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Decoding the Concept of Influencer Activation by @shane_barker

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Decoding the Concept of Influencer Activation

Social media has become an indispensable part of our lives. People are spending more time than ever on their favorite social media platforms like Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Pinterest, LinkedIn and others.

With increased user activity on social channels, marketers are trying new ways to reach audiences on social media.

One of the easiest ways to do that is by using social media advertisements. However, people are no longer responsive to brands that blatantly promote their products without actually offering value.

So social ads alone aren’t enough to reach new prospects. That’s why influencer activation is becoming increasingly popular, with more brands using influencers to gain attention and trust.

What is Influencer Activation?

Influencer activation is a marketing initiative that leverages the power of social media influencers to endorse the products or services offered by a business.

Influencers are real people who have a loyal following of niche audiences. A recommendation from an influencer is a great way to build brand trust, engagement, and sales.

How to Start Doing Influencer Activation

Influencer activation helps you gain more exposure as a brand. Follow the below tips to start doing influencer activation:

  • Define and document the type of influencers that your business should hire and why.
  • Define your audience personas and select the right influencers who match the personas of your target audience. You can search for influencers on the world’s largest influencer marketing community, influence.co using your defined criteria.
  • Set clear terms and conditions in your agreement.
  • Your business values must match the ideals of the influencer.
  • Understand that every influencer is different. Avoid unrealistic goals.
  • Use proper tracking tools to measure the ROI from influencer activation campaigns.

Advantages of Influencer Activation

Influencer activation sets your brand in motion and helps to build authentic relationships with your prospects as well as existing customers. The advantages of influencer activation are:

1. Builds Authenticity, Trust, and Value

Influencer activation is one of the quickest ways to build brand awareness.

People trust the words of influencers more than ads. They take recommendations from influencers seriously. Influencers can also help to build positive sentiments about your brand and add more value to your business.

When you connect with influencers, you are actually connecting with their communities.

Advantages of Influencer Activation

Source

2. Generates Leads

With influencer activation, you reach niche audiences who are already looking for a service or product similar to yours. All you need is a positive recommendation from an influencer and people will start taking your brand more seriously. This will then result in an increase in the number of leads.

3. Increases Engagement

Brand publicity is not just about direct leads. You also need to improve overall engagement because engagement helps people to remember your brand. A business that stays in the minds of their customer sells more.

When influencers create and share content on your brand’s behalf, then people start to respond to it. Better engagement leads to more sharing and it expands the overall reach of your business.

4. Retains Your Customer Base

Always remember that your competitors are not sitting idle. They are always thinking of new and improved strategies to take your customers away. Working with relevant influencers helps ensure that you retain your existing customer base.

When people see that the person they follow is associated with your brand, they may feel less inclined to leave your for your competition.

5. Saves Money

Influencer activation is not as expensive as you might think. The best part of influencer marketing is that you can reach a niche audience at a fraction of the cost of regular social advertising.

Even smaller businesses or startups on a fixed budget can start working with micro-influencers. They normally charge less as compared to macro-influencers.

Advantages of Influencer Activation

Source

6. Fosters Innovation

Every influencer thinks differently. When you start working with one, you are actually fostering innovation. The influencer works with your content or sales team to produce innovative content and presents it before a niche audience.

Innovation is a great way to differentiate your business from your competitors and influencer activation does that for you.

7. Boosts SEO

Influencer marketing boosts your SEO efforts. Search engines take into account the popularity of a business while ranking sites. If your business is popular on social media,then it is an indirect signal to the search engines that your business is trusted by the people.

What’s Next?

Now that you understand the concept of influencer activation, start using the power of influencers in an innovative manner to reach your target audience.

Influencers not only attract customers but also help to convert them. They can help drive consumers further down your sales funnel.

They can also help you build long-lasting relationships with your customers. So, what are you waiting for? Get started and find influencers, collaborate with them, and reach your business goals now.

The Energy of Entrepreneurship by @SBSLEducSoltns

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( A flyover of all the glorious forms of creating your own asset )

Just as a strong case can be made that entrepreneurship & education are intertwined, so the same can be said for energy & entrepreneurship. How many business owners do you know who live day to day with boundless determination?  Joy? A skip in their steps?

 

We have a B-i-G opportunity! We should encourage entrepreneurship’s many forms so the energy in our society is always flowing, & many new assets are created to better ourselves, families, communities, nations, & beyond!

 

Describing Our Economy

 

Thought leaders have been using various labels:

 

Conceptual Age

 

Gig economy

 

Youpreneur

 

Multisided platforms ( ‘Matchmaker Economics’ )

 

You might wonder; how do these inform, inspire, & instigate citizens to leave mediocrity behind to embrace these energetic forms of entrepreneurship?

Inform(ation)

 

With conventional classrooms in all 3 tracks very slow to adapt to the modern era, as entrepreneurs, we can share stories, teachable moments, & connections with those in our own, as well as younger, generations.

Welcome any opportunities to be someone’s mentor, advisor, or coach. Focus on paying forward crucial knowledge to others. Serve 1st always!

 

Inspire (-ation)

 

Often, entrepreneurship is not a soft fluffy bed; it’s part of the charm of the day to day journey to struggle at times! Anything that comes ‘easy’ often has more downside than engaging in smart x hard work building a business.

Don’t hide this from those whom you talk with, yet don’t muddy the clear lens of a passionate individual who wants to be a difference maker. Inspire her by adding value, w/ no stated expectation of reward or return.

 

Instigate ( lighting sparks )

 

Those who deeply understand principles such as the ‘Five Laws …’ & ‘Law of Attraction’  should be beacons of inspired instigation in her circles of influence.

The sparks lit in the fire pits of today will lead to the solutions of tomorrow.

So many of our most pressing societal challenges can be solved with entrepreneurial energy; if you flip back through the pages of history, you’ll see this jump off the pages.

 

7 Forms

 

Now, we transition from the most valuable question, why?, to what? +

 

( + we’ll leave out ‘how’; JFK’s 1962 Rice Univ Speech is the model for why not to focus on this Q )

 

Franchisor/franchisee

 

  • Franchise consultants set up shop to help someone who has the liquid capital to purchase a brand & its intellectual property, turnkey system/s, & in many cases, a ‘bricks & mortar’ location. Franchisees are far from cutting edge concept; although if you were talking with your grandparent(s), they would tell you that at 1 point, it was new & barely understood!

 

Solo-preneurial / proprietor

 

  • This is the simplest form. How do you monetize? Choices inc. hour for dollar billing ( ‘self employed’, creating your own job ); using a retainer; or working on a project basis. As with any form, there are pluses & the opposite; yet, if you’re very new to entrepreneurship, keeping things uncomplicated may be your wisest choice.

 

Gig / freelancer / contractor

 

  • Gig based businesses abound in our modern age; do depth based research to find options best for you.  Freelancing is very common in right brained, creative pursuits like social media, content/digital marketing, & writing.  Finally, being a contractor for a larger enterprise where you are offered more flexibility than an old school W-2 employee could very well be a win:win arrangement.

 

Broker / Agent

 

  • Insurance & real estate:  Both have high name recognizance, even by those who have never been entrepreneurial. Many of the agencies & companies operating in these very mature industries are always looking for someone who is servant minded & willing to tailor a solution to the consumer/prospective policyholder or buyer/seller ‘s unique needs.

 

Direct Sales

 

  • This form is newer on the block than its sister ( see below ).  How is it different than Ntwk Mkt/MLM?  It often generates income for the owner through the promotion of events versus growing a team.  For instance, you set up a cooking demo, offer products to those that attend at a % off, & build a relationship with them that goes beyond 1 transaction. Often, social media is used most often by these consultants, hosts, & associates.

 

Network Marketing ( MLM )

 

  • A mature form, when compared to its brother ( scroll up ), they’ve been options for upwards of a century! Yet, there is still much mis-understanding, inaccurate representation of its legality/lawfulness, etc.  This form is absolutely viable, esp. for those with people skills; those who are patient & don’t expect income overnight; or someone who is able to lead another by serving her first, a fundamental for building a team that replaces you.

 

Licensor / licensee

 

  • The licensee model is essentially ‘franchisee lite‘.  It has many elements of the latter, yet it doesn’t necessitate a bricks & mortar storefront;  often, you can be a mobile-preneur ( easily able to work at a coffee shop, coworking facility, or at home ). Licensors offer intellectual capital ( logos, brand awareness, a systems based approach to building revenue & cash flow ) in exchange for a 1 time, or recurring payment(s).

 

Lots of – ‘Preneurs!  Which are you?!

 

Profiles Worth Following

 

Sidepreneur

 

Mompreneurs

 

Teenpreneur Inc

 

Self directed Educational links

 

Employee vs Entrepreneur – Which is Riskier?

Actually, Starting Your Own Company …

Becoming an Entrepreneur …

 

In short …

 

  • Describing today’s economy
  • Inform, inspire, & instigate
  • 7 forms of energy: entrepreneurial options
  • Types of -preneurs
  • Three Twitter handles
  • For further learning …

 

Thank YOU for reading!

YouTube Entrepreneurs. Make Millions Without Leaving Your House [Infographic]

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Zoe Sugg and Michelle Phan

Over the past few years social media stars have made a fortune online, using YouTube to create their own brand. Take a look at how they’ve made their careers and the money that they’re making. From top YouTubers to the celebs you’d forgotten started their careers online, here we take a look at the secrets to online fame and fortune.

”Youtube
Youtube Entrepreuners? by Moneypod.

Influencer Marketing 101: How to Select the “Right” Influencer for Your Brand by @DrRKayGreen

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by Dr. R. Kay Green | Featured Contributor

With consumers getting wearier of traditional marketing every year, more and more companies are turning to influencer marketing to reach people in a more authentic, organic way.

By definition, influencers are “Individuals who have the power to affect purchase decisions of others because of their (real or perceived) authority, knowledge, position, or relationship.” (http://www.businessdictionary.com/definition/influencers.html). Often, this means a social media personality, like a YouTube blogger or an Instagram celebrity. By working with influencers, brands are able to market their products to a very specific audience without traditional advertising.

Influencer marketing is a very powerful tool, but it can be difficult to get “right”. The campaign can’t be too planned or scripted. The influencer needs to have a good understanding of what it is that you do, and vice versa. But most importantly, you need to choose the “right” influencer to begin with.

All influencers are not created equal. If you want to get the most out of a campaign, you have to take your time and research possible influencers to figure out which one is right for you.

This is a process that will differ from company to company, but you can begin with these tips.

  1. Know Your Target Audience

Some brands only look at the surface. For example, if they’re trying to sell a beauty product, they target a beauty blogger and leave it at that.

But things go much deeper than that. Not every beauty blogger or makeup vlogger targets the same audience. One influencer might be really popular with moms, another might be great with millennials, and some might target businesses, while others target consumers.

You should make sure that your target audience and theirs is the same.  Be as specific as possible when looking for the right person.

The benefits of this are twofold. The obvious benefit is that your product or service will be directly marketed to the people who might be interested in it. But, more importantly, this will make it more likely that your influencer themselves is part of your target audience.

If the influencer is genuinely interested in your product or campaign, they’ll be more likely to take you on as a sponsor. Also, it will make it much easier for them to talk authentically about what you provide.  Authenticity is the cornerstone of any great influencer marketing technique.

  1. Find Values that Align with Yours

When you choose an influencer to work with, they become a representative of you. For better or for worse, people will associate you with that influencer, and if they have a certain belief, people will associate you with that same belief.

That is why it is incredibly important for you to figure out where potential influencers stand on a number of issues. This will help you decide whether or not they are the right fit for you.

The good news is that this is a fairly easy task to accomplish. Influencers often share their views on things much more freely and easily than most brands do, because they are individuals as opposed to corporations with several layers. Taking time to scroll through their social media will likely reveal any opinions that they are known for.

You can find an influencer who may not speak up on issues, or you can find influencers who are vocal advocates of a community you want to support. Just know what you are looking for before you begin.

If your brand is particularly active in a community, make sure your influencer is too. This connection between the two of you will also make it much easier for their audience to like you.

  1. Have a Goal

While influencer marketing is a powerful tool, you should not use it just because you can or because you think you should. You should know what you are trying to get out of it.

What do you most hope to gain? Visibility? Sales? Do you want to work for this influencer because they can become part of your story, or because they can become part of your consumer base? What can they, specifically, give you — and what can you give them, both in the short and long term?

Asking these questions now is important if you want to be able to measure the effectiveness of the campaign later.

Like any campaign, goals are important when it comes to figuring out what works and what doesn’t. Think of your influencer as a partner, not an employee, and work with them to generate the best results.

Having these goals in mind are the perfect way to find influencers who can help you to meet them.

  1. Even if You Find the Perfect Match, Have a Crisis Plan in Place

At the end of the day, influencers are human — and they make mistakes.

So even if you find an influencer who is a perfect fit, who completely shares all of your values, who has a proven track record of being good at what they do, you need to have a plan in place if there is a mistake.

Crisis communications is important for any marketing campaign, but it’s critical when it comes to working with influencers. You need to prepare for the worst, even if you aren’t expecting it to happen.

Finding the perfect influencer shouldn’t be rushed. Take your time to weigh your options and figure out why you’re choosing someone before you reach out. If you can tell them why you think they’re a good fit, it will make them that much more likely to accept your offer.

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Dr. R. Kay Green – Marketing Expert from RKG Marketing Solutions Inc. from Atlanta, GA.

Dr. KayDr. R. Kay Green is the CEO/President of RKG Marketing Solutions Inc. With over 190,000+ Twitter followers, 35,000+ Facebook Likes, and the Top 1% LinkedIn profile designation, Dr. Kay, a self-motivated trailblazer, is the Quintessential “New-Age” Professional Woman, and PhD Marketing Pro. She earned a Doctorate of Business Administration in Marketing, and has completed PhD coursework in Leadership and Organization Change. She also holds a Master of Business Administration in Marketing and Management, a Bachelor of Business Administration in Marketing, and an Associate of Arts in Marketing Management.

She is affiliated with several prestigious universities and has instructed over 350 courses online. A popular speaker on Marketing and Business topics, Dr. Green is currently featured on Huffington Post, Black Enterprise, Black News, The Network Journal, Business Review USA, Digital Journal, College View, Business New Hampshire Magazine, Bay State Banner, Reader’s Circle, North Dallas Gazette, Harlem News, Top News Today, One News Page, NE Informer, Women in Business PR News, Consumer News Today, Women PR News, San Francisco Chronicle, Houston Chronicle, Chicago Daily Herald, The Miami Herald, and Book News Articles.

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The millennial riddle: how to successfully market to Gen Ys by @tangsdesignjewellery

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by Jemima Ashleigh

Ahhhhh Millennials…riddles wrapped in a mystery, wrapped in an enigma. Or at least that how it feels trying to market to them. Their loyalty is mercurial, their tastes appear fickle and the minute they feel they’re being marketed to they shut up shop quicker than a startled echidna.

But there is a way into their wily hearts and it really is at your fingertips.
I have two words for you. Social. Media. If your social is not on fleek then you need to get busy.

According to Kantar TNS Research, the average Millennial (aged 16-30) with internet access, spends 3.1 hours a day on their mobile devices – the equivalent of 21.7 hours – almost a whole day – every week. That’s 47 days over the course of a year. 47 days!

And these folks are listening to someone – you need to jump on board and wring the hell out of that opportunity.

The importance of influence

Using relevant key influencers, especially when it comes to Instagram, is waaaaay up there in terms of importance. People scouring, following and interacting on Insta are going to be swayed by what their fave people are doing, saying, and buying. Do not be scared to approach your chosen Influencer with the idea of getting them to help you out with spreading the word.

But don’t just jump blindly into thinking someone with 1.5 million followers is definitely your best bet – check out their engagement stats before you send off anything. Someone with a lower number of followers, say only 5000 but an engagement rate of 30% is a much better bet than your 1.5 million follower Influencer who can only dredge up 0.2% engagement. Hate to point this out but your mother was right – always look for quality over quantity. Don’t you just detest it when that happens?

Your more Micro Influencers are also less likely to want cold, hard cash for their blessings, but it doesn’t hurt to offer a little somethin’, somethin’. Always, and I mean always, offer your product or service for free to them and make sure everyone is on the same page when it comes to expectations of how many posts, links in their bio to your site and so on..

Choose your weapon

Now here’s a thing…guess what social platform Millennials jump onto first thing when they wake up?

Insta? Nah.
Facebook? Nope.
Snapchat? Bingo!

If you want to reach your M peeps – than you gotta get snappy about it! Millennials account for 7 out of 10 Snapchatters. If you can afford to walk away from a platform 70% of your target market is sitting on…. well you’re a bigger (wo)man than me.

So I hear you have a beauuuuttifuulllll website? Hate to break this to you – well no I actually I don’t, it’s my job – but unless you are spruiking a link to your website through social media then Millennials ain’t going to visit. They get their online cues from social platforms and don’t just do random searches. That was so yesterday. They buy through Insta and Facebook and they are heavily influenced through Snapchat. Having a website without social media drivers to it is the same giving a bicycle to a fish. You get my drift.

Final word
You need to incorporate your brand seamlessly into the social world these Millennials inhabit. Straight up advertising doesn’t work with them, you’ll be ignored and at worse slammed by them. Just ask Kendall Jenner.

 

SOURCES:
http://www.tnsglobal.com/us/press-release/tns-millenials_study_111915
https://www.emarketer.com/Article/Want-Reach-Millennials-Say-Hello-Snapchat/1011871

 

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Jemimah is the Creative Director of Tangs Design and one half of The Business Experiment podcast. Jemimah is passionate about breaking through myths and misconceptions of entrepreneur-hood and thrives on helping other females in business succeed.

Jemimah has extensive studies in the fields of security, intelligence and speaks several languages. She is an astute, engaging entrepreneur with a one-of-a-kind skillset, including a finely honed understanding of emotion and behaviour that she puts to good use in her business career.

Jemimah works as a mentor, comedy writer, a speaker and a social media guru. She is also blogger and a regular contributor to multiple media outlets. Jemimah brings an original, quirky sense of humour and a fun loving attitude to everything she does. She is passionate about helping people to express their individuality and creativity.

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