How influence marketing works Which technologies can help identify and engage advocates Influence marketing tactics How to identify influencers How to rank influencers Common reasons to invest in influence marketing Online resources to help identify relevant technologies that can help identify and engage influencers

1. Entire content © 2014 Gleanster, LLC. All rights reserved. Unauthorized use or reproduction prohibited. Note: This document is intended for individual use.
Electronic distribution via email or by posting on a personal website is in violation of the terms of use.
Concept Cheat Sheet
What’s a CheatSheet?
Gleanster Research produces
two types of CheatSheats:
ÆÆ Concept CheatSheats:
Explaining the nuances of a key concept.
ÆÆ Technology CheatSheats:
A comprehensive guide to a technology.
CheatSheats offer a quick and consumable
overview of a key concept or technology.
Our analysts develop these with one goal
in mind; explain the concept or technology
as if you were talking to your grandmother.
It’s the quickest way to get acclimated to
emerging business terms and impress
your colleagues and your boss with your
practical insights at your next meeting.
Inside a Concept CheatSheet
The Concept, Defined
Related Definitions
Related Business Outcomes
Relevant Technologies
Compliments of:
This CheatSheet is made
available compliments of:
Gleanster is a new breed of market
research and advisory services firm. Its
analyst reports highlight the experiences
of Top Performing organizations; why they
invest in technology, how they overcome
challenges, and how they maximize the
value of their investments.
Influence Marketing
The Concept, Defined
Influence Marketing is a marketing
discipline where emphasis is placed
on specific key individuals (or types
of individual) rather than the target
market as a whole. Influence marketing
focuses efforts on building relationships
or engaging individuals that have
influence over potential buyers. These
relationships can be used to generate
brand awareness (directly or indirectly)
or engage new target audiences.
Influencers may be potential buyers,
customers, or third parties. Third parties
can include relationships from the
supply chain (retailers, manufacturers,
etc.) or may be so-called value-
added influencers (such as journalists,
academics, industry analysts,
professional advisers, and so on).
Related Definitions
Influence Marketing Tactics: Despite
the fact that influence marketing is a
relatively new discipline, a wide body of
thought leadership has been developed
to establish best practices and define
tactics. Marketers should be focused on
four main activities:
• Identifying influencers, and rank them
in order of importance to the brand.
• Market to influencers, to increase
awareness of the firm within the
influencer community.
• Market through influencers, use
influencers to increase market
awareness of the firm among target
markets.
• Market with influencers, turning
influencers into advocates of the firm.
Identify Influencers: Market research
techniques can be used to identify
influencers. Research has been
conducted to classify influencers into 6
categories:
• Advocates: influencers who get
involved, with their communities, political
movements, charities, and so on.
• Networked: influencers who have large
social networks.
• Role Models: influencers who are
frequently referenced or trusted by
others.
• Cultured: influencers who have multiple
and diverse interests.
• Early Adopters: individuals who wield
influence and may be early adopters
(or leavers) in markets.
Ranking Influencers: In a business
setting, there could be a wide variety of
influencers to engage with. Research
suggests that only about 1-2% of
your customer community may be
influencers, but then you have to
account for external relationships.
You can rank influencers based on the
following dimensions:
• Reach – the number of people an
individual has the ability to connect with.
• Objectivity – whether an influencer
has a vested interest in promoting a
particular point of view.
• Frequency of Influence – the number
of opportunities an individual has to
influence buying decisions.
• Expertise – how much of a subject
matter expert is the influencer.
• Status – the degree of consequence in
ignoring an influencer’s advice.
• Reference – the extent to which
influence is exerted across the decision
lifecycle.

2. Entire content © 2014 Gleanster, LLC. All rights reserved. Unauthorized use or reproduction prohibited. Note: This document is intended for individual use.
Electronic distribution via email or by posting on a personal website is in violation of the terms of use.
Concept CheatSheet: Influence Marketing 2
COMPLIMENTS OF:
Alpha User: Alpha users are key
contributors to social networks, they
manage the connectivity of the core
members of the community. Similar to
how viruses spread in nature, there is an
initial starting point to communications in
social networks, and the originators of
such communications are alpha users.
They tend to be highly connected users
with exceptional influence to the other
thought-leaders of any social network.
Relationship marketing: Relationship
marketing was first defined as a form
of marketing developed from direct
response marketing campaigns which
emphasizes customer retention and
satisfaction, rather than a dominant focus
on sales transactions.
Reputation management: Reputation
management is the understanding
or influencing of an individual’s or
business’s reputation. It was originally
coined as a public relations term, but
advancement in computing, the internet
and social media made it primarily an
issue of search results.
Word-of-mouth marketing: Word-
of-mouth marketing (WOMM, WOM
marketing), also called word-of-mouth
advertising,differsfromnaturallyoccurring
WOM, in that it is actively influenced
or encouraged by organizations (e.g.
“seeding” a message in a network,
rewarding regular consumers to engage
in WOM, employing WOM “agents”).
Related Business Outcomes
Why invest in influence marketing?
• Lead generation
• Customer acquisition
• Brand awareness
• Market research
• Product launch strategy
• Outsource content marketing and
content creation
• Expand social presence
• Reduce operation margins
Relevant Technologies
What technologies support this concept?
Check out the links below to view the
landscape of vendors (and related
Gleanster Research content).
Remember that Gleansights contain
analyst commentary and vendor rankings
(based on end-user feedback) on all the
relevant Solution Providers in a given
Topic Area.
Influence Marketing
Social Media Monitoring
Social Media Marketing
Online Communities