how influencers and content marketing...

HOW INFLUENCERS AND CONTENT MARKETING CAN HELP BUILD YOUR BRANDTips for developing community and awareness with engaged advocates and inspiring content

2HOW INFLUENCERS AND CONTENT MARKETING CAN HELP BUILD YOUR BRAND

You’ve undoubtedly heard a lot lately about

influencers, influencer marketing and content

marketing. But what does it all mean?

How does it tie together?

What impact does it have on your job

and your business?

Let’s start with a couple of quick definitions.

Influencers are people we trust. They have credibility and they’re who

we turn to for guidance and advice, whether it’s where to shop, what to

buy or how to vote. An influencer can be anyone – a blogger, reporter, analyst or

customer – and with greater-than-average reach or impact in a particular subject

area, they can significantly sway public opinion and shape customer behavior.

Content marketing is about providing information that meets the interests and

needs of your audience. It educates, entertains and inspires, and informs business

choices and purchasing behavior. But it’s not sales-speak. Good content marketing

delivers useful, relevant information to your customers rather than a pitch, and by

consistently making thoughtful, practical content available you become a respected

subject-matter expert and a trusted brand. So when it comes time for people to

purchase or recommend the type of product or service your organization offers,

yours may be the one they choose.


YOU AND YOUR CONTENT HAVE A POWERFUL ALLY: YOUR INFLUENCERS

Influencer marketing and influencer

engagement have become fashionable

buzzwords. But of course, PR has always been

about influence – attracting, engaging and

building relationships with people who endorse

and lend third-party credibility to a particular

person or company.

We already know it’s no longer only the media and a handful of stakeholders who

hold the power of influence; it’s anyone and everyone, from Twitter mavens and

popular bloggers to consumers and brand advocates.

Influencers earn their trust and inspire action among their own audiences of fans

and followers. Your audience values what the influencers in your industry say

and do, so they’re more likely to behave in a certain way when your influencers

promote your brand – such as clicking a link on your website, purchasing a product

or referring a friend.

Companies are putting their money toward marketing to

this new breed of influencer. For every dollar spent on

influencer marketing there is a return of $6.50 – this is

real value that affects your bottom line.

Source: 2015 Tomoson Influencer Marketing Study


WHO ARE YOUR INFLUENCERS?

Well-known personalities who

people respect and trust.

Not necessarily Hollywood

celebrities, but people like bloggers

or tech writers who have the power

to drive others to action because

of their recognized expertise and

credibility in your space.

People you already know and with

whom you have a relationship.

Examples include media, bloggers,

analysts, investors, customers,

subject-matter experts, social

pundits and content creators.

Remember, an influencer can be

anyone, and they’re virtually

anywhere.

Your brand advocates

and ambassadors.

These folks can boost exposure of

your content and further amplify

your brand messages by sharing;

this is some of the best and

most effective word-of-mouth

marketing there is.

Individuals who drive awareness

and promote your products.

Their influence can help with

fundraising, launching a product,

supporting a cause or campaign,

driving traffic to your website,

and creating loyalty and

advocacy on your behalf.

All of the above.


FINDING AND BUILDING RELATIONSHIPS WITH THE RIGHT INFLUENCERS

To find your influencers, you first need to understand they

can come in all shapes and sizes and can be found in many

different places. It’s your job to identify where they are,

what kind of content they produce and share, and how they

interact with their communities.

How do you find and build relationships with your

influencers?

Understand that bigger isn’t always better when it comes

to influence. The person with the most Twitter followers

or blog subscribers is not necessarily the most influential.

You’re looking for the people who have the most engaged,

most action-ready audiences. Jay Baer says it best,

“We’re after action, not eyeballs.” To truly understand

what attributes make up influence, you should consider:

• Reach: The number of people who may be exposed to

your information as a result of the influencer’s network

• Relevance: The direct relationship between your

business and the information they’re sharing

• Resonance: Audience engagement as a result of

the content they’re sharing

Do your research and look in all the right places.

Start searching on social channels to see who is leading

conversations and shaping opinions about your company

or industry. Look beyond Twitter to other platforms such

as Instagram, LinkedIn and blogs to get a 360-degree look at

where your influencers are active and building communities.

Understanding their social footprint will give you insight

into opportunities to connect with them and share content

they would be most interested in. It can be a time-

consuming process to find the right people, but the payback

is well worth the effort. (Note: Nasdaq Influencers lets you

do simple, informative searches across multiple online and

social channels to identify groups of key influencers. It also

provides their full social footprints, profile and influence

score to help you uncover and understand your most

relevant audience.)

Engage and share content with your influencers.

Follow your influencers on their social channels and take

the opportunity to watch and learn how they participate.

When and where you feel you can add value, comment

on their blog posts, re-tweet their content, take part in

LinkedIn groups and get involved in the discussion by

sharing your own content and subject-matter expertise.

By sharing ideas and content, you’ll have an opportunity

to build a rapport and your influencers may recognize you

and your contributions. Eventually the relationship could

become reciprocal and they may be willing to share your

content, too.

Maintain and strengthen the relationship.

Once you have an influencer’s attention and have built up

a good rapport, you want to keep it. Consistently sharing

relevant content is a great way to maintain a relationship.

Of course, this requires that you keep track of what your

influencers are doing, what interests them and what they

are talking about. If you can stay on top of their likes,

dislikes and preferred activities, then you’ll find that

your engagement with your influencers, as well as with

members of their communities, may quickly grow.

http://www.convinceandconvert.com/content-marketing/why-you-need-to-turn-your-content-marketing-upside-down/


The channels below are not new to most companies and, in fact, most are

commonplace. But PR pros have increasing opportunity to manage most – even

all – of these channels outright, or at the very least be part of a shared team who

produces, publishes and shares the content. You can take advantage of being able

to help control your media efforts and boost earned media as your influencers

share, publish and amplify your content. (And don’t forget to take advantage of the

analytics each generates – they will provide insight into audience behavior and help

you find ways to boost engagement and sharing!)

Social Media: There are so many choices for where your brand can live in social and

where you can be the most successful in cultivating relationships with influencers

and sharing content. Ask yourself where you (and your brand) are most comfortable,

where it makes the most business sense for you to be, and where your audiences

and influencers are most active – these should complement each other. Social media

provides some of the best and most successful owned, shared and earned media

opportunities. It gives you tremendous power to create content that is hyper-

targeted to your audiences and highly relevant, then share it across appropriate

channels. You have the ability to keep your ear to the ground to listen for what

customers want, then offer up help, guidance and subject-matter expertise. There

is opportunity for amplification of your content, too, and sharing with just one

influencer may lead to sharing that becomes one-to-many.

Finding influencers, engaging them and

maintaining those relationships is part of the

content marketing equation. Another critical

step is getting your content to them in the right

format, and through the right channels.

GETTING YOUR CONTENT INTO THE HANDS OF YOUR INFLUENCERS


“Getting Your Content Into the Hands of Your Influencers” continued

Your Company Newsroom: The newsroom is no longer

for the media only. It’s an inbound destination for

media, bloggers, employees, customers (and potential

customers), analysts, investors and partners to find

the latest, straight-from-source information about your

organization. Make your content easy to access and easy

to share. And make it simple for people to learn more

about what you have to offer. Ninety-seven percent* of

consumers search for local businesses online, so don’t

forget to optimize your newsroom. When you do, you

greatly increase the chance that you’ll be found by new

customers who are searching for your products and

services and looking to you for help.

Source: 2013 Eventility study on getting found online

Your Company Blog: Many companies don’t realize

the full potential of their blogs as a content marketing

powerhouse. When you write a relevant post that

appeals to your audience’s interests, you can grab

attention, draw repeat visits, and generate shares

from the people who can impact your business.

Here are a few ways that your blog can serve as a

content marketing hub that drives real results:

• Building a community: Featuring guest posts (especially

from your influencers) can help draw attention to your

brand and helps you start building a network of people

engaged in what you have to say, who then share your

content with their friends and followers.

• Expanding online visibility: When the words in

your blog posts match up to what your audience

is searching for, you drive inbound traffic to your

website. And when people link to interesting posts on

your blog, those backlinks help boost your ranking on

search engines.

• Driving sales leads: As you talk about topics related

to your products or services, you can include links

to relevant product pages and capture contact

information from potential customers.

Your News Releases: The news release is an effective

vehicle for companies to share content-rich information

with target audiences, and it is a legitimate part of

a content marketing strategy when it:

• Contains straight-from-source information – often

breaking or timely news – that is targeted to the

most relevant, industry-specific audiences.

• Houses robust educational material and multimedia

content (e.g., video tutorials, product announcements,

product spec sheets, white papers) that help customers

better understand your company and its products.

• Enables easy social sharing and reposting, which

further exposes your brand messages and amplifies

your content.

Many companies don’t realize the full potential of their blogs as a content marketing powerhouse.


INFLUENCERS SPEAK OUT ON CONTENT MARKETING

Of course, we’re not the only ones

who think that content marketing

and building relationships with

influencers are important to your PR

and marketing programs. We’ve asked

a couple of subject-matter experts (who

are influencers in their own right) to

discuss why they’re involved in content

marketing and how they benefit by

building strong relationships with

influential community members.

Content marketing is really about offering

value to your target audience. It’s providing

valuable information, data, educational

material, resources, expert advice and

opinions in formats that are easy to consume

and share. It can take the form of a white

paper, an infographic, a video, a slideshow or

even a tweet – really any usable format. This

approach, rather than an antiquated sales

brochure, focuses on the intersection of your

target’s interests and your organization’s

message, making it much easier to gain an

audience and position your company as an

industry expert.

Partnering with recognized industry

influencers can also add credibility to your

content marketing program. Like with any

marketing program, distribution is key. By

partnering with influencers and gaining

access to their networks, (who are often

active and engaged followers), brands can

accelerate the speed at which their content is

distributed, as well as reach a much broader

audience than they could on their own. In

addition, influencer ‘devotees’ are going to

be much more receptive to content than cold

prospects from a purchased email database

because they know and trust the source that

is sharing the brand’s content.

Content marketing is probably one of the

most important parts of a communication

strategy. Some may say that strategy trumps

content, but if you are trying to get and

retain customers, you need to share and

publish content that is smart and well-

thought out – and resonates with their

interests and needs.

Content marketing is very important

to me as a business owner and as a

communications pro. It helps to convince

people that I’m an expert in my field, which

in turn helps build my customer base. In

content marketing, the goal is to encourage

people to share your content with at least

one other person, or people. But, that

content has to make others feel it will make

a difference and cause a reaction. You need

to make that emotional connection.

The content marketing that I employ on

behalf of my clients also helps expand their

client base. A current tourism client of mine

has been using images of its breathtaking

shoreline and activities showing families

having fun, which creates that emotional

experience. It has led to an incredible

financial impact, and it also draws people

back to the area.

Remember, awesome content gives

you an opportunity to create and foster

relationships. However, it won’t happen

automatically. You need to work at it!JASON MOLLICA President, JRM COMM@JasMollica

SANDRA FATHI President and Founder, Affect, New York City@sandrafathi

https://twitter.com/sandrafathi

https://twitter.com/jasmollica


NASDAQ CORPORATE SOLUTIONS

Nasdaq Corporate Solutions helps organizations

manage and master the two-way flow of

information with their audiences. Around the

globe, market leaders rely upon our unmatched

suite of advanced technology, analytics and

consultative services to maximize the value

of their work—from investor relations and

corporate governance to public relations

and communications.

Public Relations Services

Get everything you need to power your PR programs and spotlight success to your

stakeholders from one strategic partner. Global press release distribution and accurate

media contacts. Interactive webcasting and multimedia to bring your story to life.

Monitoring services to track your coverage, and intelligence to see the big picture.

Nasdaq Influencers

Find the most relevant people and conversations in your industry to help you build

new relationships and uncover new opportunities for your content and campaigns.

And because it’s integrated within GlobeNewswire, it fits seamlessly in your

communications workflow. Unlock the power of Influencers to help make new

connections, amplify your brand and drive better business results.

This communication and the content found by following any link herein are being provided to you by Corporate Solutions, a business

of Nasdaq, Inc. and certain of its subsidiaries (collectively, “Nasdaq”), for informational purposes only. Nasdaq makes no representation

or warranty with respect to this communication or such content and expressly disclaims any implied warranty under law.

CONNECT WITH US:

business.nasdaq.com/influencers @MyCorpSolutions

business.nasdaq.com/influencers

https://twitter.com/mycorpsolutions

how influencers and content marketing...

Documents