This transcript was generated from the episode audio and may contain minor errors.
[Music]
Well, I was just talking yesterday about our global audience. Today we're actually going to go all the way to Tokyo, at least virtually, gonna hear from a caller. He is interested in gaming, gaming influencers in Tokyo. Let's see what he's got. He's doing custom avatar designs with influencer marketing.
Not entirely sure how that works, but we're gonna hear his question. So we'll see if we can be helpful. This is Hiroki. Let's hear his question and then my answer. I always try to provide a specific action step that the caller and perhaps our other listeners as well can follow in their own quest to make extra money without quitting their job.
A lot of these things are kind of replicable, meaning that what one person can do is a pretty similar path for somebody else as well. Obviously the industry and such varies. Specific steps may be different, but you kind of get an idea of like, okay, if I want to do influencer marketing, if I want to reach people who can then reach other people who need to hear about my business, what's the best way to go about that? So today the question, how to reach gaming influencers in Tokyo? I love it.
Let's see if we can be helpful coming up in just 30 seconds. [Music]
Tokyo's gaming scene is just the right place for my custom avatar designs. And I'm thinking influencer marketing could really take this to the next level. But how do I even start with something like that? How do I find influencers who understand what I'm about and how do I make them offers that they find compelling enough to accept?
Thanks for your time and consultation. [Music]
Great to have folks from Japan listening to the podcast. And we've got lots of people everywhere who would love to get the message out, the word out, reach more people with their product, their service, whatever it is. In this case, it is what? Digital avatars, custom avatar designs.
So for anything, there is a community of influencers or let's just say people who know people, people who have followings. The word influencer can be kind of tricky these days. Anyone with a platform with a following, let's just say they have influence. And for any particular industry or niche or topic, you wanna find the right ones. Okay, so you start with research.
Start with research on the platforms that are popular in the community you're trying to reach. So in the gaming community, that could be Twitch, YouTube, Twitter, might be Discord. There's lots of different Discords of course, but basically you look for people who align with your brand's aesthetics and values and focus on people with high engagement rather than follower counts. I mean, that's really important for authenticity. Lots of people can just buy their followers these days.
So you look for actual engagement. You look for conversation. You look for people who are truly fans of this person, not just following necessarily. So there's a difference. And then you start reaching out to them.
You could do this through agencies, like a lot of influencers work with agencies, but I'll just tell you right up front, agencies are kind of all about the money. That's what they do, right? But if you get to know people, sometimes you can work with them directly. You can work with them outside the agency agreement. They might be willing to share something for free.
Like it's often a much better relationship that way. And it may or may not be possible depending on the industry, depending on how famous or popular this person is, but I generally prefer direct relationships when possible. And then from there, you want them to promote your product. So what can you do to make that happen? Could just be a matter of paying them, which is how a lot of influencer marketing works.
But I think in the long-term, if you're trying to build relationships, then you always try to think, what can I do to make this beneficial to them? Can I send them a free avatar? Like would they share that? Anything you can do outside of the, here is some money in exchange for some promotion. It's usually going to give you a better result.
And of course, it's gonna be a lot cheaper as well. So that's what I would focus on if I were in this situation. Always wishing you well over there and anywhere, wherever you are, listeners, thank you for being out there. If you have a question, an idea, something you're trying to work out, you know where to go, sidehustleschool.com. We've got notes for every episode.
We've got new episodes, in fact, coming out every single day, always completely free, wherever you like to listen. My name's Chris Guillebeau. This is "Side Hustle School." [Music]
from the Onward Project.
