Mashable, VICE, Yelp and Ms Darlinghurst explore the definition of a digital influencer, how to produce viral content and the importance of building your community at a fun and informative evening hosted by The Insiders Agency.

1. HOW TO BE A #1 DIGITAL
INFLUENCER

2. INTRODUCTION
The Insiders is an influencer agency
representing Australia's leading digital talent.
We work with our network of bloggers, content
creators and social media personalities to help
them grow their profiles, attract opportunities
and partner with like-minded brands.
@theinsidersagency

3. Influencers are people that inform,
entertain and educate their audiences.

4. ALICE KIMBERLEY
Alice is a Strategic Planner at VICE
Australia, a global media company
operating in 35 countries.
She works with VICE’s brand partners and
creative teams to unearth provocative
insights into youth and pop culture.
She’s previously been a lawyer, started a
music festival, an art gallery and an
entertainment specialist in creative
agencies.
@vice

18. ALEX ADAMS

22. JENNI RYALL
Jenni Ryall is Mashable's Australia Editor. Prior to
working for the social news disrupters, she made
news.com.au look pretty with her multimedia and
editing skills, while writing yarns on the side.
Jenni cut her teeth at the early digital powerhouse,
Yahoo!, where she discovered the reality of a 5-
minute deadline and the power of the internet.
The Bondi local spends her spare time in the deep
web, googling tree goats or drinking pinot gris.
@jennijenni

23. Jenni Ryall
Australia Editor
@jennijenni
jenni@mashable.com
Inform. Inspire. Entertain.

24. From personal blog to a global media company

25. Mashable is documenting and
shaping the digital revolution.

26. Mashable
audience is…
45,000,000
25,000,000
2 Billion+
MONTHLY UNIQUES
SOCIAL FOLLOWERS
MONTHLY SOCIAL IMPRESSIONS
America – Australia – UK – Singapore – India – France

27. Storytelling is an age-old endeavour.
The story is the same, just the medium has changed

28. • Who is reading your content? Where do they live online? What do they care about?
• Understand the lingo of your audience & use it
• Learn from them and make editorial for them
• Don’t try to do it all – find your niche and stick with it
• Multiple viral elements in one story is a win (think: animal + social good + Trump)
• Tell interesting stories, don’t rip off your audience
Tell the right stories on the right medium

29. • Do your research
• Edit your work thoroughly or hire a sub editor
• Don’t underestimate your audience’s intelligence
• Think outside the box, question everything
• Teach them something new
The integrity of your content is everything

30. Understand & talk to your audience

31. 50%
Mobile
Mashable’s readers are:
Equally Split Millennials and
those who think
like them
Mobile and Tablet
Users

32. Early adopters.

33. Millennials.

34. Cultured.

35. Progressive.

36. How to create engaging content
Photo of face or something
interesting. Cropping matters.
Our audience loves old people doing inspiring
things, find your hook.
Feature style in tone, lead creative line,
end with a kicker.
Link to ALL sources.
Use photos, embed tweets and Facebook posts.
Engagement until the end with comment call out.

37. Headlines
Things to think about:
• Play to emotions
• Keep it snappy, strong and straightforward
• Don’t use puns
• Be oddly specific for humour
• Don’t have assumed knowledge
• Keeping it broad can attract a wider audience
• Be creative not complicated
• Test your headlines on social media
Terms to avoid:
• This
• It’s official
• Meet
• Reacts / responds (too bland)
• Exclusive – unless it is the story of the decade
• Question marks and exclamation marks
• The number 10
How to write a clickable headline

38. Truth bait wins the internet
• Everything you know about click bait is true, do the opposite to attract a loyal audience
• If your content is worth the click, back your content
• Don’t ask a question if the answer is “no”
• Don’t trick your audience
• Compliment your audience’s intelligence
• Don’t hide photographs for a click
• Get every interesting point in the headline

39. Sometimes the stories sell themselves

40. Work smarter, not harder
Why use a human when you can use a machine?

41. Mashable Velocity gives us a look into the future of what
people will be sharing, before they’re sharing it

42. Crawling Algorithms + Machine Learning + Data Science
500+ million URLS crawled, 50+ billion shares observed

43. The internet voted for Pitbull
How to use trends to shape your content

44. Velocity found a thread on Reddit: Shower thoughts.

45. Genius Shower Thoughts with Nick Offerman.

46. Cookie Monster also showers, apparently.

47. It started with this article featuring Comedian James Veitch.

48. Then we turned it into an original video series.

49. • Follow Twitter, Google and Facebook trends
• Google Analytics
• Set up Hootsuite or Tweetdeck to monitor social media
• Set up Google alerts for topics of interest
• Find free trending lists (can’t give away all my secrets)
• Have a reader set up with all related sources – feedly is good
• Know your competitors, watch them closely
• Dig, dig, dig through the internet
• Crowdtangle – monitors trending topics
• Dataminr – breaking news alerts
• Socialflow – optimises tweets
• Geofedia – location based social media
• Snapstream – takes a GIF of video clip
• Storyful – verifying and sourcing viral content
Free tools
Paid tools
But how can I do it myself?

50. Be everywhere.

51. We want to be everywhere our audience wants to be.
Engagement doesn’t end with our website.

52. Thank You.

53. BENJAMIN BARNETT
Ben is Yelp’s Senior Community Manager in
Sydney, a city guide and review site with active
communities in 32 countries.
He connects people with great local businesses,
develops strategic partnerships, writes
newsletters, throws parties, and does biz owner
outreach.
In past lives he’s worked in marketing,
advertising, design & branding, and
copywriting. His spirit animal is a meerkat.
@Yelpsydney
On Yelp: benny-b.yelp.com.au

54. BUILDING COMMUNITY
ONLINE AND OFF.

55. THE RISE OF COMMUNITY
● Tribe vs Community
● Social context:
○ Grassroots movements
○ Community learning
○ Brands talking at us → people talking amongst themselves
● Community is at the heart of everything Yelp does.
○ 11 yrs
○ 32 countries
○ 102m reviews
○ 160m UVs/mth
○ 200+ CMs
● Not just for big brands – Tim Ferriss and the sardine effect

56. WHY BUILD COMMUNITY?
● Share your content... with their own networks..
● UGC... the holy grail.
● Get feedback... what’s up free market research!
● Create brand advocates… free marketing e.g. Apple zealots.
● Recruit more people to your cause… 90% of consumers trust
peer recommendations, only 33% trust online ads (NIELSEN,
2009)
● Leverage... want to turn your blog into a book?
● It’s fun… raw vegan farms + free sourdough.

57. BUILDING COMMUNITY ONLINE
Seek out pockets of users who are excited about your ideas / product / art.
● Find out what they like… give them more of it.
● Keep it personal... don’t be a robot, collaborators not customers.
● Be responsive... nothing grows in a vacuum..
● Must be genuine... canned vs real responses.
● Give them a forum to connect with each other... communities are
interactive.
● Be contactable... ever tried reaching a real person at FB or Google?
● Hero their contributions... recognise investment.
● Give them a sense of ownership.... “our” site = builders + policemen.

58. BUILDING COMMUNITY OFFLINE
● Meet IRL… offline relationships strengthen online ones.
● Throw kick-ass events... learn + earn + brag.
● Be a connector... even if there’s nothing in it for you.
● Get out there... shake hands, kiss babies.
● Put your phone away... you can update social media later.

59. COMMUNITY BUILDING TIPS
● It takes time… remember how hard it was getting your first 1K IG
followers?
● Team ups!… work with cool people doing cool stuff.
● Be diplomatic… play the long game.
● Don’t be a d*ck... you’re selling yourself as much as your ideas.
● Own your failures... nobody talks about the good camping trip.
● Check out:
○ Read “1,000 True Fans” by Kevin Kelly
○ “Australian Community Managers” group on FB.

60. HIT ME UP!
LINKED IN… Benjamin Barnett
EMAIL… benny@yelp.com
FREE STUFF… yelp.com.au/events
PUG PHOTOS… benny_barnett on IG.

61. QUESTIONS

62. THANKS TO OUR SPONSORS

63. Get in touch: