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:
- Stewart Harding 683K followers
- Norman Buffong 450K followers
- Kim Garst 400K followers
- Pam Moore 250K followers
- 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 1st 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:
- Topics important to your audience
- Background information for your clients who are considering making a purchase
- Answers to questions that your customers have not thought to ask
- 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:
- Don’t confuse volume of contacts with influence.
- Set objectives: Know what you want to achieve and make sure that you reach your targets.
- 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.
- 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?
- 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.
- Mention the blogger on your own website or blog.
- 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
- 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
Thanks Sharon, for a great article. And I agree with you on the power of influencer marketing and to share and support them and thus get support in return also.
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Bookmarking this for later reference – I just started my blog and this post is fantastic! So much good information.
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I love this one, too, Theresa! Good metrics are key.
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Another great post Sharon. I’m going to check out some of the blog directories you listed. You also point out that just knowing your metrics in general can be a really useful tool.
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Thanks, Vickie. I love starting everything with proper metrics. Hard to know where we’re going without a baseline.
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I need to do more of this — be more mindful of influencers and preferred networks. Good stuff, Sharon; thanks for the reminder.
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I see your name at the top of my LinkedIn posts nearly EVERY day, Jackie. Guess what? You are an influencer
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Fabulous post and tips! Thanks for the suggestions and I will be implementing!
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We’ve got lots on the to-do list, Alissia. This is a good one.
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I have been focusing more on my blog lately, looking for opportunities to guest blog for others and tieing in other media (like Periscope). But I’d never thought about identifying influencers. Thanks for the great tip, Sharon!
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I really like your plan to guest blog, too. Thanks, Carole
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And a really powerful article. Copied, saved and will study this closely. Honored to FOLLOW you. Keep up the good work!
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Thank YOU Dailey. Power to us all in this business.
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This is great information. This is certainly an area where I’m growing and trying to identify my influencers who would tweet, like, RT or share something of mine. I love your tips for how to make this work! Thank you so much.
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Glad you’re on this track, Erin. Best wishes!
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This is really wonderful, high-quality advice, Sharon. I cannot thank you enough for such a valuable post. Some of these things I knew already but some I did not and the way you laid it all out makes it easy to see how I can put it into action for myself. Thanks again!
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Some things I revisit time and time again, Lisa. I revist Kim’s basic lessons every so often and always learn something new. Thanks for checking in!
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In my world you are my influencer. I do hope to explore this for our business, someday. Glad you are gaining momentum.
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Well, you just made my day – no, month! Our efforts are going places, Roslyn.
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This was a little different than your recent norm and it was very interesting as well. It’s stuff a lot of us entrepreneurs, not C-suites can relate to and that was great. Congrats on your growth as well. Influencers can surely help… but so can a lot of us little people, right!? lol
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Yep – you’re right about a departure from the 3-month series focused on CEOs. We need them to “get it” too. I think influencers come from many different sources – the celebs and the rest of us who form the foundation of a rock-solid social enterprise. Like you and me!
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Great analysis and valuable information Sharon! 🙂
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Thanks, Scott. I’m a big fan of evidence-based marketing.
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LOVE LOVE LOVE this post Sharon! This is such an important topic and I’m glad I found a good article about it. Sharing it.
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Hey! Thanks Erika. To me, influence marketing is a gift for getting launched, too.
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Great advice Sharon. I shall be more patient with Twitter. And far more appreciative of those who RT me etc.
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You nailed it, Denyse. We need patience — and persistance!
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