ABOUT INFLUENCER MARKETING

11 THINGS YOU SHOULD KNOW

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Influencer marketing is the practice of working with influential

people online to spread the word about your products and services

through social media. Yet, running a successful influencer program

involves more than asking influential people to give a positive review

of your brand or product. To be successful, you need to know these

eleven best practices.

INTRODUCTION

01 AN ADVOCATE IS DIFFERENT FROM AN INFLUENCER

Brands often mistake brand advocates – those who are avid fans of

their products – as influencers. An advocate is surely someone who

will speak positively about a brand, however, to truly rally people,

brands should partner with those who can influence the purchase

decisions of others.

For brands, working with people that are influential on social media

is a good way to increase their brand awareness and drive customer

engagement. These influencers have a loyal audience and can

influence their readers by posting brand-friendly content. The benefit

of working with these influencers is that they have built a trusted

relationship with their audience over time and can create content

that resonates with their readers.

Unlike banner or display ads that are on the side bar and seek to

distract the reader, influencer content is integrated seamlessly within

the content that readers come to experience. Influencers create

content as part of their blog, Pinterest boards, or Facebook updates.

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02 WHAT TO LOOK FOR IN AN INFLUENCER?

Marketers have started to understand that leveraging the influence of

bloggers and other powerful social media users can maximize the

ROI of online marketing activities. But for many industry

professionals, accurately identifying the right influencers for their

program remains a challenge. When it comes to selecting the best

social media partners, use the following guidelines:

HIGH QUALITY CONTENT

Focus on people that regularly post high quality content.

That means that they create authentic content that

resonates with their readers, creates discussion, and is

shared across social platforms.

ENGAGEMENT WITH THEIR AUDIENCE

Look for indications that readers interact with the

influencer content. That could be commenting on the

discussion, voting in contests, and sharing to other social

sites.

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THE DEMOGRAPHIC OF THE AUDIENCE

An Influencer’s personal attributes do not necessarily represent the

demographic of their audience—frequent content generation in a

specific brand-relevant topic is a better indication of a blogger’s

audience demographic. For example, when trying to reach moms

with children between the ages of 1-3, target bloggers who talk

about parenting toddlers, etc., rather than recruiting bloggers who

have toddlers.

A PRESENCE ACROSS PLATFORMS

Look for influencers who maintain a presence across multiple social

channels to get more impact.

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CONT...

03 INFLUENCERS ARE BRANDS...

TREAT THEM LIKE BUSINESS PARTNERS

It is crucial to remember that influencer marketing is a business

relationship between the brand and the influencer. Brands are

looking for authentic and engaging content to rally consumers

around a particular brand, marketing campaign, event, etc.

Influencers look for meaningful ways to create content while

generating revenue.

A brand-Influencer relationship is mutually beneficial—an exchange

of money for the provocation of brand awareness, consideration, and

preference. In order for the relationship to be successful:

Share program goals with influencers and provide them

with the tools to achieve them

Set content requirements clearly, but leave room for

creativity and personalization

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04 NICHE INFLUENCERS OFTEN GENERATE THE MOST ENGAGEMENT

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Many brands attribute success to the number of people that read

influencer content (often measured by impressions). Instead, they

should measure engagement, or the ability of the influencer to drive

action from their readers.

Readership numbers do not necessarily equate the amount of

engagement an influencer can garner. Often, niche influencers –

those who focus on a very particular topic – have the ability to drive

more engagement than those who focus on a variety of topics. Niche

influencers have a core group of followers who tend to be more

engaged with the content.

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For example, Brand X makes a stroller for triplets and wants to work

with an influencer to drive awareness about products for multiples.

The program would be more successful if they identified an

influencer with 1,000 followers who wrote about the challenges of

parenting triplets rather than someone with 10,000 followers who

wrote about the challenges of parenting. The audience of the

influencer who writes about the challenges of parenting triplets is

more likely to resonate with the brand’s message because it

addresses their specific need.

EXAMPLE

05 ACTIVATE THE CREATION OF HIGH QUALITY, PROVOCATIVE CONTENT

Brands often make the mistake of assuming that the way they talk

about their brand is mimicked by consumers online. But, typically,

consumer generated social content is more casual, personal, and

authentic than the commercial tone used by brands and agencies.

For example, an online publisher would never authentically write,

“Buy it today!” or use a brand’s trademark. Use these best practices

when crafting an Influencer Marketing program:

Create authentic (inline with the influencer’s natural

content) brand messaging and reader call-to-action.

Allow the influencer to tell a story and connect your

product or service to something personal.

The blog topic (and reader discussion, if applicable) should

be something already being discussed online.

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06 REACH IS NOT THE MOST IMPORTANT METRIC

When working with an influencer, you want to look at their

engagement as well as their reach. Look for indications that readers

interact with influencer content. It is crucial to look beyond clicks and

impressions to determine how engaged consumers are with content.

When people are engaged, they are more likely to comment, share,

and pass on their thoughts about a product to their friends.

Influencer programs build context around a brand, drive

engagement, and social sharing around content. To measure

Impressions

Clicks

Comments

Shares

Likes

Retweets

Pins

Repins

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07 AUTHENTIC CONTENT CREATES TRUST

Influencer marketing allows brands to integrate brand sponsored

content in an authentic and meaningful way by partnering with

influential social media publishers. Consumers trust their peer

recommendations more than they trust branded advertisements.

People think of the connections they make on social media as

friends. Allowing influencers to create authentic content enables

brands to reach a loyal audience with a message that is trusted by

the consumer. The relationships fostered by the influencer create a

sense of trust amongst the readers and allows the brand to tap into

this trust.

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08 INFLUENCER MARKETING FACILITATES EARNED MEDIA

SHARE

REPOSTED

TALKEDABOUT

If brands want to be relevant to consumers, they must approach

media as a way to attract, engage and convert prospects. That

means engaging consumers where they are interacting with content

way to create earned media that can fuel a conversation about their

brand with trustworthy content.

Since influencer marketing results in engagement, it also results in

earned media. Influencers are experts in generating discussions

online, so the content they create on behalf of a brand is talked

about, shared, and reposted. That is earned media. The value of

earned media is that it is trusted more by consumers. When

influencers write about their own experiences and share compelling

audience.

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09 ONLINE ACTIVITY IS A CORE PART OF THE DECISION MAKING PROCESS

In today’s digital world, people can access information about

products long before they reach a brand site. They turn to their peers

online for recommendations about what products, they look for

information through search engines, and they read product reviews.

According to a recent TechnoratiMedia study, online activity plays a

very important role in the decision making process. Blogs represent

the third most influential resource for consumers looking to make a

purchase1. Therefore, it makes sense for brands to partner with

bloggers and other social media influencers. They have the ability to

rally their readers and increase engagement in social sites.

2013 Digital Influence Report, TechnoratiMedia, http://technoratimedia.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/02/tm2013DIR.pdf

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USER RATING

USER RATING

10 PEOPLE ARE ALREADY TALKING ONLINE…

BE PART OF THE CONVERSATION

Social media has changed the way that brands interact with

consumers. It has fostered an environment where the consumers

have immediate access to information. In social media, people talk

about brands and their products and they make decisions about

what to buy from what they discover. Successful brands leverage

social media to stay connected with consumers. They actively

participate in the online conversation to stay in touch.

However, being a part of the conversation does not mean

advertising. Ads distract readers and are on the side of the

conversation. When brands work with influencers, they participate by

allowing people to share, comment, and engage with branded

content in a natural way.

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11 INFLUENCER PROGRAMS MUST HAVE CLEAR GOALS

determine what the program goals are. An influencer marketing

campaign with no clear goals is a recipe for failure. Brands need a

clear determination of what they are looking to achieve by working

with influencers. They need to outline success metric, such as:

Generating awareness for a new program

(measured in impressions)

Increasing a fan base (measured in follows)

Creating high quality content (measured by shares)

Engaging the audience (measured by comments)

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