Justify employing top influencers and micro influencers to create sponsored content.

1. Justify employing top influencers
and micro influencers to create
sponsored content.
Learning objective of Module 2, Lesson 3

2. Creating compelling content with influencers
• Influencer strategy isn’t as
effective or successful without
content marketing.
• Great content is at the center of
the value exchange between a
business, influencer, and buyer.
• Incorporating influencers in
your content facilitates reaching
new audiences with brand
messages that are credible and
trusted.
Source: HubSpot Blog, “The Content Marketer’s Guide to Influencer Marketing [New eBook},” Sept. 14, 2017

3. Influencers are more influential than brands
• 57% of consumers have made
a purchase based solely on an
influencer’s recommendation.
• In the last 365 days, influencers
got 6.0 trillion views and 209.1
billion engagements.
• Media and entertainment
companies got 1.7 trillion views
and 46.1 billion engagements.
• Brands got 250.6 billion views
and 4.9 billion engagements.
Source: Allison Stern, Tubular Insights, “In 2017, Every Brand Needs To Have an Influencer Strategy,” May 31, 2017

4. Best practices for influencer collaboration
• Be original.
• Viewers are naturally skeptical
of traditional endorsements.
• Think of a clever (and
transparent) way to involve an
influencer with your brand.
• Be authentic.
• If the collaboration isn’t
authentic, nobody wins.
• Consider addressing questions
and concerns upfront.
Source: Greg Jarboe, Tubular Insights, “Schmooze Optimization: What It Is and Why It Expands Views, Engagement, and Earnings on YouTube,” Aug. 20, 2012

5. Influencers tell GE’s story in their own voices
• Katrina Craigwell, General
Electric’s Director of Global
Content & Programming,
presented “How GE Leveraged
Video to Elevate Science and
Creativity” at a conference.
• She said, “We harness the
power of creators to tell the
story of GE through their own
voices.”
Source: Greg Jarboe, Tubular Insights, “GE: Harnessing the Power of YouTube Creators To Tell Its Story [Case Study],” June 18, 2015

6. The Slow Mo Guys break down GE science
• In 2014, GE flew The Slow Mo
Guys, Gavin David Free and
Dan Gruchy, to a GE lab to use
nanotechnology to show
viewers cool liquid physics at
2,500 frames-per-second.
• “Super Hydrophobic Surface
and Magnetic Liquid” has 12.7
million views and 138,000
engagements.
Source: Greg Jarboe, Tubular Insights, “GE: Harnessing the Power of YouTube Creators To Tell Its Story [Case Study],” June 18, 2015

7. Creator-in-Residence demystifies geeky topics
• In 2015, GE and Fullscreen
named Sally Le Page, a British
biologist at the University of
Oxford and an up-and-coming
video influencer, “GE Creator-
in-Residence” for 3 months.
• “Is A ‘Mad Max’ Apocalypse
Possible? Ft. Bill Nye, Neil
deGrasse Tyson | Fiction Fast
Forward | GE” got 306,000
views and 764 engagements.
Source: Greg Jarboe, Tubular Insights, “GE: Harnessing the Power of YouTube Creators To Tell Its Story [Case Study],” June 18, 2015

8. Sponsored video content
• Unfortunately, too many
established influencers have
read Mark Twain’s The
Adventures of Tom Sawyer
and think collaboration is the
modern equivalent of cleverly
persuading your friends to
whitewash Aunt Polly’s fence.
• The alternative they prefer is
sponsored social videos.

9. GE is now sponsoring 150 social videos
• GE is working with 21 partners
who’ve uploaded 150 videos
to Facebook and YouTube.
• Combined, this sponsored
content has more than 52.8
million views and over
679,000 engagements, making
the videos a significant
medium to carry the brand’s
message to a wider audience.
Source: Greg Jarboe, Tubular Insights, “GE’s Sponsored Videos Electrify B2B and B2C Audiences,” Aug. 29, 2017

10. Artist created paper airplane with GE engines
• GE’s most engaging sponsored
video is “This paper airplane
has taken 9 years to make.”
• It tells the story of an artist who
created a model Boeing 777 out
of manila file folders.
• Uploaded to The Future Is
Now’s Facebook page on June
19, 2017, this sponsored
content has 5.7 million views
and 109,000 engagements.
Source: Greg Jarboe, Tubular Insights, “GE’s Sponsored Videos Electrify B2B and B2C Audiences,” Aug. 29, 2017

11. GE is creating and sponsoring video content
• “‘You Can’t Unring a Bell’ –
Unimpossible Missions – GE,”
was uploaded to GE’s YouTube
channel and Discovery’s
Facebook Page the same day.
• The unsponsored version on
YouTube has 1.1 million views
and 6,751 engagements.
• The sponsored version on
Facebook has 1.6 million views
and 19,600 engagements.
Source: Greg Jarboe, Tubular Insights, “GE’s Sponsored Videos Electrify B2B and B2C Audiences,” Aug. 29, 2017

12. Peer-graded assessment: Apply what you have
learned to write a 5-paragraph essay that
justifies employing top influencers and micro
influencer to create sponsored content.