© 2014. All Rights Reserved.

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1 // UNDERSTAND WHAT A SOCIAL INFLUENCER IS

A social influencer is:

“A person or group of people who possess greater than average potential to influence due to attributes such as frequency of communication, personal persuasiveness or size of and centrality to a social network, among others.”

Source: Word of Mouth Marketing Association Influencer Guidebook 2013

2 // FOCUS LESS ON YOUR BUDGET AND MORE ON UNDERSTANDING INFLUENCER MARKETING 

“The key is to focus on how your customers make purchase decisions and who in their social graphs are more likely to influence that purchase decision. Most often it’s not those with large social followings but people who are in closest proximity (relationship, frequency of contact, personal nature of contact, etc.) with the prospective customer. When you understand this, you can run manual campaigns for 50 prospects that require little investment, to hundreds of thousands of dollars in budget for international campaigns targeting tens of thousands of prospects.”

- Sam Fiorella, partner, Sensei Marketing and author of Influence Marketing: How to Create, Manage and Measure Brand Influencers

3 // REMEMBER THE POWER OF WORD-OF-MOUTH

Studies have long shown that consumers find word-of-mouth recommendations more credible than traditional marketing messages. Today, 70 percent of US online adults trust brand or product recommendations from friends and family.

Source: Forrester Research

4 // DON’T FORGET THE PEER SPHERE OF INFLUENCE AMONG MILLENNIALS

Millennials are significantly more likely than older generations to be influenced by their friends’ social media posts about products and services. According to January 2014 polling conducted by Harris Interactive for The Webby Awards, 68 percent of 18-to-34-year-old social media users surveyed were at least somewhat likely to make a purchase after seeing a friend’s post.

Source: E-Marketer

5 // KNOW YOUR BUSINESS GOALS

“People can get glossy-eyed and excited about influencer marketing programs without first understanding their own business objectives.”

- Neil Beam, Word of Mouth Marketing Association (WOMMA).

There are several questions which can help marketers define their brand goals:

:: Are you looking to improve retention?:: Are you looking to improve customer lifetime value?:: Are you looking to increase loyalty program

membership?:: Are you looking to provide better and faster customer

service and support?:: Are you looking to improve your brand reputation?

Source: WOMMA Influencer Guidebook 2013

6 // CONSIDER INFLUENCER MARKETING A LONG-TERM PLAY

“A big challenge for most companies when it comes to social influencers is moving from an ‘advertising’ mindset to a ‘relationship’ mindset. For this to work, you need to nurture these influencer relationships so they become true organic advocates. That does not happen overnight - this is a long-term play that requires persistence and patience.”

- Mark Schaefer, author of “Return on Influence: The Revolutionary Power of Klout, Social Scoring and Influence Marketing.”

7 // DON’T RELY ON SOCIAL SCORING

Social scoring, which attempts to use algorithms to measure an individual’s influence, emerged in 2010 and now is offered by companies such as Klout, PeerIndex, Traackr, Kred, and dozens of others. But less than 15 percent of all agencies use Klout alone as a method to discover influencers. More typically, it is an amalgam of Klout plus some homemade algorithmic stew that is being used.

Just over one-quarter of marketers surveyed showed any enthusiasm for using social scoring tools as filtering mechanisms. Asked whether these tools are useful, the majority of marketers surveyed questioned their efficacy.

Source: Mark Schaeffer, Return on InfluenceSource: Sensei Marketing, Influence Marketing Survey 2013

8 // DON’T TRY TO BUY INFLUENCERS

Some influencer-marketing efforts have become pay-to-play campaigns, where brands offer financial incentives to bloggers, for example, in exchange for recommendations to followers. But some experts warn against this practice, particularly since, within the United States, the Federal Trade Commission issued endorsement guidelines that advise companies to disclose the use of incentives.

9 // REMEMBER THAT NOT ALL INFLUENCERS ARE CREATED EQUAL

According to the Word of Mouth Marketing Association, there are several distinct categories of key influencers that brands can identify and engage, including:

:: Advocates: brand-independent, not formally recognized by brand, positive sentiment

:: Ambassadors: formally recognized by brand (employees, affiliates, volunteers)

:: Citizens: Shares information but isn’t an advocate, typically anonymous (neighbors, friends, family members)

:: Professional/Occupational: derive income from influencing people (journalists, policymakers, academics)

Source: Word of Mouth Marketing Association Influencer Guidebook 2013

10 // MEASURE FOR SOCIAL INFLUENCER SUCCESS

In the measureable marketing world, the biggest question social influence campaigns face is “How do we know it works?” There are several metrics which offer insight into these efforts’ effectiveness, including:

:: Direct sales impact during a specified period of time:: The positive or negative impact on the customer

lifetime value (how long they remain a customer, total revenue earned, total profit earned, referrals converted) generated by the new customers/sales that came in from the campaign

:: The movement of prospects and customers along the customer life cycle (awareness > consideration > decision > purchase > satisfaction > loyalty > advocacy)

Source: Sam Fiorella, partner, Sensei Marketing and author of Influence Marketing: How to Create, Manage and Measure Brand Influencers

11 // HAVE AN EFFECTIVE SOCIAL LOYALTY STRATEGY 

True Social Influence = Successful Social Loyalty Strategy

“The real powerhouse in driving social influence is an effective social loyalty strategy - being true to your customers on social – all of them. Answering, helping, rewarding, and collaborating with as many of them as you can. Being seen by all your customers to be open, honest, transparent and even-handed generates credible, positive social influence and brand loyalty.”

- David Price, Aimia

12 // DEVELOP REAL RELATIONSHIPS 

To succeed in social influence, develop real relationships with customers fostered through on-going relevant conversation, rewards, emotion and participation - all of the elements, not surprisingly, of a successful loyalty program.

Be human. Be brilliant. Be trustworthy, Be rewarding.

For a deeper look at social media influencers, read “Harnessing the Power of Social Influencers” at

www.aimiainstitute.com

© 2014. All Rights Reserved.