Influencer Marketing best practice Rene Power 4 June 2014
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Rene's presentation at On the Edge Live ( #edgemanc ) on 4 June 2014 which focused on how to design, build and implement a marketing strategy based on influencers. By understanding how to achieve greater reach on your target audience by tapping into other influencers on that group, Rene outlined a stepped approach to how to integrate influencer marketing into your business planning.
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Influencer Marketing best practice Rene Power 4 June 2014
- 1. www.marketingassassin.co.uk Creating a buzz through others B2B influencer marketing guidelines and best practice @renepower René Power, director BDB and author - Brilliant B2B Digital Marketing www.bdb.co.uk #edgemanc
- 2. www.marketingassassin.co.uk Session learning objectives @renepower www.bdb.co.uk #edgemanc
- 3. www.marketingassassin.co.uk Understanding influence www.b2bmarketing.net Establishing how you are influenced can help unearth how your customers may be influenced
- 4. www.marketingassassin.co.uk Understanding influence @renepower Who influences you? Who influences you? www.bdb.co.uk #edgemanc
- 5. www.marketingassassin.co.uk The many faces of influence @renepower http://traackr.com/blog/category/influencer-engagement/ www.bdb.co.uk #edgemanc
- 6. www.marketingassassin.co.uk Understanding influence www.b2bmarketing.net You are the average of the five people you spend the most time with
- 8. www.marketingassassin.co.uk The psychology of influence People want Security Material gains Symbolic awards @renepower Physiological needs Safety Belonging / love Esteem Need to know Aesthetic needs Self actualisation Transcendence www.bdb.co.uk #edgemanc
- 9. www.marketingassassin.co.uk Word of Mouth @renepower Brand Influencer Customers Action Message Recommend / share Decision making Brand Influencer Customers Action Message Recommend / share Decision making http://dannybrown.me/2013/08/14/the-fallacy-of-the-democratization-of-social-influence/ www.bdb.co.uk #edgemanc
- 10. www.marketingassassin.co.uk B2B buyer / influencer objectives @renepower Looking for improvement in process / delivery Looking for easy implementation and impact Looking to minimise cost and risk, maximise value and return http://www.siteiq.net/Library/3677/the-b2b-buying-process-from-your-customers-point-of-view (step three) www.bdb.co.uk #edgemanc
- 12. www.marketingassassin.co.uk What is influencer marketing? Influencer marketing, (also Influence Marketing) is a form of marketing that has emerged from a variety of recent practices and studies, in which focus is placed on specific key individuals (or types of individual) rather than the target market as a whole. It identifies the individuals that have influence over potential buyers, and orients marketing activities around these influencers. @renepower “It is finding and building relationships with those who hold sway with your target audience.” “It is finding and building relationships with those who hold sway with your target audience.” “The ability to sway the purchasing decisions of your target audience. The distinction is that influencers must be able to impact purchasing decisions.” “The ability to sway the purchasing decisions of your target audience. The distinction is that influencers must be able to impact purchasing decisions.” www.bdb.co.uk #edgemanc
- 13. www.marketingassassin.co.uk How can brands benefit? @renepower Increased sales opportunities Increased sales opportunities Increased referralsIncreased referrals DifferentiationDifferentiation Competitive advantage Competitive advantage www.bdb.co.uk #edgemanc
- 14. www.marketingassassin.co.uk Understanding influence www.b2bmarketing.net Every b2b marketer should target influencers as well as decision makers with their marketing efforts
- 16. www.marketingassassin.co.uk Influence in b2b procurement http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Influencer_Roles.jpg @renepower Idea plantersIdea planters Trend settersTrend setters PredicatorsPredicators ProclaimersProclaimers Aggregators / communicators Aggregators / communicators ScopersScopers RecommendersRecommenders PersuadersPersuaders NegotiatorsNegotiators ValidatorsValidators High low Timescale for decision making process Involvementofdecisionmakers Decide to do something Decide what to do www.bdb.co.uk #edgemanc
- 17. www.marketingassassin.co.uk Understanding influence www.b2bmarketing.net Question: Who are your influencers?
- 18. www.marketingassassin.co.uk Who are your influencers? @renepower Academia, authors, bloggers (and micro bloggers), business and trade journalists, buyers groups, purchasing lists and procurement authorities, commentators and other individuals, complementary partners, conferences and events, consumers and consumer groups, customer firms, financial analysts, government agencies and regulators, Individual and niche consultants, industry analysts, industry bodies, forums and federations, Internal influencers/employees, management consultancies, online forums, peers (role-based, industry-based), retailers, specialty consultancies, standards bodies, systems Integrators, distributors and similar channel partners, venture capitalists and investors Filter Amplifier Macro Distill from a large audience Project to a large audience Micro Distill from a niche audience Influential in smaller niche audience www.bdb.co.uk #edgemanc
- 19. www.marketingassassin.co.uk Finding influencers • Focus on influencers that “influence” your customers • Media titles • News (commentators) • Events • Websites / blogs • Forums / communities • Linkedin / Twitter @renepower www.bdb.co.uk #edgemanc
- 20. www.marketingassassin.co.uk Rating influencers • Market reach – no. of people an individual has the ability to connect with • Independence – whether an influencer has a vested interest in promoting a particular point of view • Frequency of impact – no. of opportunities an individual has to influence buying decisions • Expertise – how much of a subject matter expert is the influencer • Persuasiveness – the degree of consequence in ignoring an influencer's advice • Thoroughness of role - the extent to which influence is exerted across the decision lifecycle. @renepower Image: http://www.msktc.org/infoneeds/reach-your-audience www.bdb.co.uk #edgemanc
- 21. www.marketingassassin.co.uk Beginning to work with influencers @renepower www.bdb.co.uk #edgemanc
- 22. www.marketingassassin.co.uk Understanding influence www.b2bmarketing.net Identify, prioritise and rate influencers as most relevant to your brand (communications) before contacting them
- 23. www.marketingassassin.co.uk Effective B2B influencer marketing @renepower www.bdb.co.uk #edgemanc
- 25. www.marketingassassin.co.uk Step 1: Influence clustering http://bkstrategic.com/social-media/social-media-measurement/ @renepower Jill Dale Jill Dale Dave Ford Dave FordJohn Smith John Smith + = Influencer plan Influencer plan Brand asset mapping www.bdb.co.uk #edgemanc
- 26. www.marketingassassin.co.uk Step 2: Mapping brand assets http://bkstrategic.com/social-media/social-media-measurement/ @renepower White Paper Webinar White Paper Trade shows / events Demo PR Primary research Expert voice Host event Focus group Session with R&D Give product Invite to contribute content Social media ‘callout’ Regular content contributor Regular events VIP treatment Invite to speak www.bdb.co.uk #edgemanc
- 27. www.marketingassassin.co.uk Step 3: Communicating with influencers Where – watering holes How to approach and engage influencers Getting the message right Selecting the right platform Creating an enduring relationship @renepower www.bdb.co.uk #edgemanc
- 28. www.marketingassassin.co.uk Step 4: Engaging influencers @renepower www.bdb.co.uk #edgemanc
- 29. www.marketingassassin.co.uk Step 5: Selecting the right platform @renepower www.bdb.co.uk #edgemanc
- 30. www.marketingassassin.co.uk Proof of influence @renepower www.bdb.co.uk #edgemanc
- 31. www.marketingassassin.co.uk Understanding influence www.b2bmarketing.net Influencers will be interested in genuine and clearly demonstrating expertise, leadership, authority or value
- 32. www.marketingassassin.co.uk Getting influencer marketing wrong @renepower www.bdb.co.uk #edgemanc
- 35. www.marketingassassin.co.uk Measurement and evaluation • Establishing what to measure and setting benchmarks on key influencers by – market reach (amplification) – frequency – traffic generation – sharing – persuasiveness @renepower www.bdb.co.uk #edgemanc
- 36. www.marketingassassin.co.uk Deeper questions to pose @renepower Who drove the desired action the most? Who drove the desired action the most? What message permeated the most? What message permeated the most? What value did the influencer bring compared to financial outlay? What value did the influencer bring compared to financial outlay? How many messages did certain personas need to move to the next stage? How many messages did certain personas need to move to the next stage? How was the campaign perceived? How was the campaign perceived? How close to our goals did we come? How close to our goals did we come? How was our product or service improved as a result of feedback? How was our product or service improved as a result of feedback?Did it add to our bottom line while improving our top line? Did it add to our bottom line while improving our top line? How effective was our targeting? How effective was our targeting? What was the sum effect on our brand and our competitors? What was the sum effect on our brand and our competitors? www.bdb.co.uk #edgemanc
- 42. www.marketingassassin.co.uk Understanding influence www.b2bmarketing.net Decide what success looks like from the outset and set metrics to help you achieve it
- 43. www.marketingassassin.co.uk Session learning objectives @renepower www.bdb.co.uk #edgemanc
- 44. www.marketingassassin.co.uk Sources & further reading Sites • http://www.forbes.com/sites/meghanbiro/2013/09/26/5-lessons-on- influencer-marketing-and-brand-transparency/ • http://www.forbes.com/sites/gyro/2013/10/14/the-ws-of-influence-marketing/ - B2B agency Gyro’s take on influence • http://www.huffingtonpost.com/mark-fidelman/the-10-best-influencer-ma_b_4 - US consumer examples • http://blog.kissmetrics.com/guide-to-influencer-targeting/ • How to pitch tech to David Pogue of the New York Times – video Books • Influence marketing Danny Brown • Influencer marketing Duncan Brown @renepower www.bdb.co.uk #edgemanc
- 45. www.marketingassassin.co.uk More from me @renepower Version 1 of Brilliant B2B Digital Marketing is available from Amazon for Kindle now covering digital strategy, websites, search, content, social, CRM and evaluation This and hundreds of other guides and resources are available to Smart Insights Expert members. rene@bdb.co.uk http://www.bdb.co.uk @renepower http://marketingassassin.co.ukblog http www.bdb.co.uk #edgemanc
- 47. www.marketingassassin.co.uk Trade media: Pentair Valves & Controls In oil and gas Traditional press and event support Regular technical features developed written and placed by BDB in tier one international publications Syndicated in multiple languages to support in- country sales and marketing @renepower www.bdb.co.uk #edgemanc
- 48. www.marketingassassin.co.uk Distributors: Rockwell Automation @renepower www.bdb.co.uk #edgemanc
- 49. www.marketingassassin.co.uk IBM – smarter commerce Site http://www.ibm.com/smarterplanet/us/en/smarter_commerce/overview/ Case study http://socialmediatoday.com/dneisser/1700171/anatomy-successful-b2b-influencer-program @renepower www.bdb.co.uk #edgemanc
Hinweis der Redaktion
- Thanks for joining this session today. I’m Rene Power from BDB and today we’re focussing on influencer marketing and how to market through others. We’ve got a packed session – and apologies in advance it is bright to counteract lunch – but I hope you’ll go away brimming with ideas on how to start to create your own influencer marketing programmes.
- Today’s agenda and learning objectives – we’ll also cover off some important steps in creating a influencer marketing plan and look at some businesses that are doing it well.
- Takeaway no 1: Understanding what influences you and motivates you to take the actions and decisions you take will have a real impact on your ability to plan influencer marketing techniques that will aid your business.
- To return to influence, I think it’s worth us taking a few moments to understand what influence is and how we’re influenced in order to understand how to be able to the nature of influence. I picked up this interesting observation online in preparation for this session.
- To return to influence, I think it’s worth us taking a few moments to understand what influence is and how we’re influenced in order to understand how to be able to the nature of influence. I picked up this interesting observation online in preparation for this session.
- Who are those five people – commonly your parents, significant other, best friend, boss, business partner / teacher or a celebrity. Here’s another spin on it using modern social speak. What is interesting is to start to see how those much more closer to us exert more influence. Girlfriends and wives wont like the fact that mum comes first. And thinking about the relative influencer different types have and the reach they can bring to bear helps us to start thinking about how to tap into them. And deep down, everyone is a Belieber, right?
- Why do the people who influence us, the way they do. What are we looking for? Maslow’s hierarchy of needs is a well worn but time tested model used to illustrate our psychological needs from the physical and emotional through to the aspirational. So from our base needs of food, shelter and warmth through to Buddhist notions of transcendence, we have at different times the need for belonging, achievement and recognition. Influence comes to bear on us at different times – achievement and recognition of completing exams and becoming professionally qualified, the materialistic nature of work and advancement, the quest for knowledge. Influence and influencers play a big role in this too.
- So if we recognise that the greatest influence by and large comes through our close connections (remember your five primary influencing relationships) comes through deep personal bonds and relationships. Word of mouth is one of the primary vehicles for this and historically the pathway of message distillation from brands to customers (where influencers have been used) has been fairly linear and one dimensional. The message is shared / recommended and then decisions are made and actions taken. But the operation environment has evolved. Whilst there is, to a certain extent in many B2B sectors, a linear pathway, instead we are seeing much more dynamism in the conversation amongst customers. Customers have greater choice and the influence of their peers has become as important as the influencers. Thinking, still about our own interactions, I think this makes a lot of sense when you being to think about your own social media threads and recommendations that come your way. (This is lifted from Danny Brown’s excellent book Influence Marketing – the link is provided at the end of the session.)
- Starting to move ever more into the workplace, and looking at the different people we want to influence with our communications. Simplistically, it might be plausible to identify three different groups 1/ Specifiers (technology advocates) 2/ End users (end user advocates) 3/ Financiers (business advocates) Each has their own functional role requirements and interests when it comes to buying decisions.
- So to the task in hand, understanding influencer marketing.
- Influence marketing is a different type of marketing strategy. Instead of focusing on reaching out to your target audience directly, which can be a cold start, it concentrates on reaching out to the individuals who have influence over your target audience. Here are three different takes on what influencer marketing might mean – one is from Wikipedia.
- Third party evangelism As brands fail to make an impact, influencers can help with an already established audience of people who trust them. They aren’t seen as merely interested in making money from their audiences. As such, their audience pays close attention to what they have to say, and when they evangelize about a brand, their audience picks up on their passion and interest and takes an interest as well. The audience decides that if the influencer has taken the time to show interest, the brand MUST be worth a second look. Increased Credibility Earning credibility with a large audience can take a good deal of time and effort. In fact, it can seem an overwhelming challenge for smaller businesses with limited budgets. However, as with expanding a brand’s reach, influence marketing makes it easier to build credibility. When brands use influence marketing strategies, they don’t have to worry about proving their credibility to a large audience. Instead, they focus on demonstrating credibility to a small number of influencers, and these influencers take on the work of helping the brand gain credibility with the influencers’ (often large and loyal) audiences. Often, this building of credibility is accomplished because of the status and reputation of the influencer. When an influencer is known for thought leadership in an industry and takes the time to work with, discuss, and share information about a brand, the brand benefits from the increased credibility that naturally goes with being recommended by an influencer who is highly respected in a related industry. Extended Reach Influence marketing allows you to extend your reach dramatically. Instead of trying to directly reach a large number of individuals who just might have an interest in your products and services, an effort that is time-consuming, difficult, and costly, you can reach out to a smaller number of people, referred to as influencers. The influencers then reach out and share information about your brand with their own large audiences, allowing you to experience a large splash after throwing a smaller stone of effort. Complementary Marketing Effort Often, various types of marketing strategies are discussed as separate methods of achieving company goals. Influence marketing can be used by itself as an effective marketing strategy. However, it also serves well as a complement to other marketing efforts as part of an overall plan. In fact, influence marketing can be effective for amplifying your other efforts at marketing your brand’s products and services. Cost Savings Influence marketing often provides significant marketing-cost savings, which can prove of importance for small businesses in particular. With limited marketing funds to spend, small businesses have to be very careful about how they invest their time and money. Influence marketing allows them to reach out to more people while spending less money and investing less time than they would with other marketing strategies.
- Takeaway 2: Every b2b marketer worth his salt should be looking much more broadly at the business’ operating environment and targeting a wide variety of ‘stakeholders’ as part of their marketing effort.
- So let’s look a little deeper at ways of identifying influencers.
- Internally within businesses, we’ve already identified a core group of three distinct target customers – specifiers, users, financiers. But actually there are a wide variety of types – who all interact within the decision making process in very different ways. So again it’s worth just thinking about these different types of audience when we are thinking about the influencers, the messages and the tools we want to factor into our planning. It’s a little bit chicken and egg when you try and evaluate which pool are the most important – the people who decide to do something or the people who decide what to do. But its actually simple, if you need to plant ideas, create a groundswell, tap into a school of thought then certain types of people are going to be receptive to certain types of marketing – equally once there Is a decision to make on some shortlisted solutions, those people need hard-edged facts and figures, and feature derived benefits to make decisions.
- To return to influence, I think it’s worth us taking a few moments to understand what influence is and how we’re influenced in order to understand how to be able to the nature of influence. I picked up this interesting observation online in preparation for this session.
- Looking at customer procurement modelling is important when planning influencer marketing as the pool of available influencers is vast. They also come in a variety of flavours. In highly regulated markets, industry bodies and standards professionals opinions will matter, whilst in technology and software, the media and bloggers are going to be a significant route to market. Explain the differences between macro and micro and filters and amplifiers.
- So we’ve hinted at some influencers, but who are we looking for and where can we find them? Critically, we need to ensure we are looking at actual influencers and not perceived influencers – my next slide looks at ranking factors. For places – or watering holes they frequent to talk about and comment on topics of significance – consider trade media, websites/blogs, forums & communities, Linkedin groups, Twitter, industry events and news. All of these things will give you a flavour of what is hot, cold, urgent, missing, significant, trending and help you to identify the prominent voices too.
- Here are some elements to consider when rating influencers. In some instances their overall reach in terms of numbers of followers, fans, subscribers etc are significant but these should be tempered with use of influence scoring sites like Klout, Kred and PeerIndex – all of which I’m going to delve into when we arrive in measurement and evaluation. For now its suffice to say that can get a good measure of online influence fairly easily; offline influence is restricted to traditional PR evaluation and brand scoring.
- 1/ Can be as simple as starting to RT them, read and comment on their blog, share it on Linkedin. Give before taking. 2/ Make any offer very simple and very attractive – e.g. for product reviews take care of all the logistics (make it fool proof), make call / meeting arrangements to suit them. 3 &4/ Taking your knowledge from point 1 further by understanding their audience (your audience) and talking in the right terms 5/ Quantify what is valuable to them and deliver on it 6/ Become reliable and desirable. Don’t be the pushy PR guy always wanting something for (next to) nothing.
- Takeaway 3: Taking a structured approach to your identification, prioritization and rating will mean you are more likely to have a more relevant influencer pool to start to work with that will have cache with your target audience.
- To end the section on selection and recruitment it’s worth reminding ourselves that this is the most important part of a four step process. Picking the right people is crucial as effective influencer marketing dovetails with other marketing activity and should be based on solid communication principles of right content being served up to the right people through the right channel (platform) at the right time. Getting all this things right maximises the targeted reach and ensuing impact of what you are trying to achieve.
- So we’ve had a look around, we have an idea of who we want to work with, their areas of expertise, we’ve ranked them and now want to put a plan in place.
- When it comes to influence, there is a lot of talk online about personas right now. Personas help us to make sense of a demographic set which is way too hard and too broad to segment. Talk of personas and clustering is relevant when we consider influencer marketing too. The graphic on the screen is the first in a five step process to help create an influencer marketing programme. Rather than individual personas, we can look to cluster target influencers by role, type, function and create bespoke communications platforms using specific tools at key points. These points are the stages of the AIDA model redefined for the Internet generation, as we recognise the need to move influencers from being unaware of us to aware, to credibility to connection to loyalty to our brand.
- Here is a rudimentary plan of certain types of content and approaches to be used at each stage along the influencer conversion pathway. You can see how things start our being straight forward (off the shelf) before quickly scaling and becoming more personalised as influencers move to loyalty status.
- Communicating correctly with influencers is critical. First impressions count. I’ve added a link to a great video featuring the Technology editor for The New York Times who discusses in fairly vocal terms how not to pitch him when you think you have some news of interest to his readers. Watering holes are great for making soft introductions and subtly joining discussion. When it does become more one on one and there is a proposition to table, it needs to be simple and unequivocal. Platforms are key too. Lets look at some of these in turn now…
- For an influencer to want to advocate for a brand, there needs to be a strong emotional bond. There needs to be a story to tell that can be simply told and which will resonate. There are simple rules to follow in engaging influencers. Don’t sell – they are often not buying. Be human – talk benefits, history, experience. Talk their language – leave your company and sector vocabulary at the door. Make it about them – ask ‘what’s in it for me’ but from their perspective not yours. Make it easy for them – as said earlier any products, documentation, images, web pages, virals need to be easy to use.
- How to make contact and deliver information is critical. Influence through PR for example has often been conducted insufficiently with cold emails containing an expansive news release that isn’t honed to the needs of the media recipient and therefore his audience. Then when he’s called to check receipt and if it is of relevance, it’s no surprise he might get a bit frustrated. Fortunately, we have things like the Internet, and telephones to both do our homework up front and make soft connection – using techniques we mentioned earlier like connecting, following and sharing on social and creating some common ground so when you do make a first approach, it is more likely to have the intended outcome. But as we’ve seen throughout this session, personal contact is best as we’re developing long term relationships so opt for techniques that break down those personal barriers.
- And choice of platform is critical. So which platforms work best – and in which demographics? Your influencers may be of differing ages and culture. In this Exact Target 2012 survey looking at which tools impact which ages, email and direct continue to have a huge influence (email increasing in importance as people get older). Email is by and large opted in to, whether it’s your regular Amazon email or another time sensitive offer. Facebook puts in a noble performance at 20% - though it is markedly higher in younger demographics to older ones. (I would guess this is a little higher these days, and Twitter too with Promoted Tweets probably not around at the time of the survey). Again SMS and mobile apps are much higher in under 34 age groups to over.
- Takeaway 4: Teasing out influencers to work with you involves being on their wavelength and tapping into values and beliefs that are important to them. That’s why sincerity and being genuine are key. So to is being clear about the benefits of the initiative or activity being discussed – so looking to really build on expertise and authority are important.
- A company may face several issues when trying to reach its key influencers. For me, there are six 1/ Putting your brand in the hands of non contracted outsiders comes with a calculated risk some companies are not happy to take. 2/ It takes time, and potentially cost (even if in additional headcount terms) to service a cluster of influencers – feeding them with content, interacting with them and so on. 3/ Influencers in specific industry sectors or practices will be approached by other companies – being clear about the benefits of partnering with you is important in order to differentiate yourself from other companies. 4/ Blindly contacting influencers without an appreciation of the sorts of initiatives they want to get involved in is a first class route to failure. 5/ Influencers may not want to work exclusively with one brand 6/ Conversely, influencers you want may already be working (exclusively) with other brands
- So what about a checklist of eight things that will help to ensure you don’t make a mess of bringing influencers on board to create a buzz around your brand 1/ Have a SPOC but don’t leave it to one person. Not good for anyone involved to have an exclusive relationship. 2/ Equally don’t leave it to the intern – needs to be one or a selection of your own people of influence, with the gravitas to communicate what is required and to nurture the relationship. 3/ Individual approaches are going to be better – there will of course be certain things that are broad, but they must be allowed to work with material in their own way 4/ Be open about what you want to get from the relationship up front, and communicate it 5/ Use platforms and tools that they (and your joint audiences) use 6/ Tell everyone internally what is happening to get a buzz around it too – ironically your team can create even more buzz around what the influencer is doing for you. Example – marketing work with bloggers to put more material out, your teams then share everything the bloggers do 7/ Accept you will lose a degree of control – but its ok if you’ve entered into an open and honest dialogue and have shared objectives 8/ Build for the long term – start slow and small. It will take time.
- Sounds like a plan. So how are we going to measure the success of it – and how the time and investment we’ve made is paying off?
- We talked about some measures when we discussed ranking influencers earlier. We ideally want influencers to create buzz by amplifying what we’re doing to a higher level (volume of numbers), at an increased frequency (no of influencers being deployed) to create attention and drive traffic by sharing persuasive material intended to warrant action.
- Another way to think about metrics is to pose some quite specific questions – this will help you work out what measures you should be looking to measure. In accountability terms, being able to attribute uplifts to specific influencers, or activities or campaigns, has to be a good place to start as it will have the twin benefit to shake down your influencer pool and separate the stars from the dogs. I’d also like to focus on what trends, issues, discussions resonated most with the target audience as this will give a clear signpost to future planning. Ultimately, did targeting pay off and what was the impact on the brand, performance, reputation, recall, sales?
- Klout, probably the most widely known, measures you, your topics, your networks and creates a score based on interaction with your content. The Klout Score isn’t the average of your influence across all your networks, it’s the accumulation. Adding networks adds to your ability to share your expertise, and that helps your Klout Score. If you remove networks and then add them back later it could take a few days for your Klout Score to readjust. You can give and receive K’s on given subjects (like Linkedin endorsements). Not pictured are the lists of who you are influencing and who is influencing you based on your online activity – makes for interesting reading if you hadn’t noticed the trends. Klout draws from 400 measures across 10 networks, and a recent addition, Perks, offer brands a way in to the debate. Click on a topic button and you’ll find lists of influencers to make a start with your search INFLUENCE IS BIG – some numbers: 400M+Scored users, 200TBData processed daily, 200K+Businesses using Klout, 1M+Klout Perks delivered, 12BDaily social signals, 50B+API calls monthly As Klout is one of the dominant platforms when it comes to influence I thought it would useful to share their matrix. Based on grouped traits, they have mapped 16 different types of influencer. I personally think it’s quite hard to fit into one box, but I guess there is a prevailing quality if you selected a few. Again provided as a reference point for your own planning in the future.
- Kred works a little differently to Klout as it has much more of a community element to it and seeks through social media influence marketing to match people with offers they love. The Kred score is based on influence and outreach and is designed to incentivise ‘brand mention’. Kred selects people by interest, connection and influence and allows users to run hyper targeted promotional campaigns to increase awareness, create buzz and reward advocates. It also offers comprehensive post campaign ROI analytics and is used by some big B2B brands. Click the logo in show mode to visit the website
- Peer Index is different again, mapping activity, authority and audience. Like Klout it captures top topics based on activity, and offers influenced by and influencing but also goes further in how it informs social strategy and optimised performance marketing by taking an almost Google+ circles approach to clustering (we covered earlier). This helps target the right people on the right topics saving vast sums on search, keywords and PPC spend. Peer Index helps answer questions like: Do your follower demographics match your target audience? Is your content interesting and engaging your community? – provides data to help you know content you should be producing. How high is the quality of your social following? – Differentiate an influencer from a key influencer from an advocate from a champion. Again lots of interesting, enterprise level modelling and data analysis available and it’s being tapped into by big B2B brands
- Take away 5: Measurement on this sort of marketing is actually critical to getting the upfront commitment and seeing it through long term. Set quantifiable measures linked to your top line marketing and business objectives in order to have a benchmark once you get underway.
- So it feels like a long time since we started, but I think we’ve got through a lot of material!
- There are a few really good finds online about influence marketing if you want to take it further. Here’s a little list.
- And a final word from me; much of the Brilliant B2B Digital Marketing ebook from Amazon actually centre's on influence marketing of one kind or another (it’s so important to the B2B purchasing model in most sectors). Download the kindle app or log onto Amazon via your Kindle and check it out – sadly it’s not currently available in print. And if you liked what you heard today, do leave a testimonial comment on Twitter or connect with me on Linkedin. And if you want to talk more about your own influencer marketing programmes, contact me at BDB. Again thanks for your time and I hope this was a useful and entertaining 40 minutes for you. Thanks for attending.
- Take away 5: Measurement on this sort of marketing is actually critical to getting the upfront commitment and seeing it through long term. Set quantifiable measures linked to your top line marketing and business objectives in order to have a benchmark once you get underway.
- The first one I’ve selected is one of our trade PR clients and is a case study in thought leadership through media influencers. Pentair V&C (previously Tyco) has a century of engineering innovation under its belt, delivering high end flow control products into unforgiving applications across oil and gas, power, process, mining and more. Since 2010, we’ve been working with the team to build and extend the companies profile exclusively through trade media. With 2-3 globally established media houses and a raft of magazines and sites that the industry has come to rely on, building reputation in these sectors is a real challenge. Operating in oil and gas requires a blend of education and benefit marketing. Pentair trade PR showcases understanding and knowledge of issues, solving problems and positioning its industry leading products in an educational way. Press releases were replaced with dedicated features specifically addressing target journalist and magazine requirements leading to much better informed coverage. Articles targeting the challenges faced by working in deep water, operating at high pressure, meeting evolving environmental requirements, delivering global supply and enduring products were seen as the way forward. This guaranteed Pentair content is featured in tier one international press like Offshore, Offshore Technology, Oilfield Engineer, World Pipelines and more. Results x10 ROI based on standard AVE metrics, huge positive sentiment, OTS in the millions, people coming onto exhibition stands with copies of articles wanting to place orders! And editors that not only know what they can expect from Pentair in the future – but also can approach Pentair directly for comment and insight.
- Rockwell, like scores of large global companies, rely on distributors, to position their products and services locally. They are custodians of the brand in the eyes of their customers and can offer manufacturers a larger market, but at a reduced margin. The challenge then is to remain front of mind (in non-exclusive distribution markets especially) and be the best, most supportive manufacturer to the distributor pool. I like what Rockwell have built in their Partner Network as they have given an identity and Authorised Distributor badge scheme to this initiative and have worked hard to create a sense of belonging (remember Maslow) so this group of influencers are more likely to give more. There is an abundance of tools and support – behind a log in, I’m thinking events, awards, training too – to ensure they have all the tools to do the best for Rockwell in the field. Distributors often need a lot of love and a big push to do what you want them to do. Website http://www.rockwellautomation.com/rockwellautomation/sales-partners/partnernetwork.page?
- IBMs “VIP Influencer” program for their Smarter Commerce conferences initiative came after the client attending CMO Club Summit and realised that active, social influencers could deliver the brand to many more people than IBM marketing ever could (yes even more than IBM). Over a year IBM grew a pool to 25 influencers attending events and social media reporters to amplify content (transparently). Influencers selected through ‘buzz’, using tools like OneQube to help you navigate, measure and manage social relationships. Targeted a cluster of influencers who were prolific at generating content and who also had a very engaged following. Some notable people include Jay Baer, Ted Rubin, Pam Moore, Bryan Kramer, Kim Garst and Glen Gilmore - well known social commentators, bloggers, writers and consultants. IBM treated them like VIPs and give them insider access to the strategy and brand. Influencers tend to be a passionate, entrepreneurial community. Sharing your passion for your business with them and asking for their help to accomplish this is perhaps the secret ingredient of a successful influencer program. IBM asked them to be guest bloggers on an ongoing basis. Promote influencers throughout the year so they receive value from IBM. IBM has a strong social fabric—one that’s getting stronger every day—and that’s helping to extend the value of being aligned with the IBM brand. The campaign passed 2 billion impressions and we’ve seen a significant increase in engagement on our owned properties. Driving from owned to earned is a slow process since you need to build a community and following over time, but it is definitely measurable. Their advice: If you’re going to start an influencer program, take the time to think through the process of choosing the right brand sponsor within your organization. The program need to be nurtured by someone who will invest the necessary time and personal investment. It’s not a one-shot event—it’s a strategy that will evolve over time.