Influencer Marketing Strategies to Boost Engagement & Revenue

Brandi Boatner is social and influencer communications lead for global markets for IBM‘s Global Technology Services in New York. She oversees a holistic digital ecosystem across platforms (including websites, blogs, social media sites and mobile devices) and people globally. Boatner’s responsibilities include developing and driving digital communications and content that supports the way IBM engages external audiences and enterprise IT professionals on topics such as hybrid cloud, enterprise mobility and business continuity. She is a former national president of the Public Relations Student Society of America (PRSSA) and is a social media co-chair for the PRSA Technology Section.

Karen Chong is an innovator in social+mission, believing that compelling storytelling is the purest way to engage audiences with a brand’s mission and deepen brand familiarity. In her role as the Director of Audience and Influencer Engagement for AARP, Chong is charged with identifying and developing the strategic partnerships that can leverage integrated content to break through social clutter and reach non-traditional audiences. AARP is the nation’s largest nonprofit, nonpartisan organization, with 38 million members and the most widely-read publications in the world. Leading partnerships with Advertising Week, Refinery29, and others, Chong has doubled engagement year over year for AARP’s #DisruptAging campaign. #DisruptAging is sparking a culture shift by challenging the ageist stereotypes so often promoted by today’s industries, systems, and culture – so that we can choose how we live our increasingly longer, nonlinear lives. Prior to AARP, she led partnership and content marketing teams at PBS and launched niche technical magazines for The Washington Post Company.

Whitney Gonzalez is the Influencer Marketing and Social Media Strategist behind Radiate Social. In the past decade, she has worked in both public and private sectors in public relations, social media and influencer marketing capacities. Passionate about influencer marketing and its effectiveness, she launched her influencer marketing-focused business through which she both coaches micro-influencers and helps brands build successful influencer campaigns.

Carrie Strehlau is a communications, public relations, social media, content and media relations expert with more than 23 years of experience. As Senior Social Media Specialist at St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital, located in Memphis, Tenn., she’s responsible for and manages increasing the recognition and understanding of St. Jude science, medicine/clinical care and translational research expertise through social media. Strehlau started at St. Jude in 2003 on the media relations team following five years in public relations at the Memphis Zoo. After 13 years on the St. Jude media team, she transitioned to the first social media position created at St. Jude. In that position, Strehlau has grown the hospital's social media presence from one Twitter account with a few thousand followers to 13 accounts on nine platforms with more than 214,300 followers and growing.

Nicole Dye-Anderson currently serves as Vice President, Head of Partnership Media Relations for Barclays’ Cards and Payments division, supporting the company’s partner brands. She oversees media relations for some of the country’s most successful travel, entertainment and retail institutions including Uber, American Airlines, JetBlue, the National Football League, Wyndham, Upromise, Hawaiian Airlines and Frontier Airlines, to name a few. Beyond her role in media relations, Nicole is passionate for diversity, equity and inclusion and is a local, national, and now global champion in the fight to end racism and increase opportunities for underrepresented communities. For years Nicole has been leading the U.S. charge on DE&I for Barclays as a founding member of the Black Professionals Forum (BPF) employee network. She has taken on additional responsibilities as Deputy Lead of Communications for Barclays’ Global Race at Work Taskforce. Under her leadership, Nicole has created, defined and executed internal and external campaigns, while driving leadership participation in key events that advance the agenda on DE&I and position Barclays as an industry leader. With two decades of experience under her belt, Nicole displays strategic thinking, media savvy and a commitment to excellence. She specializes in influencer marketing, data-driven PR planning, media relations, media training, event coordination and social media marketing.