Managing Social Media Influencers: An Exploratory Study of Tourism Operators

Abstract

One of newest social media trends in the tourism industry involves social media influencers (SMIs). These individ-uals are online users who are constantly creating pictures, videos and stories of tourism and hospitality services. Their content is viewed by a specific audience or follower base, who are influenced by these individuals to purchase those services or visit the showcased destinations. However, the academic literature on SMIs is limited and there is little research on the interactions SMIs have with tourism businesses and the actions tourism operators must follow when engaging with SMIs. While some con-sultancy reports have discussed the essence of SMIs and the challenges and opportunities of influencer marketing (Olapic, 2017; Linqia, 2017). There are still very few guidelines that summarize the steps that tourism businesses should take when interacting with SMIs, but given the fact that the tourism market is overly saturated with SMI's, is of utmost importance for tourism operators to know how to interact with SMIs and the steps they need to follow to tackle influencer marketing. The purpose of this study is to advance the current SMI thinking and reveal the dynamic relationship that tourism operators have with SMIs. To achieve this the researcher interviewed 11 marketing managers from different tourism businesses located across Queensland. The results from these interviews highlighted eight major themes: 'social media influencer knowledge', 'resources', 'procedures', 'strategic goals', 'target audience', 'brand alignment', 'content' and 'evaluation and monitoring'. These themes were then used to develop a set of SMI guidelines with 10 steps that highlight the actions that tourism businesses must undertake before, during and after they interact with SMIs to benefit from influencer marketing.