The document discusses social media influencer marketing strategies. It outlines the key steps as locating influencers through tools like Klout and Statigr.am, engaging with them by finding shared interests, and launching co-created content through their networks. It emphasizes building long-term relationships, measuring results through tagging links, and showing influencers the value they provide through sharing performance data. The goal is to leverage influencers' networks to spread content and drive traffic in a cost-effective manner.
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Using Social Media Influencers for Brand Awareness
1.
2. -Director of Marketing for HCCMIS
-Responsible for social media & brand awareness
- HCCMIS sells insurance for people traveling internationally
- One of first to sell health insurance online
-We have built over 250,000 targeted followers across multiple
channels
-Reached about 6 million people in twelve months
3. - I am also co-author of Nothing New: An Irreverent History of
Storytelling and Social Media, an Amazon Best seller.
- Nothing New is not your traditional book on web marketing or
social media
- Nothing new tracks back in history to show how the art of
storytelling is impacted by new technologies, including social media
- Download the e-book on amazon at http://amzn.to/OcDJM3
4. -The world is home to 7 billion people; 1/3rd of the world
population is online
- Expansion is steady in developed countries, but exploding in
developing nations
- We have 1 billion users of social media
5. - There are 1 billion users of social media
- There are over 200 active social media networks
6. 80% of people in social media only share one content of
category in a month.
7. - 51% use social media to research when shopping
-2/3rds social media to make purchase decisions - Jay Baer
-Not only are we doing our research online, we are making
our purchasing descisions!
- This insane growth of social media is impacting how many
channels we, as marketers now have to engage in
- Basically...
8. -Social proliferation has changed how we do business
- but have we, as marketers and content creators, kept up
with changing times?
- Unfortunately, for many of us, the answer is no
9. -As content creators first, and marketers second, many of us are
operating under the unicorn strategy
- we create awesome content
- we post this awesome content
- we expect folks to find it and wala! double rainbow
- but there's a problem
10. - Without an enormous following, this is like screaming
in the woods
- there is a better way
11. - own the results of your content
- create that amazing content you are so good at
- post this content to a beautiful web property
- then... promote it
- Take your content to the people who want it
- hand deliver it.
- Create your double rainbow
- a tried and true delivery method is brand
advocates/influencers
12. - Influencers are individuals who words and actions impact the
ideology and actions of others.
- Create brand advocates vs. influencers
- this concept is highly used in traditional advertising
13. - Brands use celebrities to ensure impact the buying
decisions of consumers
- Stealing star power has been used for years1
- 48% trust companies. But that means that 52% think
you’re lying. Have someone else tell your story
- Check out this data
14. - Celebrity spokespeople still work, much less so than they
did in the past
- Blogs and social updates are considerably more influential
than celebrity endorser to those who want substantive
advice
-On top of this
15. - 98% trust advice and information they get from blogs
- This is important to remember because most social media
influencers also own a web property like a blog
- So far this year we have released over 6,000 pieces of
content.
- Our network has grown to over 250,000
- Influencers play a huge role in how we develop and
promote
- So lets look at some of our results
16. - Anatomy of a backpacker is a mixed media piece that we
created to inform international backpackers how to prepare
for a trip. It included short infographics, charts, and written
content.
- A link to the content was given to a high influence Stumbler
and it blew up!
- 40,000 visits
- Over 5 min on page
-26% bounce rate
-Remember, this is for an insurance company! Like, that’s crazy!
@MuhammadInc @hccmis
17. - In this example, we had already developed a relationship
with a makeup artist who had over a million followers on
Pinterest. We created a piece of content, just for her, to
fit her demographic of engaged followers.
-300 reshares
-Over 1000 visits to site in the first 3 hours
-Traffic continued for several weeks
@MuhammadInc @hccmis
18. - Sometimes it is better to build your own network. Because of
a focus on the adventure traveler demographic, we built a
facebook community of over 15,000 follower. This community
was used to promote an interactive infographic.
-3.9m impressions
-2k comments
-Over 100 shares
- This is all great, but does your boss really care about what I
did? No, he's all "Steve.." *tap*
@MuhammadInc @hccmis
19. - let's get some actual work done and keep the cats happy
- We will cover, locating, engaging, and launching influencer
content
- In each section we will have a tool, so keep a sharp eye
20. - Locating social media influencers is the first, but easiest, step
- Social media influencers are very active online. They are loud! So
they tend to be hard to miss in their verticals
21. - Love/hate relationship with Klout
- Use the gamification system of Klout to find influencers on
certain topics
- Ignore the first page to avoid people that gamed the game
22. - Third party tools like Statigr.am let you search content based
on keywords
- also use internal search tools of networks
@MuhammadInc @hccmis
23. Followerwonk searches bios for keywords and allows you to
download the results to an excel sheet
@MuhammadInc @hccmis
24. Social crawlitics is a free tool that crawls webpages and
pulls back the social sharing statistics on each of the
pages.
I use tools like this to check the websites of potential
influencers and see how active their community is
regarding their blog content.
25.
26. The next step is to take that targeted social media influencer and
become friends with them.
This is the HARDEST part of the process.
Expect it to take a long time.
You are trying to create a friendship that can withstand the test of
time.
27. Before you reach out to them, you need to figure out who they are as individuals.
Remember, your first approach will NOT be about placing content. You are
looking to make a friend.
For example, if you are targeting an adventure traveler, that person may have
interests like Hiking, Skiing, or backpacking.
Since social media influencers are so vocal online, their profiles are a perfect place
to figure out their interests.
-Kotex did an awesome job with their pinterest campaign
-50 women
-Created special boxes based on what the women were sharing on pinterest
-Mailed those boxed to the targeted influencers
- Created 700,000 brand impressions via social media from those women
enthusiastically sharing what they received.
28. You can also use social influence tools like Klout to see what
people are consistently talking about. In this case, it looks
like Allison Carter loves Vampires. Maybe you should start
out by talking to her about True Blood.
29. Reaching out to influencers for the first time can be daunting.
Stop worrying and just say hi!
Go ahead and jump into the conversation.
Realize that you may get ignored the first few times, but be
persistent.
30. Now that you’ve created a BFF, and brand advocate, out of
your targeted social influencer, it’s time to make some
rainbows!
31. Remember the vanity of people. The networks of social media
influencers expect the best content from them. They trust
them! Make sure you meet the vanity metric by placing
content that makes the influencer look like a million bucks.
As you saw earlier, sometime you may have a great piece that
fits them. However, sometime you may have to create a brand
new piece of content just for them.
32. With all the fun it can be easy to forget that you need to
measure your efforts to determine ROI.
Using a measurement tool is CRITICAL.
33. At the very least, use bit.ly links so that you can track clicks and
geographic information.
34. If you use Google Analytics on your site, a best practice is to use
campaign tagging on all your links.
This google docs spreadsheet automatically creates a tagged URL
for you AND automatically creates a bit.ly link!
I like to put all the influencers under one campaign, and identify
them by name as the “source” with their preferred platform as
the “medium”
35. Tagging the links provided to each influencer
allows you to measure the visits, onsite time,
bounce rates, new visitor percentages, and
even track them through the buying cycle!
This is important not only to ensure your
original assumptions about their value are
correct, but also to show value to your internal
stakeholders AND to provide information to
the social media influencer
36. Remember, this is not a one night stand. Once you have launched
the promoted content, go back and share the results with your
influencer. This meets the vanity metric. If this go well, tell them!
Make sure they know how valuable they are to you.
TELL THEM THANK YOU!
37. Thank you for having me at Blog Indiana. Feel free to reach out
to me any time to ask questions, and remember to buy
Nothing New: An Irreverent History of Storytelling and Social
Media. It’s a great read for any web marketer!
Editor's Notes
Agenda -Follow me @MuhammadInc -Use @hccmis for case studies *tap*
-Director of Marketing for HCCMIS -Responsible for social media & brand awareness - HCCMIS sells insurance for people traveling internationally - One of first to sell health insurance online -We have built over 250,000 targeted followers across multiple channels -Reached about 6 million people in twelve months *tap*
- I am also co-author of Nothing New: An Irreverent History of Storytelling and Social Media, an Amazon Best seller. - Nothing New is not your traditional book on web marketing or social media - Nothing new tracks back in history to show how the art of storytelling is impacted by new technologies, including social media - Download the e-book on amazon at http://amzn.to/OcDJM3
-The world is home to 7 billion people; 1/3rd of the world population is online - Expansion is steady in developed countries, but exploding in developing nations - We have 1 billion users of social media
There are 1 billion users of social media There are over 200 active social media networks
80% of people in social media only share one content of category in a month.
- 51% use social media to research when shopping -2/3rds social media to make purchase decisions - Jay Baer -Not only are we doing our research online, we are making our purchasing descisions! - This insane growth of social media is impacting how many channels we, as marketers now have to engage in - Basically...
-Social proliferation has changed how we do business - but have we, as marketers and content creators, kept up with changing times? - Unfortunately, for many of us, the answer is no
-As content creators first, and marketers second, many of us are operating under the unicorn strategy - we create awesome content - we post this awesome content - we expect folks to find it and wala! double rainbow - but there's a problem
- Without an enormous following, this is like screaming in the woods - there is a better way
- own the results of your content - create that amazing content you are so good at - post this content to a beautiful web property - then... promote it - Take your content to the people who want it - hand deliver it. - Create your double rainbow - a tried and true delivery method is brand advocates/influencers
- Influencers are individuals who words and actions impact the ideology and actions of others. - Create brand advocates vs. influencers - this concept is highly used in traditional advertising
- Brands use celebrities to ensure impact the buying decisions of consumers - Stealing star power has been used for years1 - 48% trust companies. But that means that 52% think you’re lying. Have someone else tell your story - Check out this data
- Celebrity spokespeople still work, much less so than they did in the past - Blogs and social updates are considerably more influential than celebrity endorser to those who want substantive advice -On top of this
98% trust advice and information they get from blogs This is important to remember because most social media influencers also own a web property like a blog - So far this year we have released over 6,000 pieces of content. - Our network has grown to over 250,000 - Influencers play a huge role in how we develop and promote - So lets look at some of our results
- Anatomy of a backpacker is a mixed media piece that we created to inform international backpackers how to prepare for a trip. It included short infographics, charts, and written content. - A link to the content was given to a high influence Stumbler and it blew up! - 40,000 visits - Over 5 min on page 26% bounce rate Remember, this is for an insurance company! Like, that’s crazy!
- In this example, we had already developed a relationship with a makeup artist who had over a million followers on Pinterest. We created a piece of content, just for her, to fit her demographic of engaged followers. -300 reshares -Over 1000 visits to site in the first 3 hours -Traffic continued for several weeks
- Sometimes it is better to build your own network. Because of a focus on the adventure traveler demographic, we built a facebook community of over 15,000 follower. This community was used to promote an interactive infographic. -3.9m impressions -2k comments -Over 100 shares - This is all great, but does your boss really care about what I did? No, he's all "Steve.." *tap*
- let's get some actual work done and keep the cats happy - We will cover, locating, engaging, and launching influencer content - In each section we will have a tool, so keep a sharp eye
- Locating social media influencers is the first, but easiest, step - Social media influencers are very active online. They are loud! So they tend to be hard to miss in their verticals
Love/hate relationship with Klout Use the gamification system of Klout to find influencers on certain topics Ignore the first page to avoid people that gamed the game
- Third party tools like Statigr.am let you search content based on keywords - also use internal search tools of networks
- Followerwonk searches bios for keywords and allows you to download the results to an excel sheet
-free to download at
-free to download at
The next step is to take that targeted influencer and become friends with them.
Research them on their social profiles -Kotex did an awesome job with their pinterest campaign -50 women -Created special boxes - 700,000 brand impressions via social
- Over 1 million impressions via social media - Hundreds of thousands have seen our brand As result... *tap*