What is Social Media Influencer Marketing?  

 

Attract and engage your key influencers on social media  

Social Media Influencer Marketing: can be defined as the practice of building relationships with the people who can build relationships for you. Whether an influencer’s audience is small or large, an influencer can reach your targeted consumers via their blogs and social networks that your brand may not be able to.

What is an Influencer?  An influencer is a person who is regarded as influential and in-the-

know; someone who is looked to for advice, direction, knowledge and opinions. Social media has given rise to a new generation of people with significant influence. These are people that are passionate about certain topics and have invested time to grow and develop trust with a significant following on their social networks. As a result they have the ability to influence others on these topics. Brands and companies looking to grow their online presence, build consumer trust and increase brand awareness often find themselves turning to this group of online “elites” to build brand advocacy.  

These social media power users have the ability to strengthen brands’ reputations through word-of-mouth campaigns targeted to their own online following. Influencers have become very important to brands who want to provide a personalized experience with their product, but who don’t have the resources to do so. Majority of the time this relationship is mutually beneficial. As the social media power users endorse the brand’s credibility, the influencer’s influence rises because of their affiliation with the brand. It’s a win for both parties.  

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How to identify an Influencer?      

So what makes an influencer? How does a brand identify influencers within their industry to help drive word of mouth campaigns? Questions every brand should ask before jumping into Social Media Influence Marketing. The general consensus is that they are users who have a greater-than-average share of voice, impact, or reach within a certain market segment. The benefit of influencers lies in their large audience base and their potential for message amplification is huge.    Citizen influencers are more trusted than celebrity endorsements because their recommendations are much more personal. They often have some relationship to their audience, and their audience feels they can trust in the influencer’s opinion. Citizen influencers are regular people with a large share of voice on social media, who have the potential to drive brand awareness and advocacy.  

“People influence people. Nothing influences people more than a recommendation from a trusted friend. A trusted referral influences people more than the best broadcast message.”

– Mark Zuckerber, Facebook

“We are entering the age of the Citizen Influencer, in which every person has a chance to get behind the velvet rope and be treated like a rock star.”

Mark Schaefer, Schaefer Marketing Solutions

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Identify influencers by the following attributes

REACH An influencer’s reach is important in defining the influencer’s ability to speak to market segments a brand wishes to target. However, the value of their reach is not a function of the size of their audience, but more that audience’s value to the brand.

RELEVANCE An Influencer’s relevance is a function of their alignment with the brand. Influencers develop relevance through their affiliation or advocacy with the brand’s industry. They often have a certain expertise on a topic that makes them an authority on a piece of content or a topic.

RESONANCE An influencer’s resonance is a function of their ability to create or engage with relevant content or audiences that a brand finds valuable.

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Discovering social media influencers is the easy part. Developing relationships with them and enticing them to engage with your brand is a little harder. These social media power users are aware of their power and influence in the social media space. Some influencers can be very selective in which brands they choose to partner with and how they choose to engage. This isn’t a bad thing on the influencer’s part. A lack of selectivity could reduce the influencer’s authority or damage their brand integrity. Start engaging your current influencers by recognizing the people who engage with your content now and reward them for that engagement. When you have mastered this technique and it has proven successful, you can begin to reach out to influencers outside your current circle.  

Use the following tips as a guide:   When you reach out to influencers, engage them through social media channels. Comment or share

their content. Let them know that your company respects both their industry knowledge and their Internet clout. Before taking this step know whom they are, why they’re important and how you’d like to partner with them before initiating contact. Social engagement takes time and you’ll want to build a solid foundation for your next move – don’t rush this process. After you have engaged with your targeted influencers and established a conversation, send out a personalized email. Let them know that your brand is interested in working with them.  

“Influence marketing might sound hip and trendy, but it’s actually one of the oldest forms of marketing.” - Bas van den Beld Founder & Owner, State of Digital

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When working with influencers on social media, always stay present. This is a huge part of the influencer equation because if an influencer chooses to work with your brand, promoting and sharing your content, they’ll expect you to continue to engage on that social channel. Many brands overlook this crucial step in maintaining a relationship with an influencer. This might turn other influencers as well as your current influencers off.  Use a pull strategy in your marketing, rather than a push strategy. So instead of foisting content on your influencers, listen and crowd source ideas to create content and campaigns. Ask them if they’ve got promotional ideas, since they likely know things about your target audience that you may not. This is not only a good way to come up with fresh ideas but it also shows trust in your influencers that can help solidify your relationship.  

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Identify Your Goals. Don’t just start reaching out to everyone who has a blog. Define your long-term vision for an influencer strategy and how you are going to measure success. Also, you don’t have to go big from the beginning. Start small with your strategy until you have a concrete process in place to scale.

Organize Influencers into Three Tiers. I’m sure most company wants the top celebrities to take about their brand or product. But those types of people are called Tier 1 influencers - meaning huge followings and very busy people. Your influencer list likely won’t contain several Tier 1 prospects, and that’s okay. Concentrate on cultivating relationships with Tier 2 and Tier 3 influencers. These are people who have attentive followings but are narrower in their focus. By getting subject matter experts talking about your brand online, you are more likely to draw in an audience that is actually interested in your product or service.

Build a Relationship. This is rule number one. Remember and follow this rule ALWAYS. Do not build a list of social media influencer’s and then immediately start emailing influencers. Show them you’re a person and that you’re actually interested in their own business objectives before ever talking business. This could start with a few comments on their blog posts or engagements via social media channels. The deeper the connection you have with influencers before you invite them to your program, the more they’ll be able to envision the positives in working with you on content creation.

Be Honest and Direct. When you’re developing an influencer marketing strategy make sure it supports your overall brand. It’s important not to avoid the terms of your working agreement. Make sure your influencers know what to expect and how you will compensate these professionals for their work?

Create Content Together. As opportunities come up for your influencer team to create content on behalf of your brand, make sure the lines of communication are open and that you’re never telling them to write, but rather asking them. Even if you have an agreement in place, your team should feel comfortable declining any request. Ask them what they would be interested in doing around a certain activity.     Since influencer marketing is about building strong

relationships, a strategy that values a mutually beneficial relationship is key. 

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Co-creation of content with influencers:

1.  Create a defined editorial style: create content that has a uniform editorial style and concentrate on what interests your business and your users. Don’t hesitate to make modifications to your content if it doesn’t fit with your editorial style.

2.  Facilitate influencer participation: for example, you can send a document to fill out that they can use to give you their responses.

3.  Associate your content with the influencer’s Google+ profile and other social network profiles. That way you’ll have greater visibility on search engines.

4.  Validate all modifications made to your content with the influencer you’ve collaborated with.

5.  Use every channel of social connection to distribute your content, and mention the participation of the influencer in your social network messages.

6.  Keep the influencer from publishing the content, so that the influencer can share the same content on his social networks.

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Allow Them to Be Themselves. Your influencers know their audience better than you do. Let them drive the content approach. Give them information or ideas as thought-starters, but for the most part, enable them to create content in their own voice and tone. And don’t be overly critical of their writing skills, unless they ask for it. Remember, they have a following for a reason, and their writing skills have not kept their audiences away.

Develop Reporting Methods. You should regularly share metrics with your influencer team or automate reporting through a reporting platform. It’s important to track metrics at the influencer and program levels so you can optimize your approach and evaluate relationships accordingly. You may be working with professionals who have developed a strong social audience, but that audience may not be interested in your product or service, despite your best efforts to align with the right people. Recognize this early, and continue to evolve your influencer marketing strategy to create the perfect niche.

Think outside of the box and experiment with different verticals of influencer topics. Track and monitor the engagement so you can scale the segments that work best.

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CONCLUSION  

 The social media marketing landscape is constantly changing. Today, it is almost impossible to distribute content without an influencer marketing strategy. By aligning your marketing strategy with the right experts, you open the door to more collaborative content creation efforts, co-opting ideas from chatter across a wider online network. Working with influencers is a partnership that can be incredibly beneficial for your company. Influencers have the power to drive brand perceptions and encourage purchasing choices. Working with influencers gives you the power of a localized voice and specialized industry knowledge that your brand may not be able to offer. This beneficial partnership requires the same level of professionalism you’d adopt partnering with other brands and can be time consuming because or the genuine nature of your interactions. Despite that, many brands find the return on investment to be more than worth it.

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Resources Guide

Links: Social Media Influencers http://www.grouphigh.com/social-media-influencers/ 10 Tips for Developing an Influencer Marketing Strategy  http://www.skyword.com/contentstandard/enterprise-marketing/10-tips-for-developing-an-influencer-marketing-strategy/   Influencer Marketing That Works http://www.augure.com/blog/develop-influencer-marketing-strategy-20150924   28 Stimulating Digital and Social Media Marketing Quotes http://www.fuelingnewbusiness.com/2011/02/23/28-stimulating-digital-and-social-media-marketing-quotes/ Influence Marketing: It’s About People   http://www.momentology.com/3788-influence-marketing-its-about-people/ Photo Credit: Pixabay https://pixabay.com/ 10 Philly social media influencers to follow http://www.phillyvoice.com/social-media-influencers/  

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