They have power, influence and business impact

By Sharon A.M. MacLean who invites your comments following this blog.  You can also find more modern marketing strategies for business here. 

We know now that creating content, especially blogs, tops the list of every how-to strategy for marketing online.

You’ve got a few choices: You can publish your own blog, infographic, video or podcast, to name a few methods. Or you can distribute content acquired from other sources.

Another option is to find people with influence to help share your story through the clout they’ve built up across the different platforms.

We call this influence marketing. It’s the practice of working with prominent people online to spread the word about your products and services through social media.

Recently, I analyzed my Tweets over the previous 12 months. The evaluation revealed the names of 5 powerful influencers I want to thank. Here they are:

1. Stewart Harding 683K followers
2. Norman Buffong 450K followers
3. Kim Garst 400K followers
4. Pam Moore 250K followers
5. Phil Glutting 128K followers

Just last week, Kim Garst kindly tweeted out a blog for me with a reach of 1885 impressions, 11 engagements, and 4 retweets. She said, “Yes!” to sharing the LinkedIn blog titled, Who’s on 1^st in the social media c-suite?

Wow, thanks, Kim.

Over the year, my impressions increased by 29.5%, profile visits improved by 35%, and mentions amplified by 9.5%. This shows it’s possible for a business person to increase their profile by diligently posting on their preferred networks; Twitter and LinkedIn in this case. My most popular blog? An earlier version of this topic on influencers.

A really important metric, though, deals with engagement. I found the highest interactions came from my local community with amazing people I’ve known over the years. Isn’t that like real life? We generally connect more with folks we know better than those we’re getting to know. Here, I’m talking about Teresa Spinelli known around Canada as a much-loved business tycoon in the grocery store business.

I also want to give a shout out to a new friend, Michael Kawula, CEO at Social Quant. His platform was responsible for my top share for the post co-written with Olivier Taupin titled, What are you doing with all your contacts?

Here’s how Kraft foods recently handled a promotion for Christmas. Kraft cherry-picked 180 bloggers with verified fans and readers who fit the right customer profile. Each influencer wrote an original recipe that featured a Kraft ingredient and each recipe drove readers to a redeemable coupon at Target.

The national brand spent $43,000 to generate nearly 760,000 blog post views from around 180 recipes. Kraft engaged a snappy new platform called TapInfluence and the campaign was less expensive than traditional advertising.

Small and medium-sized business can do the same thing with sweat equity on a smaller scale by building their own lists of bloggers and developing relationships with them.

Influencers help with everything from increasing sales to public education campaigns, event promotions, fundraising, and new product introductions.

Where do you begin to find influencers?

Start within your own networks and move out from there. Build a database to keep track of these elements:

• Name of influencer
• Preferred network
• Audience size
• Age group
• Engagement: Clicks, comments, shares, likes, retweets, pins, re-pins
• Advertisers represented
• Notes from conversations to remember what you heard them last say

Of course, there are hundreds of directories for over 250 million bloggers on the planet. When you run out of names from your personal circles of influence, try expanding your search of these directories:

• http://Blekko.com/
• http://blogcatologue.com/category
• http://www.invesp.com/blog-rank
• http://www.socialmention.com

Be prepared to give ideas about your audience to prospective influencers, as well:

1. Topics important to your audience
2. Background information for your clients who are considering making a purchase
3. Answers to questions that your customers have not  thought to ask
4. Online sources that customers research for information on similar products and services

What flummoxed me, though, was a way to rank bloggers with whom to develop relationships. Below is what Kyle Wong, founder and CEO of www.pixlee.com pictured above, figured out. I love it.

 Influence = Audience reach (#of followers) x Brand Affinity (expertise and credibility) x Strength of Relationship with Followers.

Here’s 8 more points to remember:

1. Don’t confuse volume of contacts with influence.
2. Set objectives: Know what you want to achieve and make sure that you reach your targets.
3. Think long term. Invest your time, attention and interest in the other person. Be careful not to be seen as only making contact when you want something from an influencer.
4. Spot opportunities. Are you able to introduce the blogger to people within your network? Do you see potential partnerships or sponsorships to involve the blogger?
5. Don’t forget your “everyday” customers and brand advocates. More than celebrities in your niche, this type of influencer/follower can boost small no-name companies to higher profiles.
6. Mention the blogger on your own website or blog.
7. Link to them – both hyperlink and other social media channels. Follow them on Twitter and retweet their best tweets. Suggest involving them in other more interactive ways – e.g. interviews or video
8. Remember that bloggers are legally required to disclose if they are being compensated much in the way that traditional media must identify advertorials as paid messages.

In addition, when a blogger writes about your story and receives compensation, it is deemed a “sponsored post”. This means any hyperlink must be classified as ‘no-follow’ links which means they are not counted by search engines when calculating page rank.

Establishing presence in the digital world can seem overwhelming. Publishing a blog and identifying 5 influential bloggers to form relationships is a good place to start.

Lifelong communications strategist Sharon MacLean owned and published a traditional print magazine for over 21 years for business people. She is certified in Integrated Online Strategies from the University of San Francisco and the Instant Customer Mastery Certified Professional Program