June 9, 2021 |

It seems that no corner of the industry has managed to avoid the influence of the influencer. With educators across the nation racking up thousands of followers across platforms like YouTube, Instagram and TikTok, new opportunities are springing up to reach vast audiences of engaged students, parents and teachers through partnerships. Here we look at how the education influencer is making waves and connecting parents, teachers and their classrooms across social media, and what your brand can do to engage new audiences through partnership.

Education Influencer

The pandemic has sent many of these individuals follower counts skyrocketing, with one teacher-influencer, @mr_c_classroom, growing his account from two to eight thousand followers over the past year, netting deals with brands like high-street stationer Ryman as a result. Another influencer, Katie Tollitt, has seen subscribers on her For Teachers YouTube channel grow to over 28,000, leading to over 1 million views on her videos guiding fellow teachers on a breadth of topics, including lesson planning ideas and using tech in the classroom.

The reason for this sudden increase in growth over the past year seems to be twofold. Firstly, fellow teaching professionals have been seeking inventive ways to keep online classrooms engaged and learning at a distance. Secondly, hard-working parents are looking at ways to keep their children’s progression on track while at home.

It is safe to say that the age of the teacher-influencer has well and truly arrived. So how can your brand align itself with this group of influential educators? And more importantly, why should it?

Develop new opportunities for human-to-human communication.

Social media is increasingly becoming a dominant channel for research and information gathering, not only in B2C markets but increasingly across B2B industries too. Communicating on social media requires a new approach to tonality and creativity when getting your message across. Nowadays, engaging someone on your message needs to happen instantly and must be pitched to hold the attention. Platforms with popular video-sharing formats, such as YouTube, TikTok and Instagram, provide excellent platforms to do this.

Incorporating messaging within these short formats, whether through your channels or by partnering with popular influencers, will increase the likelihood of your pitch’s message landing with your target audience. Don’t be afraid to experiment here. If appropriate, leveraging trends and meme culture can provide a creative route to engaging students and teachers on your product offer.

Bolster sustainability and responsibility efforts through increased reach and influence.

Due to the large audiences engaged by education influencer content, a considerable opportunity exists to supercharge the reach of your product through partnerships and outreach campaigns. For some products in the education sector, adding significant audience numbers can result in some notable sustainability wins.

The debate around technology’s potential to access education and learning experiences much more equitable has been going on for some time. Now that influencer audiences have grown so considerably, there is a chance to change the lives of many more students by making them aware of new products and services that are available to them.

Given the pandemic’s effect on student progress both at home and abroad, engaging with influencers to bolster product accessibility can generate tremendous opportunity for brands looking to demonstrate their developmental sustainability concerns.

Work with educators who desire to share resources and learnings.

Teachers are known for their desire to share resources and learnings with their industry peers, so engaging with those with large followings of fellow educators can prove fruitful if you are looking for referral growth. When engaging with influencers in this instance, the watch out is to ensure that you are aligned on messaging and beliefs.

Much as you would for brand collaborations, working with influencers requires a deft approach to ensuring your brand’s beliefs and ethics align well with those you are looking to work alongside. These positive associations are achievable through in-depth upfront research, investigating previous posts and collaborations, and the detail of the messaging. Getting this right upfront will ensure your brand continues to garner positive association as it grows.

While on first mention, discussion of the rise of the education influencer might result in the odd eye-roll, there are some excellent partnership opportunities out there for brands looking to tap into new audiences. Like it or not, the dominant method of information gathering is shifting and will continue to do so as generational shifts continue to happen.

If you are struggling with how to get started promoting your brand through influencer outreach campaigns, our team of experts is on hand to guide you through the process. To have an initial conversation about how you can start reaching new audiences, give us a call or send us a note using the form below.