This webinar will help small business owners learn how to engage with people who can influence their online reputation and gain value through social media tools. Word-of-mouth is becoming increasingly more important in driving purchases. Consumers care about what other consumers think, so they spend more time researching products and services online. Influencers who have the widest reach have the potential to sway their community. Research has shown that 65 percent of top US brands reported participating in influencer marketing. Topics covered during this webinar are: • Understanding the importance of influencers; • Finding the right tools and methodologies to identify your influencers; • Learning some basic techniques for engaging your key influencers; and • Focusing on growing your future influencers

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Identifying and Connecting with your
Influencers
Aaron Strout (W2O Group)
& Dr. Bill Ward (Syracuse University) June 2013

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• Aaron Strout, Managing Director, W2O Group
• Blog: http://blog.wcgworld.com
• Twitter: @aaronstrout
Today’s Speakers
• Dr. Bill Ward, Professor of Social Media at the S.I. Newhouse
School of Public Communications at Syracuse University
• Pinterest: http://pinterest.com/dr4ward/
• Twitter: @DR4WARD

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• We ARE recording this webinar. You will
receive an e-mail with a link to the webinar
in the next 48 hours.
• Feel free to ask questions via the
“Questions” module in the GoTo panel on
the right of your screen.
• If you want to follow along on the back-
channel via Twitter, the hashtag is
#SBASocial.
Housekeeping
Special thank you to Justin Levy of Citrix for providing today’s GoTo Webinar platform – gotomeeting.com

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All Age Groups Are Using Social Media
SOURCE: Pew Research Center’s Internet & American Life Project surveys 2005-2012

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What Is Social Influence?
• Getting people to do things
• Ability to drive action: conversations
• Creating engagement with other people
Trust
Passion
Credibility
Authenticity
Transparency
Persuasiveness

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in·flu·ence·r [in-floo-uhns-ər]
Individuals who have the power to affect purchase
decisions of others because of their (real or
perceived) authority, knowledge, position, or
relationship.
Definition of Influencer

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Ten Areas of Online Influence
Influence Areas Trend Relevance
Audio
Favorite of sales force,
customers on the go
Podcasts of all types, plus audio tracks of video segments are an undefined area of online, yet have
growing utility
Blogs
>200MM; trend is to have
multiple blogs, multiple
languages
We should know the top influencers by topic who drive relevant share of voice. The numbers of
influencers are small, precision is key.
Data / Slides 30MM uniques at SlideShare A great location to share all public presentations.
Forums
The engine of conversations and
passion online
Knowing who is driving conversation in forums is key. We should treat high volume moderators
with the same respect as we do with journalists.
Images
Is all content tagged to impact
natural search?
Companies often forget to tag all content in the 10 languages that reach 95% of the online
population.
Micro Blogging
An effective way to alert
influencers, help propel news
cycles
A great opportunity to build a network of influencers who want to share your news in real time.
Twitter is a prime example.
Search
Yes, Google is #1, but YouTube is
#2
We need to know the influencers on the first screen for our brand and key topics. We also need to
understand where people are taken when they search.
Social Networks
The communities that are often
our “first place” to go online
Our day often starts and ends with Facebook or MySpace or Orkut or other depending where we
live.
Video
Consumption habits are starting
to favor video vs. copy
There are over 50 video sites to analyze, which sometimes house ratings and reviews of our
products.
Wikis
Free online peer edited online
encyclopedia
Nearly every topic has a Wikipedia entry, which means it could be the first information a consumer
finds about any topic they are seeking information about.

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Tremendous Value in Top Influencers
8
“Competitive Strategy In The Age Of The Customer,” Forrester Research Inc., June 6, 2011
500 Billion
Brand or Product impressions via consumers in social media.
6%
of
influencers
80%
of
impressions

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The 1-9-90 Model of Influence
1 9 90
Influencers
• Top opinion leaders – 1% or
less who drive the ideas that
fuel conversation share with
current/potential customers
• Important to focus content
and relationships here
Active Engagers
• Second concentric circle of
influence – the people who
carry the message, and where
top influencers source ideas
• Important to surround sound
with paid + earned media
The Market
• Reflects what customers read,
search and discover online every
day. What do they learn? Where
are they? How can you connect?
• Important to listen, educate, share
and provide unique experiences
1% of People Create Content 9% Share and Repackage 90% Listen and Learn
Contents are proprietary and confidential.

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Who has Social Influence?
Tipping Point (2000) by Malcolm Gladwell:
• Movements are caused by three types of influencers;
connectors, mavens (subject matter experts), and salesmen.
• Influence by a few, on many people
• TV in the 1960’s, 3 channels
Degrees/Weak Ties (2003) by Duncan Watts:
• Data analysis shows influencers rarely start contagious
movements, instead average citizens provide the spark.
• Influence by many, in smaller groups
• TV today, thousands of channels

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Pre-Internet Age - Advertisements and controlled sources, word of mouth
1998 - Google allows people to search for products
2004 - Facebook starts shift to peer discovery
2006 - Twitter enables real-time sharing with friends
2010 - Pinterest allows visual aggregation and curation of products
2011 - Peer Influence enables trust-based purchasing recommendations at scale
Today - Engagement, word of mouth, managing the message rather than controlling
the message. Ability to begin to measure influence.
It has never been easier to be as influential as you can be today... it has never been
as hard as it is today, to cut through the clutter.
Why Social Influence?

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Source: http://www.nielsen.com/us/en/newswire/2012/consumer-trust-in-online-social-and-mobile-advertising-grows.html
Do People Trust Advertising?

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New Influencers & Types of Influence
Social Networks: Individuals can have the same influence an entire
magazine once did
Word of Mouth: What used to be neighborhood person-to-person is
now international person-to-person.
Why is there no trust? Who has social
influence?
• Innovators
• Commenters
• Trend-spotters
• Skeptics
• Passionate Fans
• Subject matter experts
• Individual Social Networks

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Tools that Help Measure Influence and Conversation
Social Influence Scoring
Klout 1-100
Kred 1-1000
Peer-Index 1-100
Analyzing Conversation Reach and Contributors
TweetReach
Social Mention
Social Media Dashboard – Monitoring and Analytics
Hootsuite
How Do You Identify Influencers?

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How is a Klout score calculated?
The number of people you influence
(across many Social Networks)
+ How much you influence them
+ How influential they are
= Klout Score
What is with a Klout Score?

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Klout Perks

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How to Approach an Influencer –
The Perfect Pitch
Working with Your Influencers
• Identify Influencers
• Understand their Influence
• Establish a Relationship
• Build Trust with the Influencer, Make it Personal
Asking for Influence
• Reach Out to Influencers about Your Product [talking about it vs.
recommending it]
• Create Opportunities for Sharing and Engagement [updates, new
appearance information, new product statistics].
• Make it Easier for Influencers to Share: share digital assets like images,
videos, logos and press releases.
• Thank, Recognize & Reward Engagement Maintain the Relationship,
Keep in Touch

18. #SBASocialBuilding a Scalable Influencer Network
Grow and nurture 1 to 1 relationships with the
Top Tier and Tier 1 Influencers.
Expand 1 to Many outreach to Tier 2 Influencers via
Content and Value Exchange.
Scale 1 to Infinite network of influencers via
automated communications.
INCREASED REACH + QUALITY COVERAGE + WOM ADVOCACY + RISK MITIGATION
CONTENT + VALUE EXCHANGE

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Powering Influencer Relations
19 Contents are proprietary and confidential.
ANALYTICS SHAREBAIT SPEED
DATING
MATCHMAKINGSOCIAL
HANDLING
• Identify the
top
Influencers
• Study their
online profile
• Produce
trendable content
based on their
interests
• Produce personal
content that’s all
about them
• Map influencers
to a relationship
holder internally
• Break the ice for
the initial
conversation
• Coach the
internal
relationship
holder on
what to say
when
• Manufacture a
natural
introduction
between
influencer and
internal
relationship
holder

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Trendable + Personal Sharebait
Personal Sharebait
Trendable Sharebait
• Individually produced for top
influencers
• Personalized to the influencer’s
own life, reach, or focus
• Branded for the influencer as a
gift
• Rapidly produced to ride a
current topic of conversation
• Tells a broader story that
contributes to the topic
• Lightly branded from the
company
P
E
S
O
P
E
S
O

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Content Engagement – Agile Creative
for Sharebait
IMAGE
ENGAGEMENT
WORKBENCHES
INFOGRAMS
(MINI-INFOGRAPHICS)

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QUESTIONS?

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THANK YOU!
• Aaron Strout, Managing Director, W2O Group
• Blog: http://blog.wcgworld.com
• Twitter: @aaronstrout
• Dr. Bill Ward, Professor of Social Media at the S.I. Newhouse
School of Public Communications at Syracuse University
• Pinterest: http://pinterest.com/dr4ward/
• Twitter: @DR4WARD