Spring Place Beverly Hills Panel: What Brands Can Learn From Influencer-Entrepreneurs

FROM LEFT: Stella Simona, Deddeh Howard, Quigley Goode, Marcel Floruss, and Beca Alexander

Following on the footsteps of our Spring Place New York wellness panel, we hosted our first West Coast edition this past month. Socialyte founder Beca Alexander moderated a panel of Socialyte talent: Marcel Floruss, Quigley Goode, Deddeh Howard, and Stella Simona.

All four panelists have launched their own entrepreneurial projects: Marcel is the co-founder of Ankari Floruss; Quigley has an online course called Soulcial Media and recently launched a collection with Amazon The Drop; Deddeh Howard founded The Black Mirror Project; and Stella Simona is the founder of two jewelry brands, Haati Chai and Amarilo.

Through their experiences as both influencers and entrepreneurs, these speakers have gathered a great deal of wisdom about finding success in the digital space.

Here are the key takeaways from our panel conversation with them: 

Influencers Make For Ideal Brand Advocates

Deddeh Howard, Quigley Goode, and Marcel Floruss

Marcel broke down the main reasons why influencers are successfully pivoting to launching their own brands and products, but this also applies to why influencers are such powerful marketing resources for brand partners:

Market Research: Influencers have access to a wide assortment of products that they test and review. This allows influencers to have a strong grasp of the marketplace, what products work, which ones fail, and so on. 

Follower Feedback: Engaged followers provide constant feedback for influencers through comments, direct messages, and polls. Influencers can monitor the products and brands their followers respond to best and receive instant feedback on the types of content that influencers enjoy.

Built-In Market: In addition to receiving feedback, having followers means that people have opted into the influencer’s content. People follow the accounts that they do for a reason—whether it’s because they like the creator’s aesthetic, are curious about the creator’s lifestyle, receive advice, or some other reason—but whatever the case may be, followers care about what an influencer creates. Should an influencer decide to launch a collaboration or stand-alone brand, they already have a built-in market of consumers.

Losing Follower Trust Is Not Worth The Paycheck

Panel attendees

The sentiment that follower trust is everything echoed throughout the panel discussion. As mentioned above, follower feedback and engagement are keys to success as an influencer, so losing that trust would be detrimental to an influencer’s career. 

All four panelists agreed that they would rather turn down a paid partnership deal than risk alienating their followers. Deddeh explained, “If it doesn’t inspire me, if it doesn’t resonate with me...then I’m not doing it.”

Stella agreed, saying that she thinks of her community as her friends. “My friends would easily recognize what’s ‘me’ and what’s not,” she continued, so she gravitates toward promoting products that she naturally uses in her day-to-day life.

If you represent a brand, you may have received this feedback from potential influencer partners. Alleviate this issue by reaching out to influencers who are organic brand fans and align naturally with your company. 

Storytelling is Powerful Marketing

Marcel Floruss and Beca Alexander

Influencers make for strong brand representatives because their followers feel like they truly know them. When these influencers decide to launch their own businesses, followers are already invested in them as people, which makes it easier to invest in their product as well. Quigley stressed the importance of storytelling, saying that “90% of marketing deals with our emotions...we like to see people build something from nothing.” Brands need strong stories to stick out in today’s oversaturated market, and the easiest way to share that story is through people.

Your brand founder or president can be a powerful advocate for the company; in fact, you can think of them as an influencer in their own right. When customers have a person they can relate to, they can easily buy in emotionally to your brand.