Photo courtesy of HeyPal
Meet HeyPal, the Language App Using Social Media Influencers To Spread the Word
Katy Johnson, a reality TV star and globe-trotting travel blogger, has lately offered some advice to her more than 100,000 Instagram followers.
“I urge you to learn a new language,” the model has told her fans, noting how locals in the foreign countries she has visited appreciate the effort. “It’s essential to be able to connect with people as much as possible while I travel,” she wrote in another post last month. Johnson, a former contestant on the TV show “Joe Millionaire,” has repeatedly suggested one particular way to study a new language: HeyPal, a one-year-old language-learning app.
A photo from Johnson's Instagram account, which she's used to promote HeyPal.
Photo courtesy of HeyPal
“Today I wanted to work on some Arabic slang, so I literally can pull out the phone and use the app anywhere, anytime!” read a caption to one photo of Johnson sitting near the Indian Ocean with a smartphone in her hands and a cocktail nearby.
At first glance, her casual endorsements may look like mere tips from a travel expert. But the Instagram posts, sprinkled between photos of the model posing in exotic tropical locations, are part of a paid campaign by HeyPal, which is owned by Beverly Hills-based digital app developer ClickStream.
HeyPal—which promises to help users learn new languages through social media posts and online chats with native speakers—has made content creators like Johnson a key part of its marketing and growth strategy. The app is currently paying three influencers, including Johnson, to spread the gospel by showcasing glamorous real-life examples of how people can benefit from the platform.
HeyPal, which has racked up more than 1 million downloads since going live last June, is hardly the only brand turning to influencers. Spending on influencer marketing has exploded in recent years, jumping from only $1.7 billion in 2016 to $16.4 billion this year, according to research from Influencer Marketing Hub.
In some ways, influencer marketing is not much different from traditional celebrity endorsements where actors, artists and athletes hawk products in advertisements. But online influencers often forge deep relationships with their fans, making their endorsements more effective, according to experts. That’s especially true if the products or services they’re marketing naturally fit with the content they’re creating—such as Johnson highlighting a language-learning app as a travel blogger.
“At the end of the day, influencer marketing works because the audience trusts the creator,” Brad Hoos, CEO of influencer marketing agency The Outloud Group, told dot.LA. Hoos noted that customers acquired through influencers tend to stick with brands longer than those lured by other campaigns.
Launched in 2020, HeyPal aims to help people learn new languages by conversing with native speakers through social media features like chats, posts, comments and media uploads. HeyPal offers both free and paid versions of the app; the latter is available in two subscription tiers ($9.99 or $14.99 per month) and includes additional features like unlimited translations on posts and a “PenPal” feature that matches users who can teach each other new languages.
HeyPal CEO Jonathan Maxim, a marketing veteran who ClickStream hired for the role last year, told dot.LA that Johnson and the app’s other influencers bring credibility to the platform. Those other influencers include Jessica Killings, an actress, model and angel investor who, like Johnson, has a large Instagram following.
HeyPal CEO Jonathan Maxim. Photo courtesy of HeyPal
HeyPal has worked with roughly 20 influencers to date, though it has only struck paid partnership deals with three, according to Maxim. (“The other 20 or so are just enthusiasts of the mission,” he noted.) The company declined to share how much it pays influencers to market its app.
In addition to boosting the brand’s visibility, HeyPal’s influencers are able to steer people to the app or channels like its Instagram account, through which the company can later retarget them with ads or push notifications, Maxim said. HeyPal can measure reach, click-through rates and number of app downloads by influencer, and can optimize its ads accordingly.
“Influencer marketing serves the top of the funnel for us,” Maxim said. “Katy creates engaging content, brings people to the middle of the funnel, and then we retarget them and bring them to the bottom of the funnel—which is conversion and engagement in the app.”
Johnson’s Instagram endorsements don’t dig into the details of the app, but they subtly suggest the perks of learning a new language. An Instagram Reels video she made in March shows Johnson dancing and posing for selfies with people around the world—activities presumably made possible by her ability to speak different languages.
“These types of posts help people dream—to see a country and the beauty, the food, the people,” said Jamie Gutfreund, chief marketing officer for Los Angeles-based Whalar, a creator economy company that works with influencers and brands. “They can imagine what their experience could be, especially if they have learned the language.”
Creators have to tread carefully when it comes to corporate partnerships, however. Although brand deals may provide more stable income than platform ad revenue, creators have to ensure they don’t harm their authenticity by constantly promoting products, experts said. About 13% of fans say they have unfollowed a creator because they included too many ads in their content, according to a recent survey.
Johnson is keenly aware of that balancing act: She said she sends just a few promotional posts per month and doesn’t endorse anything on Instagram “unless I really believe in it.” Asked how she makes her promotional posts seem authentic, Johnson said she doesn’t need to.
“I don't really make it look like anything—it is authentic,” she told dot.LA, pointing to videos she shared of her playing with children in Kenya or receiving some help putting on a hijab in Egypt.
“Those are all real moments that I've had,” she added. “And some of these moments can be helped when I'm learning language from language apps.”
From Your Site Articles
- TikTok, Influencer Panic and the Celebrity Economy - dot.LA ›
- Los Angeles Influencer News - dot.LA ›
- Influencers and Influencer Trends to Watch in 2022 - dot.LA ›
- How Influencers Became Key to Big Brands During the Pandemic ... ›
- Why Creators Should Build Community Rather Than a Fan Base - dot.LA ›
Related Articles Around the Web
"Diversity is an interesting thing in this country because it tends to be important for a moment in time and then it becomes less important again," Nichols said. "This time around it feels a little bit different. It feels like people are genuinely realizing that there's a systemic problem. These aren't one-off occurrences. Things aren't equal."
On Wednesday, Nichols got a boost from the trade group that puts on the Las Vegas' Consumer Electronics Show (CES). The Consumer Technology Association announced that it would invest an undisclosed amount in MaC Venture Capital, as part of its $10 million diversity effort.
Nichols, a founding manager partner of the Los Angeles firm — which was created from the merger of Cross Culture Ventures and M Ventures — said the investment is significant given that venture funds led by women or people of color are mostly underfunded.
MaC Venture Capital's Marlon Nichols
Although the cash is not much more than an institutional investment, it marks a partnership between the trade giant and the up-and-coming firm, as venture capitalists and the tech industry struggle to overturn decades of institutional racism. Last month, another trade group, the National Venture Capital Association, launched a $5.5 million nonprofit dubbed Venture Forward, aimed at diversifying its ranks.
"The amount of funding that goes to black and brown entrepreneurs, we are talking about one percent," Nichols said.
The problem, Nichols said, stems from the lack of diversity in venture capital where investors tend to bet on people that look like them and have shared experiences. According to a survey by the NVCA, about 3% of investors are Black, though the numbers are likely much smaller.
Launched last year, MaC has already invested in nine companies and with its inaugural fund aims to seed about 40 companies with funds of $500,000 to $1.5 million. Its focus on pre-seed and seed rounds is an acknowledgement that the initial round of funding is most difficult for founders of color to raise — in part, he said, because the bar is often higher for them.
Yet, diverse founders often give back greater returns and raise more money in subsequent rounds, said Nichols, who co-authored a study by the Kauffman Fellows Research Center that analyzed the profile images of more than 260,000 startup founders and executives in the United States using publicly available demographic models.
"Founders of color that were successful raising capital in the early days, they raise significantly more money than all white teams in later rounds because the bar is so much higher in the early days," he said. "That's where the absence of capital is. Once they get beyond this stage there are tons of data that shows that they outperform and at that point it is solely based on merit.
"It's in the early days when you're still more betting on the idea, and proposition of the market, and the team where we're seeing that huge disparity," he said.
MaC is the fifth fund CTA has invested in as part of its commitment to venture firms and founders that invest in women, people of color and other diversity. Last year, it announced that it invested an undisclosed amount in Harlem Capital Partners, SoGal Ventures, Rethink Impact and Founders First Capital Partners.
MaC's portfolio includes more than 100 companies and several significant exits including Gimlet, which was sold to Spotify for $230 million. The other managing partner is former Washington D.C. mayor and special advisor at Andreessen Horowitz, Adrian Fenty.
"We are putting money in the hands of venture funds whose investment thesis is to focus on women and entrepreneur because they are traditionally underrepresented," said Tiffany Moore, an executive with the trade association. CTA developed the idea in 2018 and the money comes from its own budget. That year, CTA made $126 million in revenue.
Do you have a story that needs to be told? My DMs are open on Twitter @racheluranga. You can also email me.
From Your Site Articles
- Ten Venture Capital Firms Commit to 'Diversity' Rider' - dot.LA ›
- VCs Fund More Early Stage Female Founders in LA - dot.LA ›
- Two LA Funds Focusing on Diversity Get PayPal Infusion - dot.LA ›
- Can MaC VC Help Solve Tech’s Whiteness Problem? - dot.LA ›
- Marlon Nichols Of MaC Ventures On Finding Trends First - dot.LA ›
- Marlon Nichols On His 'Glass-Half-Full' Mentality - dot.LA ›
- MaC Venture Capital Eyes $200 Million For Its Second Fund - dot.LA ›
Related Articles Around the Web
https://twitter.com/racheluranga
rachel@dot.la
