 ] My name is Sierra. I am the founder of Else and Ever. We're a marketing communications agency. I've been in marketing and comms for over 15 years. Been working with influencers specifically since about 2014.
Sierra Dowd
[ 00:04:05,320 ] I like to call— I started my career in public relations, actually— where the original influencers, I think, came from.
Sierra Dowd
[ 00:04:13,580 ] And yeah, I'm excited to be here. Thanks for coming.
SPEAKER_6
[ 00:04:17,720 ] Hey, everyone. My name is Sharon Robustelli, and I'm the founder of 10-3 Public Relations. And yes, I would say influencers started with PR.
SPEAKER_6
[ 00:04:27,100 ] I've been in PR for a long time. I'm just going to say that.
SPEAKER_6
[ 00:04:31,930 ] A long time and I've been working specifically with influencers since about 2012. My agency specializes in working with small businesses and startups and helping to elevate the voices of the founders through thought leadership, as well as launching brands and products and services.
Meredith Jacobson
[ 00:04:51,230 ] Awesome. So I've got a handful of questions that I'm going to start with and I'm going to put it out to you, starting with Sharon. You guys can answer, and then we can go back and forth down the line. And if there's anything that you want to skip, we can move on to the next one. And then, just out of curiosity, how many of you have questions that you want me to get to pretty quickly?
Meredith Jacobson
[ 00:05:12,020 ] All right. We're a little shy, but I think we'll warm up. So I'll open it up to questions. And if not, we'll keep going with more. So to start with, Sharon, why is micro-influencer marketing so important for startups right now?
SPEAKER_6
[ 00:05:27,100 ] Well, you know, first, the first thing I think of is that it's cost-efficient, right? I'm sure you've been in a lot of panels that talk about you want to make sure that you're reserving what you spend money on. In those early days, especially, but always, it's just good business. And one of the things that micro-influencers allow you to do is you can negotiate what the value of what they bring is and how you can grow together. It's not always about a monetary value. Sometimes you can make other deals. You can start to look at them as partners that are going to grow with you. And that's really important because the other thing that they'll do is they'll be advocates for you even once that. contract is up once that specific deal is over because they'll know that you were they were selected in the beginning and it's more of a co
Sierra Dowd
[ 00:06:18,770 ]-creation so that's why i think there's value for startups To add to that, my agency works with a lot of startups as well, predominantly startups and mid-sized companies. And, you know, as most of you know, there's not much of a budget.
Sierra Dowd
[ 00:06:34,370 ] Right. We have to be resourceful. And to riff off of what Sharon was saying, what is really beneficial is being able to work with them and build with them. So, just to give an example, one of the companies that we're working with right now has never done really influencer marketing. We dove in with them and we identified a handful of micro-influencers that really fit their niche. We tested out a few different niches in that particular campaign, but we found four in particular that just blew it out of the water for us. They loved working with the brand and have now have become advocates. We have now built our entire holiday campaign around them for that reason. That is really exciting. And I think.
Sierra Dowd
[ 00:07:17,860 ] Nowadays, it's getting harder and harder to meet your audience where they are and to connect, really authentically connect with them. They don't want to hear from brands—they want to hear from other people. And that is what makes micro-influencers, especially who are super engaged with their audience, so powerful.
Meredith Jacobson
[ 00:07:34,060 ] Are you able to share what it was that made those four emerge?
Sierra Dowd
[ 00:07:39,150 ] It was their niche.
Sierra Dowd
[ 00:07:41,090 ] So, you know, the first thing you want to do is identify who you're trying to reach, of course. And with micro-influencers, often they have a niche, whereas sometimes macro will cover a variety of topics, right?
Sierra Dowd
[ 00:07:52,170 ] Alongside the cost, of course. That's an issue for a lot of people. But it was— sustainable and minimalist— tech is this client in particular. And so finding micro influencers that focused on minimalism was actually more difficult than you would think.
Sierra Dowd
[ 00:08:11,220 ] That's why we have companies like Vidovo.
Sierra Dowd
[ 00:08:15,220 ] Finding that audience alignment ultimately blew it out of the water for that client.
Elijah Khasabo
[ 00:08:22,020 ] I would like to add on to that. One thing you said that was very important is the fact that people like other people. I tell our brands this all the time. You know, the average mom isn't going to connect with a Kim Kardashian. They're probably going to connect with the average mom they see on Facebook. Right. So you want to see people who want to connect with people who actually look like your audience. Right. And it all comes down to community. If you look at your TikTok, your Instagram, you're typically following people that you actually like, right? So kind of have the same judgment when it comes to marketing with micro-influencers. And I think that's been the best way to do it. The more you think about the community aspect of it, the more you can potentially get out of it.
Meredith Jacobson
[ 00:08:57,430 ] Yeah and one of the things that I often start with when I'm working with the client that's completely new is to go through, like I was saying before, what are the actual value props, like what can influencers bring to the table? And you know, I think that if you're really really starting from nothing, like the very least you could do is market research. You could talk to influencers, the minimalism client could reach out to those influencers, even if it's not time to promote or sponsor them. Learn about what matters to them. Learn about what opportunities they're getting and what opportunities they're dreaming about. And having that knowledge and developing and building, like that's baseline. It could cost you $150 for a phone call. And, you know, if you do a few of those with people that are the types of people that you want to work with in the future, that builds that relationship on day one. And then there's also the content piece of it. The content itself is a major value prop. And then that's before you get into the reach, the engagement, the clicks, you know. The association, it's all a funnel and, you know, it all builds upon each other.
Meredith Jacobson
[ 00:10:00,870 ] And so it's about figuring out where you are on day one and where you're growing towards.
Sierra Dowd
[ 00:10:06,510 ] I think the number one mistake I see brands make when it comes to working with any influencers, but especially micro-influencers, is not defining their goals. What are you trying to get out of this particular type of campaign? And secondary to that... they are not taking the time to find and vet the right influencers for their brand. They're just kind of throwing money at the wind.
Meredith Jacobson
[ 00:10:31,900 ] For Sharon or Sierra, you know, you're talking about strategy and identifying your goals. When you're in that position, what are some of the ways that you're identifying, okay, what are the niches that we should talk about? How do I even figure out the right type of influencer?
SPEAKER_6
[ 00:10:46,300 ] I'd say the first thing I always start with with clients is. Making sure they've figured themselves out, especially at this stage of the game. I walk clients through what I, what maybe I'm not the only one who calls it this, but what I call a brand positioning workshop. And what we do is we basically nail down who they are and what they stand for. And what they stand against. And once we develop that picture, we create this communications platform and it'll sound like a tagline, but it's really not to be used externally. It's just to be your filter so that everyone that you connect with, everyone that you partner with, bits through that filter and then everything you say. So that's the first thing— being really clear with who you are as a brand, what your brand stands for. The second thing is making sure that you're casting a wider net than you would think, but still very strategic. For example, we worked with a candle company.
SPEAKER_6
[ 00:11:47,870 ] This company did not exist two months before we had our first meeting. Okay. It did not exist.
SPEAKER_6
[ 00:11:55,750 ] And they were like, 'We need to be in holiday gift guides.'
SPEAKER_6
[ 00:12:00,950 ] Our first meeting with them was in August.
SPEAKER_6
[ 00:12:05,330 ] OK, holiday gift guides are like right now, editors are working on holiday gift guides. So we said, 'All right, let's see what we can do.' They had a great story, though. So we were able to do the earned media side of it. And then we also were like, let's do some micro influencer work. And for them, what we did is they had the candle company, the basis of the company. This was in 2020, right after lockdown, right? That August after lockdown. And they were three guys who were all in the hospitality industry and they'd all lost their jobs.
SPEAKER_6
[ 00:12:36,510 ] But they were fortunate enough where they didn't really, they were okay. They weren't hurting. But they saw their peers work. So they wanted to do something where they could give back. So they created this candle company. And the scents were inspired by all these wonderful vacation destinations around the world that no one could go to.
SPEAKER_6
[ 00:12:55,050 ] right so they had a great story and so we came up with their communications platform and it was like next stop candles takes you where you want to be even if you're staying where you have to be or something like So then we went to the micro influencers. We were like, let's look at category adjacent. We're not going to look at people who like candles, although we may find someone like that. We're going to look at travel. travel influencers. We're going to look at people who talk about herbs and herbalists and things like that that go together with the fact that your scents are vanilla and lavender. And that worked for them. So I would say that category adjacent thinking. is really important too because you'll find some real diamonds that way that you may not have thought of if you just stick with the on the nose category that you're in.
Sierra Dowd
[ 00:13:49,290 ] Yeah, I like to start with looking, either conducting user interviews or watching the videos of the user interviews that have been conducted with that company. And the reason why is I'm really looking for how the customer is.
Sierra Dowd
[ 00:14:03,020 ] describing the problem that that brand is solving for them. In their words, how are they describing what problem is being solved? And from that, I'm able to extract a little bit more of a persona of who that person is and to take that data, with a little bit of intuition, of course, as is marketing data and intuition.
Sierra Dowd
[ 00:14:21,440 ] And really try to identify not just category adjacent, but also maybe right on the nose, who might those influencers be? But really listening to the language that's being used to help identify.
Sierra Dowd
[ 00:14:34,360 ] What kind of person that person would connect with. Like Elijah was saying earlier, we follow people that we connect with. And the best thing about micro-influencers is there's still that level of authenticity that often gets missed when you get to that macro level. And so figuring out where those matches happen, it's like matchmaking is where I go.
Meredith Jacobson
[ 00:14:55,480 ] So Elijah, once somebody has a strategy in place, what are some of the tools that are available to them to help them find micro-influencers?
Elijah Khasabo
[ 00:15:03,260 ] Yeah, well, obviously, I'm going to plug mine.
Elijah Khasabo
[ 00:15:07,920 ] But so I would, you know, obviously look at UGC platforms. And just to speak, not just to mine, but to all of them, I feel like they're all a testament to the creator economy of respect for a lot of the other founders. I've met with a lot of them. We all have the same objective, get brand good content, help brand find good creators. But I truly believe you want to find the ones that actually have the right approach, right? And I think because we were put in a position where we had to bootstrap, which I'm assuming a lot of founders in here are bootstrapping. We had to, you know, make very tight decisions where, you know, we didn't have all this raised money, so we couldn't follow investment KPIs, which typically lead to revenue, which obviously leads back to brand acquisition. It puts us in a position where it's like, let's just focus on getting good creator talent. Because at the end of the day, the brands just want good creators. They just want good talent. So I think Vidovo is great because of that approach. When it comes to affiliate marketing, I... I like to make the argument, and I was telling a brand founder this the other day. I think it's smart that founders start creating their own content. It might sound crazy, but whether it's LinkedIn, blogs, TikTok, just post. I mean, I, it took me a while to climb over cringe mountain, but you know, give it, give it about, give it about two weeks.
Elijah Khasabo
[ 00:16:13,990 ] You won't care anymore. Right. And it'll, it'll teach you more about yourself, more about your voice, and more about the people you actually want to find. The people that can resonate with you. So I think, you know, using usually platforms like Vidovo, affiliate platforms like Super Affiliate, and also using influencer platforms, probably like Grin, might be a little too expensive, so maybe not. Sprout Social, also expensive, so ignore that one. Maybe Aspire is a better option, right? So I would... Those are the tools I think are the best. I think Google Sheets is free. Everyone should know how to use that. So that's a great way to track things and keep things easy. But at the end of the day, it never hurts to just reach out to at least 50 people per day. You never know who will answer you. When I first started Badova, I emailed 600 creators.
Elijah Khasabo
[ 00:17:00,690 ] A lot of them, you know, gave me shit for it because they didn't know what UGC was at the time, right? But even just doing that, I was able to get a vast majority to respond. And I got 14 of them on the Zoom call, right? Just to explain like the benefits of what we're building and why it's important. And I was able to develop relationships with them because they believed in the mission. So I think, you know, reaching out on your own, tracking everything through Google Sheets or using platforms like ours are pretty efficient.
Meredith Jacobson
[ 00:17:23,910 ] And that's a perfect segue to my next question, which is: so it's very basic, but you know, you have identified the niche that you want to partner with. You found a list of influencers. How do you all go about getting in touch with them? And, and what do you include in your outreach email to, to increase your chances of getting a response?
Sierra Dowd
[ 00:17:41,490 ] Wild West, that's why I'm referring to you.
SPEAKER_6
[ 00:17:45,970 ] The one thing I will say is, in addition to Google Sheets and Google Forms, if you're not using Google Forms, you're missing out. Because you can, in seconds, create a form that will help inform all the information you want to know about the people who you're considering. Then, you can go in and look at it— just as if it were a summary of what everybody said. Or you can look at the individuals. You could pass it on, share it with your team. So I would just add Google Forms as, like, my new baby— like, love.
SPEAKER_6
[ 00:18:20,910 ] And it's free with your suite that you already are using.
Elijah Khasabo
[ 00:18:27,390 ] I'm very big on subject lines. I think you want to grab that creator's attention. And mine are super funny, just anything to get them to open the email. But you don't want to be super basic. They obviously love seeing a brand name. They want to see if it's paid or gifted. I'll make the argument. I feel like the creator cons are becoming so transactional. Right. So you're going to see a lot less gifting, but it's still possible. But I think subject lines are the most important part. And I usually just put their name, maybe a dash, all lowercase always. Right. Because it's unusual most of the time and your open rate will be a lot higher. Trust me. So I would recommend that.
Sierra Dowd
[ 00:19:03,250 ] Yeah, I would also say having both a personal account on as many social platforms as you can, as well as a brand account, of course, because the first thing they're going to do is go look for your brand account and look at your website. But they're on social. That's the world they exist in. So they're going to right away. Put the handle in and try to find you. But I reach out both via email and also via direct message on those respective platforms. I find that to be the most effective way. And it helps if you yourself have. are more active on that platform and you're not a stranger with no picture coming in and sliding into their DM. Um, I, yeah, I think I would say equal parts email if it's, if you can find their email, which is why I said it's a wild West. Uh, this is again, why platforms, am I going to get an affiliate fee? I'm kidding.
Elijah Khasabo
[ 00:19:50,020 ] You should use Instantly. It's very good for cold outreach. That's what we use to get our first 1 ,000 creators. I would highly recommend it. It's fairly cost instantly. Instantly. And Apollo . io is great for finding.
Sierra Dowd
[ 00:20:04,720 ] Yes.
Elijah Khasabo
[ 00:20:05,420 ] Great for finding people. Yeah. Yeah. We are. I don't know about creators, though. I would make the assumption.
Sierra Dowd
[ 00:20:11,980 ] Yeah. Yeah. Creators. The great thing about micro influencers, again, is that they usually don't have talent managers yet. And that's where things get a little bit more complicated.
Sierra Dowd
[ 00:20:21,479 ] So again, reaching out via DM, that's why it works because they don't quite have these huge talent teams that are like, 'Oh, immediately they see money.'
Meredith Jacobson
[ 00:20:30,550 ] Yeah. Also, one of the craziest things is that on Instagram, you have to go on the app and go to the contact button to find their email address. If you're just on a web browser, you can't access it. So, yeah, they kill us.
Meredith Jacobson
[ 00:20:43,110 ] Sharon, what's something to avoid when working with micro influencers?
SPEAKER_6
[ 00:20:49,360 ] Something to avoid. Well, the first thing that comes to mind is just avoid two things. Avoid working with a micro influencer because you love their personality, but their content has nothing to do with what you are looking to talk to people about. So many people will have an idea of someone, I follow this influencer and he's great. And it's like, what does he talk about? He talks about snowboarding. It's like, well, are you selling snowboards or snow? No, but he's great. So make sure that you've got the right topic or that topic adjacent. vertical that we just talked about it sounds silly but it happens a lot because people again they feel like they know them they want to work with people they like but make sure that the people that you like also speak to the people you want to be speaking to the other thing not to do is don't be too prescriptive, but also don't leave it up to the influencer to create your program.
SPEAKER_6
[ 00:21:51,400 ] So many times we either will go from— I need to tell them exactly what to say and they can only say this and they have to say it this way and they can't say this and this, they have to use this hashtag. Or the other side of it is I hired them for their personality and who they are. So I don't want to tell them what to do and what to say. But now you are sort of penalizing them for you not having your strategy in place. So there is a fine line. Yes, you want the value of who they are. But you also want to make it very clear what you're looking for them to do, what a win looks like for you, and how they're going to help you achieve that.
Meredith Jacobson
[ 00:22:31,190 ] Well, then let's talk about a brief.
Meredith Jacobson
[ 00:22:35,050 ] Is that something that you can do right away? What should be included in a brief?
Elijah Khasabo
[ 00:22:40,610 ] The way I like to go about briefs, I made this guide so I can send it to anyone if you want it. I call it like a light brief. So you just give them content examples, USPs, talking points, book examples. USP. Unique selling point.
Elijah Khasabo
[ 00:22:57,149 ] but um i i i've always found that creators tend to work a lot better if you just give them that light brief let's say you're working with 20 creators right or 20 it's just i should say micro influencers sorry guys you're working with 20 micro influencers You give them all a light brief. Hey, this is what's going to happen. I don't really recommend giving them do's. More just give them don'ts because you still want them to use their own personality. So don't give do's. Usually that never works.
Elijah Khasabo
[ 00:23:25,000 ] And then, after the light brief is, you know, has gone through, typically out of that, you'll find like five to 10 good videos or whatever videos performed. You want to double down on those and then you'll go on like a little bit of a harder brief, but still give creative freedom to them, but just not too much. Right. So I kind of like to do a fine line in the middle. But, yeah, just let them be them, talking points. And I don't recommend writing scripts for them. I always like to give them the light brief and let them write the script. So, yeah, no scripts.
Sierra Dowd
[ 00:23:53,160 ] Yeah, they nailed it.
Meredith Jacobson
[ 00:23:55,080 ] All right. Um, easy enough.
Meredith Jacobson
[ 00:23:58,750 ] So, do each of you want to just give one, like if somebody in here is looking to get started with micro influencers on Monday, what should they do? What are the first one to three steps that they should take?
Sierra Dowd
[ 00:24:11,290 ] Define your goals.
Sierra Dowd
[ 00:24:13,540 ] Are you looking for brand awareness? Are you looking for direct ROI?
Sierra Dowd
[ 00:24:17,820 ] Are you looking for— are they going to be participating in a very specific campaign? The micro-influencers we reached out to for the Mudita is the name of the company, the campaign we were running, were very – specific to a campaign. So that brief came in handy. You never want to be too big, but not big enough.
Sierra Dowd
[ 00:24:39,250 ] So that would be step one, define what your goals are. Step two from there is define your niche. So again, is it a minimalist influencer? Is it a beauty influencer? Is it? I mean, SaaS software influencers exist as well. LinkedIn has also brought to the table a lot of different types of content creators than I've seen before, which is great for B2B. And then the third step would be identifying what platform and tools you're going to use, obviously, because it takes a lot of work to manually do that discovery. So finding that platform is absolutely, it's worth the little bit of cost to help you scale that.
SPEAKER_6
[ 00:25:16,100 ] Yeah. would agree with all of that the other thing i would say is just be prepared for a partnership not a one-off it's going to be a journey with them so just be prepared for that and set your expectations and your goals and your dates and gates and all those other things with that in mind It is a journey.
Elijah Khasabo
[ 00:25:38,210 ] And I'll kind of second that. I truly believe in relationships. I just try to develop a relationship, try to have a genuine connection with the person you're actually working with. My favorite influencers are the ones I've known since 2022 when I had horror stories and they still stuck out with me. And they'll give you the best deals that way too. I also used to sell videos for $20. That's not possible anymore.
Elijah Khasabo
[ 00:26:00,690 ] But typically just focus more on the partnership and I think the best will come out of that.
Sierra Dowd
[ 00:26:07,270 ] And budgets, obviously. You need to understand what your budget is going in and be prepared to negotiate.
Meredith Jacobson
[ 00:26:13,310 ] You guys are teeing me up so good.
Meredith Jacobson
[ 00:26:16,750 ] I was going to ask, what do you think is an entry point price-wise to start working with an influencer and what is reasonable to be asking for at those prices?
Elijah Khasabo
[ 00:26:27,150 ] Kind of a tough one—I'll say, just because it really depends on the actual influencer. I typically recommend small brands start with UGC. You can get a video as low as fifty dollars, maybe as high as five hundred.
Meredith Jacobson
[ 00:26:41,010 ] I noticed when you start, someone yeah can you also answer the difference between UGC and micro-influence?
Elijah Khasabo
[ 00:26:47,840 ] Yeah, so usually UGC is user-generated content and, in the simplest terms, it's technically your buying content and you're using that content on your own marketing channels, right? So most of the brands that get that content are going on Meta Ads, TikTok Ads, maybe YouTube, or they're posting it organically. I typically recommend putting it behind paid social. uh influencers it's going on the you know influencers channel right so um they're using you're using their likeness it's going on their tick tock their instagram whatever it is right so that's the main difference ugc is typically cheaper because they're not posting it and they don't have a following right you're not paying for distribution yeah you're not paying for distribution um But, yeah, I would say, sorry, I just blanked. What was the question?
Meredith Jacobson
[ 00:27:27,640 ] You said $50.
Elijah Khasabo
[ 00:27:28,900 ] Oh, yeah, $50. I would say $50 to $500 for UGC. Influencers, it kind of just depends. My personal recommendation, I would check out a website called homefromcollege . com. You can find a lot of college influencers on there for less than $100. There are hustlers, I'm a little bit biased, but I think Gen Z's hustlers, right? So I would highly recommend going on there, just finding out what type of content is actually working for your brand, because these college kids are very hungry to make money. And you can start very low there. But yeah, I've seen crazy prices. I've been quoted like over 100 grand. I walked away right away. But it depends.
Sierra Dowd
[ 00:28:04,390 ] Yeah, I would say there's two pieces to the budget equation here, even with micro-influencers. The first is just whatever that flat fee is going to be. And I've, on my most recent campaigns, had paid $500 for one post, and I've paid an upwards of $8,000 for a micro-influencer for a few posts. But that is just one piece of it. Usage rights is another piece of the budget that people often don't think about that can be quite costly. It can be double the costs that they're charging for.
Sierra Dowd
[ 00:28:37,290 ] for that piece of content. So a usage right is essentially how long the brand has to utilize that piece of content. And that's why user-generated content can be helpful because you can use that indefinitely behind paid ads, right? While with an influencer, you're using their likeness similar to a celebrity. So they are going to charge you for that. Usually, just to give you an off-the-cusp example, one influencer, I think we paid forty-five hundred dollars to a micro influencer who had really strong engagement and ended up performing quite well for us. And for the usage, it was about starting with 90 days. So they're getting a little crazy. That's why I said it's a wild west because they are starting to get a little bit just, they'll just throw out numbers. So just be prepared to negotiate and know your budget.
SPEAKER_6
[ 00:29:27,310 ] yeah that they covered it they covered it the one thing that um elijah said when we started that i think is interesting and worth noting is as a founder creating your own content as well, no matter how much you don't want to do it. You know, there's a whole trend on TikTok right now where there's a founder who clearly does not want to be there. And it's just a caption that says an influencer wanted $4 ,000.
Sierra Dowd
[ 00:29:55,050 ] to take a picture with my muffin from my bakery so i'm just going to stand here holding my muffin like that's enough you know that's enough so be creative but think about yourself too And again, that's why building the relationship is so important because once you establish that trust, you're able to kind of get grandfathered into those original fees before they start growing in their careers.
Meredith Jacobson
[ 00:30:20,750 ] Totally. Any questions from the audience? All right. We got some microphones coming around.
SPEAKER_12
[ 00:30:32,090 ] Hi. Does it change by the number of platforms you want them to post that to? Oh, yeah.
Sierra Dowd
[ 00:30:38,310 ] Yes, absolutely. That's why those briefs are so important because you want to include exactly what the deliverable is. So content aside, what are you asking for them? Because that will absolutely impact cost. And the more platforms that you're tagging on, they'll typically charge a little bit more. Again, with micro-influencers, you can find really good niche ones that will say, you know what, I'll do this for 500 bucks and I'll post it everywhere because it's good for them as well, content-wise.
SPEAKER_12
[ 00:31:04,580 ] But like, how crazy have you seen it get where it's like, it's the same post, just put it on YouTube, put it on TikTok.
Sierra Dowd
[ 00:31:10,220 ] Ah, yes, but they have different follower counts on each platform.
SPEAKER_10
[ 00:31:20,310 ] Hi, I need to apologize to everyone. I don't know what I'm talking about, so I'm going to ask a dumb question. We love it. My name is Adriana. I am a founder that is starting, never done social before, and has always done B2B and is about to start doing health tech B2C, which is kind of crazy, but it's cool. So I have a really simple question, which is... Why would they want to work with you? Like, why would they want to work with me? Is this just like a sponsorship? Like, I actually literally don't understand if we're just talking about like, oh, this company is my sponsor or there's some other kind of partnership deal. Like, I don't know what those options are. And I'd love you to clarify for me. Thank you. And sorry for everyone that already knows the answer to this question.
Sierra Dowd
[ 00:32:01,760 ] No dumb questions ever. I can start, and then Elijah, if you want to take it. So the creator economy is very transactional. That is an unfortunate reality.
Sierra Dowd
[ 00:32:16,060 ] piece will be financial reasons, genuinely. But then secondary to that, finding your niche and finding someone—something I don't know anything about your startup, but let's say it's focused around chronic illness— is really important. Finding micro creators who have experienced chronic illness, who have a passion for that, and speaking on that, and building that, really, that's why they'd want to work with you, right? Because you're doing something to help solve something for them or something they're passionate about. So finding that niche is really important.
Elijah Khasabo
[ 00:32:43,280 ] She stole my words.
Elijah Khasabo
[ 00:32:45,660 ] But no, seriously, though, I think it just goes back to relationships. You want to make sure there is an actual 'why' behind it. I typically like for me, like, if I see a creator, just tell me paragraphs of, oh, it needs to be like this. Like, I'm looking for this amount of money. I just leave it alone. I like the creators who actually have a genuine interest in what I am building. So I would just make sure that's established in the beginning. If not, it can be a red flag. Is it bad? Not really. I mean, they're trying to get paid. I don't blame them, right? But yeah, that's what I would add on.
Meredith Jacobson
[ 00:33:17,360 ] But also, I mean, if what you're doing is provides value to the creator and to their audience and to the world, then like creators have big content calendars to fill. Like they have to create a lot of content for these platforms, especially Instagram. Like the algorithm is so demanding. So, you know, if you give them something cool to talk about, that's also very important. It's important.
Sierra Dowd
[ 00:33:38,020 ] And you can set up long-term campaigns. It doesn't just have to be a one-off. You can say, 'Hey, for six months, I want to work with you for this retainer and, you know, I'll send you some swag.'
SPEAKER_6
[ 00:33:48,120 ] And the last thing is that there's also credibility for the creator for their audience to see that. Brands are partnering with them, no matter how small.
Elijah Khasabo
[ 00:34:00,810 ] And you said you're B2B, right?
SPEAKER_10
[ 00:34:02,150 ] No, I'm B2C.
Elijah Khasabo
[ 00:34:03,250 ] Okay, B2C.
SPEAKER_10
[ 00:34:05,390 ] I've always done B2B, never done social. Now I'm B2C and need to do social. We all like that question.
Elijah Khasabo
[ 00:34:11,889 ] Yeah, it's more fun. I'll say that.
SPEAKER_4
[ 00:34:18,639 ] Hi, my name is Chris Folsey. I'm a founder, small creator on TikTok. I have a comment and a question. So I think a really good example of a founder who's building on TikTok is him. He's YC backed. His name is Lucius McDaniel. He founded a company called ByteSite. He went super viral like two months ago, totally crashed the app. He's really a wonderful guy. He'll connect with you on TikTok or LinkedIn. My question is centered around whether you're seeing creators come to you with, or I guess come to startups with questions about. Instead of getting paid like totally upfront, getting like an equity stake, like Alex Earl did with Poppy, or there's a creator, a black creator who I love very much named Tony Bravo, who has been like collaborating with brands, particularly, particularly road beauty on products. And so I think those are interesting integrations with startups and emerging companies. So I'm wondering if you guys are seeing that.
SPEAKER_16
[ 00:35:07,910 ] Yeah. There's a lot of it.
Elijah Khasabo
[ 00:35:09,970 ] Mr. Beast is a great example, I would say. I saw a post on LinkedIn the other day, and I might butcher this, but there was a difference between celebrity-backed brands and creator-backed brands.
Elijah Khasabo
[ 00:35:21,450 ] I would, I would, I would make the argument. I think you can find an influencer would be open to that. One of the brands we actually work with is backed by influencer. Like she's the face of the company, but I work with a founder who's nowhere to be found. Right. So it is, it is doable. I would recommend it. Yeah. That's what I would say.
Sierra Dowd
[ 00:35:36,950 ] Yeah. I've seen. the equity play and I've also seen product development. So, you know, creators getting extremely involved in building out the company in exchange for being a little bit more of a face. Yeah.
SPEAKER_6
[ 00:35:48,380 ] Yeah. And I think that goes to the benefit of that co-creation because then they really have a reason to be along for that journey. So there's a lot of benefit to that model that goes beyond just the monetary program.
Meredith Jacobson
[ 00:36:03,560 ] But at the same time, if you're going to build your entire marketing on their back, you got to make sure that the proportions are making sense.
Meredith Jacobson
[ 00:36:11,920 ] Yeah.
SPEAKER_11
[ 00:36:17,220 ] Thanks. I wonder if it's an age thing, but I'm 53, and I feel like there's a lack of trust. I don't trust influencers when they're paid for the products they're... advocating for and i know that that's silly i guess i don't know i how do people get past that because they need to make money i understand that but i just don't trust it when i see they're getting paid that is a great question and i get that a lot Um, this is why micro versus macro makes such a big difference and volume and quantity is also very important.
Sierra Dowd
[ 00:36:52,850 ] So obviously in marketing, you want to be as many places as you can, right?
Sierra Dowd
[ 00:36:57,410 ] Nowadays on TikTok, well, not nowadays, you have to, they by law have to say, listen, this was something I was paid to talk about, right? So you see that little commission or the little marker on the videos.
Sierra Dowd
[ 00:37:08,960 ] But finding the right people is so important for that reason, because you can tell—when we're scrolling, we can all tell— oh, this person was very clearly just paid, you know, a hundred bucks or however many, however many dollars. To promote this thing. You really want someone who genuinely cares about what they're talking about and that comes through. And unfortunately, there will always be people that see that and say, 'Oh, scrolling past, I don't believe it.' But when you start seeing that in volume alongside UGC content, alongside paid advertising, and so goes on the funnel, that's when you start seeing the real difference.
Elijah Khasabo
[ 00:37:40,910 ] yeah i truly believe it all comes down to content at the end of the day like they just have to be good at creating content i always tell our creators like please try the product before you actually create content behind it are they always doing it maybe not but um it does come down to content so Yeah, no.
Meredith Jacobson
[ 00:37:57,600 ] And I mean, the biggest influencers, the most successful influencers, they will not take a partnership from a product they don't use or don't believe in because no partnership is worth more than their audience's trust.
SPEAKER_7
[ 00:38:09,060 ] Yeah.
SPEAKER_6
[ 00:38:09,820 ] Yeah.
SPEAKER_7
[ 00:38:15,500 ] hi so a question related to them needing to fill their content calendar and so forth, so how often would would we want a micro influencer to talk about us or something like that, like is there too much where. All of a sudden now you're losing trust. Is there too little where it's not moving the needle? How often?
Elijah Khasabo
[ 00:38:40,020 ] I think it depends on the play. I think it depends on what your goals are. Because I know some brands who have creators posting once a day or twice a day, like making dedicated accounts for their marketing efforts, right? Sometimes we have brands that are just paying them for one video per week, one a month. It really just comes down to your goals. I always like to make the argument that, you know, the more the better, as long as it's across more creators, I think, because you want to like create that volume spike. The more you speak about the algorithm, the better it will pick that up. Right. There's a video that actually went out about us. I had no idea. One of our interns brought it up on the call. And it was an influencer who spoke about us. It's at a million views right now. And she started a trend just by that, right? And now other influencers are speaking about it. So now we're getting around 100 creators per day just from that. strictly do two buds right so you want to well that was organics we didn't pay them to do that right but you definitely want to make sure you're creating buzz so the more the better at least across more creators that's what i'm seeing is working And something to keep in mind is it's not just about them holding up your product or talking about your product.
Sierra Dowd
[ 00:39:37,940 ] There's other things you can do. You can do giveaways. You can do challenge campaigns. That is, so I look at, you know, okay, where can I plug them into a paid campaign that is very specific? Maybe it's Q4 holiday. And then where can it be evergreen? Let's do, you know, a giveaway during this time. Let's do a challenge with this creator to hopefully spike some virality and get other people talking about this and, you know, creating a hashtag challenge or whatever it may be.
SPEAKER_6
[ 00:40:02,100 ] Yeah. And I think it's really important to look at using more than one. creator when you're in this world of micro creators because if you put all your eggs in the one two three creators what happens is they have to move on at some point to the next thing right so you don't want to give that impression that this person is now they just promote everything One minute they're talking about lip gloss, the next minute they're talking about running shoes or whatever. So, if you spread that across multiple creators, you still can get that ongoing sort of spikes without exhausting a single relationship.
Elijah Khasabo
[ 00:40:39,510 ] And you also have to remember, you know, the average consumer, it takes about eight to 12 touch points for them to actually make a purchasing decision. Like, I just bought my comfort hoodie after probably seeing 12 videos throughout the year. Right. So you always want to make sure something is going on throughout the whole year. Right. We're now in a day and age where our attention span is so bad. At least I know mine is probably the worst in here, right?
SPEAKER_4
[ 00:41:00,680 ] Generationally.
Elijah Khasabo
[ 00:41:00,960 ] So it's not even about the hook. It's not about the first frame, right? So I always make the argument it comes back down to content. Just make sure if your content is good, it's going to obviously perform. know other influencers might pick up that and they might post you for free right so just always make sure there is good content there's a good plan and i think you should see success Yeah, no, that number was 8 to 12.
Meredith Jacobson
[ 00:41:19,100 ] And, like, I was with a couple creators on Wednesday, and they said it's closer to 17 to 20 now. Oh, wow. And if you think about it, as there's more and more companies getting into the space, consumers are seeing more and more. And so, yeah. That's wild.
SPEAKER_6
[ 00:41:30,940 ] And when I started working with influencers, it was, like, 5 to 7. Yeah.
SPEAKER_16
[ 00:41:36,240 ] So, yeah.
SPEAKER_9
[ 00:41:38,860 ] Hi, are there tools? Sorry, I'm not— I don't have a background in marketing. Are there tools out there or ways to more to measure the results that working with an influencer would bring to someone that wants to?
Meredith Jacobson
[ 00:41:55,080 ] Yeah, so there's some examples. There's one tool that's really good for startups that's called Mighty Scout. And what it does is it pulls in the results of your campaign. You put in the handles of the creators that you want it to be tracking and the hashtags or the tags or whatever. And it's like $100 a month, whereas some of the other ones are like $3,000 a month.
Meredith Jacobson
[ 00:42:17,279 ] So that's one of my favorite entry-level tools for that. And then it just gets, there's probably 9 ,000 companies that all have the same API data.
Sierra Dowd
[ 00:42:27,000 ] Yeah, there are many, many tools out there.
SPEAKER_9
[ 00:42:34,680 ] Maybe two deals with the influencer. Hey, listen, if we hit these results, we get paid so much.
SPEAKER_9
[ 00:42:42,140 ] Flexibility.
Elijah Khasabo
[ 00:42:43,380 ] Yeah, I think those are the best type of deals if you can do them. Like a lower upfront for a higher incentive. I think most, at least the smarter influencers, I think will take that in a heartbeat. I know I would, so.
Sierra Dowd
[ 00:42:54,920 ] Yeah, there's an app called LTK. And basically the entire gist of the app is any creator can go on and create an account. Brands pay to have an account, and the creators will get an affiliate code and they get paid directly through the platform based on how much they've sold. So it has been, I've seen it be extremely successful and great for building a long-term relationship.
Elijah Khasabo
[ 00:43:16,300 ] And generally, it can create buzz, as I've noticed, if other creators see, for example, that we've probably all heard of TikTok Shop by now. But if other creators see other creators making a lot of money through a product, they're going to go out their way to buy the product and start creating content around it as well. So you always want to have a good incentive.
SPEAKER_1
[ 00:43:34,140 ] Hi, everyone. Hey, Elijah. Hey, Meredith.
SPEAKER_1
[ 00:43:38,950 ] We met at a creator event, that's why. But anyway, so I'm Nick.
SPEAKER_1
[ 00:43:46,770 ] Let me give a little bit of background, relevant background to my question. I used to work for Gary Vee. I don't know if you know him. And I worked with him just on content strategy, but also on core relationships. And we had a really big engine for like... Gifting and everything, especially because it involves the stuff with V friends that he was working on and everything, and you know, maybe like contextually to people that like want to gift it, like B2C, right? But they don't have the marketing budget for these elaborate packages or like these different things. And targeting, like, how can businesses think about these different gifting campaigns and they they can get into on a budget?
Sierra Dowd
[ 00:44:30,955 ] Account-based marketing is one of my favorite things for this reason. I heard it spoken about a little bit ago in a different session, but essentially, I like to what I call it 'stalk.' Those individuals that I'm wanting to gift and really understand them inside out. And from there, they don't, you know, it doesn't matter, what matters is a personalization of it, right? Of course, everyone loves to get the big fancy package because they get to post about that. But if, you know, you find out that they are, that there's a nonprofit that they love, that they super support, you know, saying, 'Hey, I donated $50 in your name and I also wanted to gift you this.' It goes so much further than that fancy package. So just getting really personalized and that outreach and finding out as much as you can about them, I've found to be extremely successful.
SPEAKER_6
[ 00:45:15,500 ] Yeah, I would echo that.
SPEAKER_6
[ 00:45:18,130 ] if you're gifting you have to approach it from that personalization standpoint as opposed to hey you're small and i'm small let me give you something you know i don't have money so i'm going to give you something it has to be i know you i care about what you care about And I think your audience would love to see you interact with this product. I think our messaging aligns, like it's really about knowing them in that way and building that relationship because you don't want it to feel like this is the best we could do.
SPEAKER_15
[ 00:45:53,060 ] Anyone else? Hi. I founded an app called Meet Easy. It's a social connections app, so B2C. And as Sierra rightly pointed out, budget is the real factor when we're trying to create awareness for this app. So I'd like to get your perspective on... When we go to market with this app, do you have a recommendation on whether it's UCGs or micro-influencer? Which one gets the biggest bang for our buck?
Elijah Khasabo
[ 00:46:26,060 ] Wow.
SPEAKER_15
[ 00:46:26,500 ] That's an Elijah question.
Elijah Khasabo
[ 00:46:29,240 ] That's a tough one. I would say, well, I'm going to make the argument for UGC just because it's cheaper.
Elijah Khasabo
[ 00:46:36,740 ] Influencers are pretty expensive, at least from what I know.
Elijah Khasabo
[ 00:46:41,160 ] I always recommend a brand starts with at least 10 pieces of content. I also recommend the founder creates content if they can, whether that's on Twitter, LinkedIn, just for B2B purposes. But obviously, you're targeting consumers, so probably TikTok and Instagram.
Elijah Khasabo
[ 00:46:57,980 ] I think everyone should be looking into meta whitelisting. It's a very cost-effective way to drop your CPNs by almost like 20 to 40%. I think 70% of our brands now are only doing meta whitelisting ads, right? Because you can save a lot of money actually running the ad through the creator's account. Um so I think you should really look into that when you are working with UGC creators or influencers. But I mean, I'm gonna make the argument for UGC first, and then whatever is working in UGC, I'll shift it over to influencers when you do send those briefs. So, you know, hey, these 10 videos worked when we were running ads. We think these influencers should at least follow this type of package or what we're doing. That's what I would say.
Sierra Dowd
[ 00:47:34,630 ] 100% agree. I think UGC gives you an opportunity, and putting a little paid spend behind that UGC is really a very effective way to measure what kind of content is working best, and then back into finding the right micro-influencers to work with from there.
Elijah Khasabo
[ 00:47:52,920 ] So whitelisting is you're basically running the ad through the individual's account. Instead of it saying, 'I'm just going to say a brand name, ReadyRx, for example,' it would say the creator's name and ReadyRx or just the creator's name, right? And typically the CPMs, I don't know who's using it right now, but the CPMs drop by a lot, which is great because you're saving a ton of money. Consumers are obviously more likely to trust the ad because it's coming through the creator's actual account. And if the content is good, then the ad will perform, at least from my experience.
SPEAKER_8
[ 00:48:23,640 ] I have a question just related to what I'm planning on doing, which is raising a crowdfunding campaign. I'm curious, have you guys had any experience in using micro-influencers or UGC specifically to help promote the crowdfunding campaign? Thanks.
Sierra Dowd
[ 00:48:40,690 ] Yes. Yeah. I've worked with a lot of nonprofits actually, and we have effectively used both UGC and micro influencers.
Sierra Dowd
[ 00:48:48,690 ] I keep, I feel like a broken record at this point, but you really have to make sure you're finding people that are passionate about what you're doing. They'll speak to it as authentically as possible. And it's so powerful because, again, instead of the brand or nonprofit saying, 'Hey, we're trying to raise money, help us,' you have real people that are saying, 'I love this nonprofit,' or 'I love this organization.' And this is what they're doing. They're raising money. Sometimes you'll even find people who will help. match donations in certain circumstances, but yeah, very effective.
SPEAKER_6
[ 00:49:20,020 ] Yes, the other thing that's great about that, too, is if you start working with creators or user-generated content at that stage, you now have content that you can use as your brand grows. So the way that you can do that most cost-efficiently is through that UGC content. And then you can use that, and you have. You're proof of concept, and you also have that audience endorsement right out of the gate.
Meredith Jacobson
[ 00:49:45,360 ] But the thing to remember is that if you're going to go with that approach, you want to be investing in the relationship. Like it's not going to be an email. 'Hey, I've got this campaign launching next week.' Could you please post about it in your Instagram story? Like they'll just ignore you all day. it's like really it's committing to saying okay you're somebody who i want to be on my team as we go to market with this and like they have to fully understand and the value and why they're part of it I will say too, if the, if it's not launched yet, if the product is not launched yet, there is, it's a bigger hill to climb finding the right people to speak about it because they don't get to test it or use it or experience it.
Sierra Dowd
[ 00:50:20,720 ] So I will.
Meredith Jacobson
[ 00:50:21,950 ] Like prepare like three months of relationship. No, no, it's not easy in that context.
SPEAKER_6
[ 00:50:30,550 ] And be confident like in your communication, but also be right sized in that communication because so often we want to sound like our aspirational goal of who we're going to be. But at the same time, you need to be who you are, but be really confident in who you are.
SPEAKER_13
[ 00:50:52,550 ] Hi, my name is Dawn Thompson. My company is Oracy, and I've invented a post-hysterectomy recovery and pelvic pain management device.
SPEAKER_16
[ 00:51:02,070 ] Yes.
SPEAKER_13
[ 00:51:02,750 ] Now, my question for you, for this lovely panel, is who would resonate with my device?
SPEAKER_13
[ 00:51:12,990 ] I'm imagining most of these influencers are younger, and although pelvic pain is prevalent for many women at any age, having a hysterectomy tends to happen a little bit later in life, even though it can happen at a younger age. How would I find someone to align with my belief and understand what I'm trying to achieve and also not having a developed device yet on the market?
SPEAKER_13
[ 00:51:47,400 ] You know, how would they resonate with that and relate to that?
Sierra Dowd
[ 00:51:53,750 ] Well, COVID really changed the creator economy in general. And the beautiful part of it, I would say, especially with the rise of TikTok during that time. is that there actually are micro-influencers of all ages that you can find. So that's the first thing I want to say. There are plenty of micro-influencers of all ages, especially at the age that might experience a hysterectomy. Um, I would focus on Reddit and TikTok specifically. Reddit is a big one. That's a whole other conversation, but.
Sierra Dowd
[ 00:52:29,560 ] But TikTok, there's so many different corners of the internet in TikTok alone. And I have seen so much rhetoric around female reproductive rights, as well as issues experienced such as a hysterectomy. I myself have endometriosis, so I'm very involved in that conversation on TikTok. It's easier than you would think. It's actually a lot easier. And I would venture to say even easier for you because it's such a serious and real experience that so many have had.
SPEAKER_13
[ 00:53:00,140 ] Thank you.
Sierra Dowd
[ 00:53:00,460 ] Yeah. And congratulations.
SPEAKER_14
[ 00:53:03,720 ] I have a quick question about UGC. What is your opinion about the AI-generated UGCs? I'm seeing more and more of these companies providing the service to create millions of AI-generated UGCs.
Elijah Khasabo
[ 00:53:21,660 ] I'll be honest, when it first came out, and I think this was like January or February, there's a huge company that was just pushing it. And everyone kept talking about it. And like 90% of my demos, that's all people would talk about. Like, why don't I go get AIUGC? It's way cheaper. I was a little scared, I won't lie. But at the end of the day, it actually made UGC more important because, like I said, consumers are getting so much smarter. They're not falling for the AI crap. There's still a lot of good AI. I don't know if anyone's seen the AI bunny trampoline video.
Elijah Khasabo
[ 00:53:50,620 ] I fell for that, but um—I truly do believe it. Sorry, what I didn't hear— but um, I truly believe it. It actually made UGC more powerful, especially now since I think we have to mark AI content as AI, right? Yeah. So it's, it's made it more, it's actually made it better for us. Right. And I'm obviously gonna be biased. I don't think it works. I think it, I think it actually can get views. Don't get me wrong. It's good for awareness. But the actual conversion on that, I don't know.
Elijah Khasabo
[ 00:54:20,230 ] no you're good in terms of performance I personally haven't. We don't do AIUGC. Some of our customers use AIUGC and RUGC. But just to prove my point, I do truly believe that it actually made UGC more powerful.
Elijah Khasabo
[ 00:54:44,830 ] it and i don't get me wrong i think it's going to be great i think it just needs time to develop right just like with every other ai tool give it like a year or two it might be even better right but as of right now consumers want to see real stuff so i've noticed it's going to tend to perform better
Elijah Khasabo
[ 00:55:00,000 ] I know we're coming to an end.
SPEAKER_12
[ 00:55:01,040 ] Tom Dodge, video producer, based at the Cambridge Innovation Center, validating interview-based storytelling works, captured over 10 ,000 interviews on camera. Definitely works. We've helped companies raise over $20 million through video. Two quick questions.
SPEAKER_12
[ 00:55:12,520 ] Any counterintuitive video strategies?
SPEAKER_12
[ 00:55:16,860 ] Storytell that you guys have found successful whether that's graphic placement anything that kind of works that's important But also, I have probably my biggest partnership meeting on Monday in general to kind of leverage a big brand. And just like metrics or any strategies going into that deal that maybe, you know, I've closed some big deals, but at the same time, this is probably the biggest one. And like things that we should think about going into that.
Elijah Khasabo
[ 00:55:45,700 ] I'm not sure. Is this for like video production or? Yeah.
Sierra Dowd
[ 00:55:49,860 ] So are you, are you asking in the context of you would record video that they would utilize with influencers or UGC?
SPEAKER_12
[ 00:55:57,140 ] So.
SPEAKER_12
[ 00:55:59,730 ] On the partnership deal, it's more like what metrics would help close a bigger partnership deal. It's centered around our video studio at the Cambridge Innovation Center. Got it. So they want to be the sponsor of that studio, and that will empower us to create content in which they're branded on. right uh it's wistia too so pretty excited by that uh so we're just i just want to make sure i'm closing all the dots and making sure we're offering the most value to them in the most productive way possible through video Yeah, conversions.
Elijah Khasabo
[ 00:56:27,850 ] I would say it depends on their KPIs. I feel like almost every brand has different KPIs. I'll be honest, I'm probably one of the scrappiest founders you'll meet. I used to go into calls with no idea what to say.
Elijah Khasabo
[ 00:56:42,680 ] i have a little bit more of a structure now to it but um one thing i actually had to learn recently is like most of these big brands just care at the end of the day just care about results right so one of the questions i'm always asking on that intro call is like what are you looking for is it row as is it lawyer cbc like what exactly are you looking for um yeah i would just say I say conversions because there's a lot of data that backs video on a website specifically lending to much higher conversions.
Sierra Dowd
[ 00:57:09,020 ] Whether it's a landing page or a website, I would really focus in on the fact that I think it's, don't quote me, I want to say it's over 80%. difference in conversions. So I would definitely focus on that. Everyone, everyone cares about the bottom line when you're in a pitch.
SPEAKER_6
[ 00:57:23,760 ] And just make sure that you're asking them what success looks like to them. What are you measuring? Because we've had clients who we are, you know, high-fiving at the results. And I'm like, yeah, but we didn't get any additional clicks on the website. And we were like, oh, are we? Is that how you're measuring success? Because we just got you in Forbes. You know, we thought this was successful. So just. Don't be afraid to ask them what is important to them. As Elijah said, it makes a big difference.
Meredith Jacobson
[ 00:57:57,260 ] All right. We got time for one more. Sorry, Matt.
SPEAKER_7
[ 00:58:04,620 ] um so um so i'm curious so i have a so my company does um single headsetless vr where it can use your phone or something the camera to actually take your image and put you into the game so everything we're creating like just playing a game creates essentially you know tick tockish content right and so uh i guess my question is for um for using social media to to do what we're trying to do here. Should we be doing UGC, micro-influencers? I guess, just what's your thought about something where, in this case, the games are producing themselves the sort of content you might put up post?
Sierra Dowd
[ 00:58:49,000 ] I mean, both would work great. Yeah. But depending on your budget, similar to how we were answering earlier, starting with QGC is always a more cost-effective method.
Sierra Dowd
[ 00:58:58,580 ] Because again, what is it that's going to land content-wise? Because there are so many different paths, I'm sure you can take, right?
Sierra Dowd
[ 00:59:05,830 ] So I would start with UGC and see what sticks, then bring in some creators and the gaming creators.
Sierra Dowd
[ 00:59:13,630 ] I've seen them perform. So, you know, finding out what works and then going straight to those gamers and saying, 'Hey, we want you to do some content.'
Meredith Jacobson
[ 00:59:24,010 ] Amazing. Thank you all. It's a great audience.
Meredith Jacobson
[ 00:59:29,350 ] And a round of applause for my panelists.
Grace Walsh
[ 00:59:31,790 ] All right. Thank you again all for being here. Another round of applause for our incredible speakers here.
Grace Walsh
[ 00:59:43,420 ] And also a round of applause for yourselves for making it through a very, very long day.
Grace Walsh
[ 00:59:52,360 ] All right, not to make the day longer, but downstairs right now we have the Startup Showcase and Closing Party happening on the first floor. Highly recommend going there. There's going to be a ton of new startups. I believe there are also maybe drinks. So, you know, a little bit of motivation for you. uh lastly one last thing you're going to see these qr codes around for three circles studio that is our photographer for the event kevin thai and if you scan this you're going to upload a selfie of yourself any photos taken of you even if you're just in the background throughout this whole event are going to pop up right on there within the next day or two So if you guys want to make some LinkedIn posts, if you want to make some, I don't know, like content from this, probably a good place to go. Have a wonderful rest of your evening, everyone. Thank you so much for coming.