AUTHOR and DOWNLOAD: http://pages.tapinfluence.com/email-marketing-11things-ebook-cmi Unleash the Power of Influencer Content Influencer marketing is the practice of working with influential content creators on social media to spread the word about your products and services. But running a successful influencer program involves more than just asking people with lots of fans to give a product review or mention your brand. Download your copy of “11 Simple Rules For Influencer Marketing” and learn: What to look for in an influencer How to attract, engage and convert influencer prospects How to get high quality, relevant content How to set clear goals that matter and measure results

1. ABOUT INFLUENCER MARKETING
11
THINGS
YOU
SHOULD
KNOW

2. 01
Influencer marketing is the practice of working with influential
people online to spread the word about your products and services
through social media. Yet, running a successful influencer program
involves more than asking influential people to give a positive review
of your brand or product. To be successful, you need to know these
eleven best practices.
INTRODUCTION

3. 01 AN ADVOCATE
IS DIFFERENT
FROM AN
INFLUENCER

4. Brands often mistake brand advocates – those who are avid fans of
their products – as influencers. An advocate is surely someone who
will speak positively about a brand, however, to truly rally people,
brands should partner with those who can influence the purchase
decisions of others.
For brands, working with people that are influential on social media
is a good way to increase their brand awareness and drive customer
engagement. These influencers have a loyal audience and can
influence their readers by posting brand-friendly content. The benefit
of working with these influencers is that they have built a trusted
relationship with their audience over time and can create content
that resonates with their readers.
Unlike banner or display ads that are on the side bar and seek to
distract the reader, influencer content is integrated seamlessly within
the content that readers come to experience. Influencers create
content as part of their blog, Pinterest boards, or Facebook updates.
04

5. 02 WHAT TO LOOK
FOR IN AN
INFLUENCER?

6. Marketers have started to understand that leveraging the influence of
bloggers and other powerful social media users can maximize the
ROI of online marketing activities. But for many industry
professionals, accurately identifying the right influencers for their
program remains a challenge. When it comes to selecting the best
social media partners, use the following guidelines:
HIGH QUALITY CONTENT
Focus on people that regularly post high quality content.
That means that they create authentic content that
resonates with their readers, creates discussion, and is
shared across social platforms.
ENGAGEMENT WITH THEIR AUDIENCE
Look for indications that readers interact with the
influencer content. That could be commenting on the
discussion, voting in contests, and sharing to other social
sites.
06

7. THE DEMOGRAPHIC OF THE AUDIENCE
An Influencer’s personal attributes do not necessarily represent the
demographic of their audience—frequent content generation in a
specific brand-relevant topic is a better indication of a blogger’s
audience demographic. For example, when trying to reach moms
with children between the ages of 1-3, target bloggers who talk
about parenting toddlers, etc., rather than recruiting bloggers who
have toddlers.
A PRESENCE ACROSS PLATFORMS
Look for influencers who maintain a presence across multiple social
channels to get more impact.
07
CONT...

8. 03 INFLUENCERS ARE
BRANDS...
TREAT THEM LIKE
BUSINESS
PARTNERS

9. It is crucial to remember that influencer marketing is a business
relationship between the brand and the influencer. Brands are
looking for authentic and engaging content to rally consumers
around a particular brand, marketing campaign, event, etc.
Influencers look for meaningful ways to create content while
generating revenue.
A brand-Influencer relationship is mutually beneficial—an exchange
of money for the provocation of brand awareness, consideration, and
preference. In order for the relationship to be successful:
Share program goals with influencers and provide them
with the tools to achieve them
Set content requirements clearly, but leave room for
creativity and personalization
09

10. 04 NICHE
INFLUENCERS
OFTEN GENERATE
THE MOST
ENGAGEMENT

11. 11
Many brands attribute success to the number of people that read
influencer content (often measured by impressions). Instead, they
should measure engagement, or the ability of the influencer to drive
action from their readers.
Readership numbers do not necessarily equate the amount of
engagement an influencer can garner. Often, niche influencers –
those who focus on a very particular topic – have the ability to drive
more engagement than those who focus on a variety of topics. Niche
influencers have a core group of followers who tend to be more
engaged with the content.

12. 12
For example, Brand X makes a stroller for triplets and wants to work
with an influencer to drive awareness about products for multiples.
The program would be more successful if they identified an
influencer with 1,000 followers who wrote about the challenges of
parenting triplets rather than someone with 10,000 followers who
wrote about the challenges of parenting. The audience of the
influencer who writes about the challenges of parenting triplets is
more likely to resonate with the brand’s message because it
addresses their specific need.
EXAMPLE

13. 05 ACTIVATE THE
CREATION OF
HIGH QUALITY,
PROVOCATIVE
CONTENT

14. Brands often make the mistake of assuming that the way they talk
about their brand is mimicked by consumers online. But, typically,
consumer generated social content is more casual, personal, and
authentic than the commercial tone used by brands and agencies.
For example, an online publisher would never authentically write,
“Buy it today!” or use a brand’s trademark. Use these best practices
when crafting an Influencer Marketing program:
Create authentic (inline with the influencer’s natural
content) brand messaging and reader call-to-action.
Allow the influencer to tell a story and connect your
product or service to something personal.
The blog topic (and reader discussion, if applicable) should
be something already being discussed online.
14

15. 06 REACH IS NOT THE
MOST IMPORTANT
METRIC

16. When working with an influencer, you want to look at their
engagement as well as their reach. Look for indications that readers
interact with influencer content. It is crucial to look beyond clicks and
impressions to determine how engaged consumers are with content.
When people are engaged, they are more likely to comment, share,
and pass on their thoughts about a product to their friends.
Influencer programs build context around a brand, drive
engagement, and social sharing around content. To measure
Impressions
Clicks
Comments
Shares
Likes
Retweets
Pins
Repins
16

17. 07 AUTHENTIC
CONTENT
CREATES TRUST

18. Influencer marketing allows brands to integrate brand sponsored
content in an authentic and meaningful way by partnering with
influential social media publishers. Consumers trust their peer
recommendations more than they trust branded advertisements.
People think of the connections they make on social media as
friends. Allowing influencers to create authentic content enables
brands to reach a loyal audience with a message that is trusted by
the consumer. The relationships fostered by the influencer create a
sense of trust amongst the readers and allows the brand to tap into
this trust.
18

19. 08 INFLUENCER
MARKETING
FACILITATES
EARNED MEDIA

20. SHARE
REPOSTED
TALKED
ABOUT
If brands want to be relevant to consumers, they must approach
media as a way to attract, engage and convert prospects. That
means engaging consumers where they are interacting with content
way to create earned media that can fuel a conversation about their
brand with trustworthy content.
Since influencer marketing results in engagement, it also results in
earned media. Influencers are experts in generating discussions
online, so the content they create on behalf of a brand is talked
about, shared, and reposted. That is earned media. The value of
earned media is that it is trusted more by consumers. When
influencers write about their own experiences and share compelling
audience.
20

21. 09 ONLINE ACTIVITY
IS A CORE PART OF
THE DECISION
MAKING PROCESS

22. In today’s digital world, people can access information about
products long before they reach a brand site. They turn to their peers
online for recommendations about what products, they look for
information through search engines, and they read product reviews.
According to a recent TechnoratiMedia study, online activity plays a
very important role in the decision making process. Blogs represent
the third most influential resource for consumers looking to make a
purchase1
. Therefore, it makes sense for brands to partner with
bloggers and other social media influencers. They have the ability to
rally their readers and increase engagement in social sites.
2013 Digital Influence Report, TechnoratiMedia,
http://technoratimedia.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/02/tm2013DIR.pdf
1
22
USER RATING
USER RATING

23. 10 PEOPLE ARE
ALREADY TALKING
ONLINE…
BE PART OF THE
CONVERSATION

24. Social media has changed the way that brands interact with
consumers. It has fostered an environment where the consumers
have immediate access to information. In social media, people talk
about brands and their products and they make decisions about
what to buy from what they discover. Successful brands leverage
social media to stay connected with consumers. They actively
participate in the online conversation to stay in touch.
However, being a part of the conversation does not mean
advertising. Ads distract readers and are on the side of the
conversation. When brands work with influencers, they participate by
allowing people to share, comment, and engage with branded
content in a natural way.
24

25. 11 INFLUENCER
PROGRAMS
MUST HAVE
CLEAR GOALS

26. determine what the program goals are. An influencer marketing
campaign with no clear goals is a recipe for failure. Brands need a
clear determination of what they are looking to achieve by working
with influencers. They need to outline success metric, such as:
Generating awareness for a new program
(measured in impressions)
Increasing a fan base (measured in follows)
Creating high quality content (measured by shares)
Engaging the audience (measured by comments)
26

27. FOR MORE INFORMATION, OR TO SCHEDULE A
DEMONSTRATION
VISIT US AT:
www.tapinfluence.com