Is there a future for influencers on Discord ?

Key Takeaways

• Discord is a social network for real-time communication and therefore holds great potential for influencer marketing.
• In 2022, 150m primarily young people use Discord, as well as 5% of US teens say Discord is their preferred network.

As Twitter has been in the headlines of the global press in recent weeks, we at Kolsquare’s Influencer Marketing Blog have been asking ourselves what the future holds for influencer marketing on the short messaging service ‘’the blue bird’’.

Today, we ask ourselves what the future holds for influencers on Discord. To begin with, we will explain what Discord is as well as give you some valuable facts and figures about the platform. We will also explain some of the advantages and opportunities for influencer marketing on the platform.

What Is Discord?

Discord is a social network on which text, video and voice messages are shared in real-time. It only attracted a wider audience after the Covid19 pandemic. Since its inception in 2015, the platform’s user base has been mostly gamers, divided into servers or many smaller communities. With that being said, servers are either public or private and can be organized for many people with common interests or bring together a small niche group of friends.

According to the change of audience from gamers to the wider public, Discord took an occasion to change the motto from “Chat for Gamers” to “Chat for Communities and Friends” in May 2020 to show the new inclusive orientation of the platform. This was a good decision because the latest user figures show that in the spring of 2021, 70% of Discord users are already using the network for more than just gaming, which means that this target group has grown by 40% compared to the previous year. Bearing in mind that it is not only the thematic focus of the platform that has shifted. In 2022, Discord will have 150m monthly active users, this indicates that the platform has grown by around 5,000% compared to 2.9m users in 2016.

Discord appeals primarily to young people as 5% of U.S. teenagers say that they prefer Discord as a social network, far behind Instagram (24%) but ahead of Twitter (3%) and Facebook (2%), according to Hootsuite.

You can also read on the Influencer Marketing Blog what the future holds for influencers on Twitter. After all, things got particularly interesting around the platform when entrepreneur Elon Musk bought the network for 44bn in the fall of 2022 and decided to make many changes.

How to Use Discord for Your Business

Unlike (many) other platforms, Discord is ad-free and decentralized. This can be a challenge for both influencers and brands if they want to use Discord for (influencer) marketing. However, don’t shy away from it as Discord can be a successful way to target Gen Z in particular as shown in the previous section.

At first, it sounds chaotic when you imagine discussing a topic with hundreds of people at once. It can be, but Discord has developed some features to give structure to the groups and make the discussions more manageable. Accordingly, anyone and everyone can create a so-called server on Discord for any topic. For example, influencers can create a server and start sharing content about themselves and their passion or expertise.

These servers are again divided into different “channels”. These so-called “channels” are for sub-topics within the Discord server and allow users to interact and communicate with each other in a more meaningful way. In addition, the “channels” are divided into three categories: text, voice and video.

• In the text channels, text and images are shared like in traditional chat rooms.
• Voice channels are reminiscent of podcasts in real-time, as you can verbally share what’s burning under your fingers using the voice hat icon.
• Video channels differ from Instagram Lives as they allow group video chats and are more Zoom like instead of a classic live video. Again, the communication is “many-to-many” rather than an influencer speaking.

By having your brand be a topic of the conversation on Discord or joining in the discussion yourself, you can build, ,grow and foster the communications with your followers and audience, ultimately building trust in your expertise.

Leverage the Community on Discord

Because Discord not only fosters communities but encourages the formation of groups, the network is very suitable for building communities. Moreover, Discord is especially valuable because of the core intention of the platform which revolves around the real-time interaction. Marketers can ask themselves the following questions before using Discord for Influencer-Marketing:

• Who do you want to address?
• What topic do you want to talk about and which group do you want to join?
• What and who is relevant to your brand?

Fortnite strengthens its real-time community on Discord with the so-called “lfg” (looking for group) channels, which are groups that help users find friends for live games. By enabling such groups, Fortnite builds a community around its brand and allows the fans to connect and talk about their product.

Give Yourself an Important Role on Discord Channels

You may be wondering now as you should have the upper hand for communication campaigns on Discord, but advertising doesn’t work in the classic sense here and tools you use on Instagram simply don’t exist on Discord. Consequently, you need to learn how to deal with the so-called roles.

Kolsquare-Insight: Discord roles define what you are allowed and not allowed to do on a server or a channel.. Check Discord directly to see what functions and permissions Discord roles have, based on the colors and hierarchies functions.

Role attribution can be a good opportunity to collaborate with influencers on Discord because you’re not only giving users aesthetic advantages (through colors and icons), but you give certain roles exclusive access to channels. Don’t underestimate how important nano-influencers can be for your brand’s image and reputation.