Influencer Events 101: Why Attend These Marketing Functions?

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Karen Lin

Instagram 101 | May 16, 2024

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Most people think they know what the life of an Instagram influencer looks like. These creators are known to look pretty, promote a glamorous lifestyle, post aesthetic content, and make money doing it! But an influencer’s day-to-day life isn’t limited to cute photos and their phone screen. Hard work goes into it behind the scenes, too—at on-ground influencer events, no less.

But what are events for influencers? What kinds of growth opportunities and perks does a creator get from attending them? Today, we’re diving deep into these events and the role they play in influencer marketing. Plus, we’ll teach you a thing or two about how to score an invite to these coveted conferences! Keep reading to see all this and more.

A group of young people listening to a speaker at the front of a room.

Why Influencer Conferences Are Very Useful for Striving Creators

Conferences and events have become huge influencer marketing tools for both creators and their partner brands. At influencer conferences, creators come together and meet each other and industry experts to learn more about their craft.

If a brand holds the event, influencers might even leave with new collaborations and work opportunities. That’s why companies looking to launch a new line of products mount these types of events. It’s a terrific influencer marketing strategy that allows them to meet and identify creators to work with for their campaign.

However, perhaps the biggest benefit of attending events for influencers is the opportunity to grow your network of industry connections.

Studies show that networking can boost one’s career and result in higher earnings. And while this mostly applies in the corporate setting, the same thing happens in the influencer marketing world. At these events, you’ll network and meet agents, marketing managers, PR teams, and other influencers. The bigger you make your network, the more work opportunities you might find in the long run.

A woman in a conference audience listening to someone speak.

Who Throws Events for Influencers?

There are many kinds of events in the influencer marketing world, each mounted by different entities with specific goals. Organizers design some events to ensure that businesses and creators depart with newly signed partnerships. Meanwhile, others are meant for more educational and social purposes.

Here are just some examples of who might be behind these events for influencers and why they mount them.

Brands Looking To Tap Influencers To Promote Their Products

Brands will typically mount events to showcase their products and find influencers to collaborate with to promote them. They’ll invite influencers they currently work with as a treat, but they’ll also invite new ones they might potentially activate.

At these kinds of events, it’s not unusual to see exhibition stalls and product demos. This allows influencers to learn more about the products and how they work. That way, potential brand ambassadors know how to best talk about the brand and sway their followers’ purchase decisions. After all, it’s one of the most important things about influencer marketing.

Social Media Platforms That Want To Encourage Influencers To Make More Content

Companies like Meta, Google, or TikTok might also mount their events for influencers. In a way, they also promote their social media platform as a product to these creators. By showcasing their platform’s new features and growth opportunities, influencers might feel inspired to be more active on those channels.

These types of events are very educational. Some platforms will share best practices for content and hold workshops to hone key creative skills. They might also show these creators insights and trends into the industry that can help them improve their influencer strategies.

A woman in the front of a room doing a presentation on the evolution of social media.

Niche Communities of Creators Who Want To Get To Know Each Other Better

It’s also common for influencers to host events on their own. This is a fantastic way to bring together creators within the same niche and make new connections. Examples of these include beauty conventions for makeup and skincare gurus or a gaming event for streamers and game aficionados.

This helps you befriend fellow influencers, and you can also talk to them about the highs and struggles of creator life. It also presents new collaboration opportunities in the future. Influencer get-togethers are a great way to build a solid community of like-minded creators while potentially growing your brand.

A group of young people smiling while taking a selfie together.

Influencer Marketing Agencies Trying To Connect Brands With Creators

Influencer platforms make it a point to help creators in their network find brands they can work with. While most of these connections are done online or through influencer marketing software, they can also happen at events.

Agencies might mount these on-ground events and invite both brand teams and potential ambassadors to come. At these events, introductions are made between brand and influencer, paving the way for potential collaborations. It’s a terrific way to help their brand clients find the right influencers for their projects.

If you’re a striving influencer having a hard time landing your first brand deal, sign on with an influencer platform. This can help boost your personal brand’s visibility online and get you your first sponsorships. The possibility of getting invited to events for influencers is just the cherry on top.

How To Find Influencer Events Within Your Niche

When you’re ultra-famous, you’ll receive invites left and right to the hottest events for digital creators. But if you’re a small or medium-sized influencer, you’ll likely have to work your way to getting your first invite.

The first step to attending an influencer event for the first time is to find those conferences and get-togethers. Here are some of our top tips on how to find influencer events to attend:

  1. Look through social media-related news sites and event directories to see if there are any events related to your niche. Facebook Events might be a good place to start with this.
  2. Subscribe to newsletters from brands and social media platforms. They might announce a few events through their emails, so make sure to scan through those newsletters when they arrive.
  3. Stay in touch with fellow influencers within your niche. Make a pact to share information when you hear about creator events you can potentially attend.
  4. Sign up for an influencer platform or network. These agencies know full well when there’s an event coming up for influencers. Work with them to find out which ones you might get an invite to. 

A huge hall where a brand event is being held.

Attracting Invitations 101: How To Get Invited to Influencer Events

Even if you do find details about influencer marketing events, you can’t just crash the gate and attend them. To make it on the guest list, someone needs to invite you to the event.

There’s no one-size-fits-all strategy as to how to get invited to influencer events. Some creators get their golden ticket to the most fabulous events just by being famous. Others, on the other hand, mingle their way in through industry contacts and connections. Here are some of the influencer strategies you can work on to try and score invites to more creator events.

Establish a Strong IG Presence and Relationship With Your Fans

The more popular you are on Instagram, the more you’ll catch the attention of event organizers and brands. If your fans genuinely engage with your content and listen to your product recs, you’re a shoo-in for brand events.

To establish a solid online presence and maintain a good relationship with your followers, post high-quality content consistently. Make sure they resonate with your audience so that they like and comment on your posts. Brands love influencers with high engagement rates; they increase your chances of landing a brand deal at an event!

A woman doing her makeup while recording a video of herself with her phone and tripod.

Create and Distribute Your Media Kit to the Right People

A media kit is pretty much your resume as an influencer. It’s a document that showcases your key performance metrics, previous collaborations, and best creative digital work. Some creators also leave their rates in their media kit, too.

If you’re confident in your media kit and think it can help you land invitations to events, send it out. Distribute it via email to event organizers, social media platforms, or brands set to host events. You can even work with a PR team or influencer marketing agency that can share it with the right companies. If your background and skills look interesting to the organizers, you might just score an invite to a cool event.

Work on Influencer Marketing Campaigns for Renowned Brands

When brands mount events to launch products or celebrate milestones, their brand ambassadors are typically first on the guest list. So, it might be a smart strategy to sign onto influencer marketing campaigns with top brands. If you maintain a good relationship with them after your project, they may invite you to future brand events.

Of course, brand teams will only invite you to events moving forward if you’ve proven to be an asset. Make sure you work hard on all your brand collabs to make a significant impact on their campaigns. That way, they’ll remember you as an effective, credible, engaging influencer. Being top-of-mind for these traits may help you land deals with those brands again for future projects.

Landing Influencer Partnerships for Events: What’s It Like?

Attending events for influencers is one thing. But it’s a whole different ball game to be the influencer promoting an event.

Just like brands tapping popular influencers to promote their products, event organizers also work with creators to promote their projects. Creators who work with events teams leverage their influence to benefit the event by completing assigned tasks. In return, they get perks like freebies, backstage passes and access to VIP areas at the event.

But what’s it really like doing influencer partnerships for events? Here are just some of the different partnerships an influencer might be considered for when it comes to events.

  • Event promotion partnerships: Some event organizers will tap influencers long before the date of the event to help promote it. These influencers are tasked with spreading the word about the event on their socials. They’ll likely post promotional materials and posters for the event on their feed. They might also invite their followers to attend the event on their Instagram Stories. The goal is to drive foot traffic there.
  • Speaking and hosting gigs: To generate more buzz for an event, some organizers will hire an influencer to host it. During workshops or keynote talks, organizers might also ask some creators to speak in front of a crowd. This is a terrific way to demonstrate your expertise in your niche as a creator. Plus, you get paid extra for it!
  • Sponsored content creation at the event: Some influencers do a paid partnership for an event, and their job is to make content for the event itself. This is something brands do to maximize the visibility of their project on social media. Remember, not everyone can attend these events. However, when influencers post about product demos, extravagant programs or insightful workshops, it exposes the project to more people.

A man hosting a small event for influencers.

Get Invited to More Creator Events by Growing Your IG Page!

The more followers and post engagement you have on Instagram, the higher your chances of being invited to creator conferences. If you really want to nab an invite and shine at influencer events, focus on growing your page. Path Social can be your secret weapon in doing so.

Our top-notch targeting algorithm uses AI technology to assess your Instagram profile and who engages with your content. We then pinpoint the niche audience that resonates most with your posts and push out your content to their feeds. This helps you garner more engagement and tons of new, 100% real followers, boosting your visibility and popularity. In no time, you’ll be scoring invites to glamorous events left and right! Grow your page and gain more fans today!