Our hummingbird charm showed up at CycleBar in West Des Moines for a sweaty, fun ride in January and were asked to post Instagram Stories, Instagram Posts, and Facebook Posts in exchange for a free ride that night + five additional rides to use throughout the year.
Businesses like CycleBar hire the hummingbirds to authentically engage with their brands and then share their experiences online and in person. Whether it’s a new beverage, a frozen pizza, a cause, or a local event, there is always a creative way to infuse the voices of hummingbirds who align with your offering.
We believe anyone can be a hummingbird.
Any human can be an advocate for local business and use their voice to share their experience with a brand. Here are four examples, where every single person got multiple requests to join them for a CycleBar class.
Is your impact greater with higher followings? Sometimes. But consider someone with 500 Instagram followers and 25% of them highly trust that person and are influenced by their recommendation. And then take someone with 5000 followers and 1% of their followers engage with that individual’s content. Which do you prefer?
We create experiences in partnership with businesses who understand that other people talking about their business is one of the best ways to reach new people and also create the impact desired (ticket sales, product purchases, etc.). These business owners get that even five new customers who love their brand can create a ripple effect in time.
And because 30 individuals showed up at CycleBar, tens of thousands of people became aware of the brand and had an opportunity to learn about them, follow them on social, attend a class, and perhaps become a paying customer.
If you want to reach a younger generation and think sending press releases to television and getting radio interviews is the answer, that’s not where they are hanging out.
We love earned media and absolutely support the local TV stations and other marketing + advertising platforms. We also know that it is going to reach an entirely different segment of the population.
Ask yourself… how often am I scrolling social media?
Most people are spending at least two hours on social media platforms a day.
So we have an incredible opportunity to collaborate with local voices to share what’s happening in our community.
It’s not “the answer” to your marketing challenges, but when done right, it will create buzz that you can build on for months and years to come.
Apply to see if your business is the right fit for the Des Moines hummingbirds in 2019.