Influencer Research

Finding Local Influencers Google Plus Twitter Facebook Klout BuzzStream

If we get influencers to share our posts, we potentially draw thousands more eyes on our content than otherwise.

Identifying influencers: We must take into account their ability and willingness to affect action – not just achievement of high fan, friend and follower counts.

Influencers are people who are credible, authoritative and to some degree popular amongst a community – yet also effective in being able to inspire action amongst that community.

Influence is a form of currency and the only way to get “influencer status” is to help others do the same.

Qualify what influence means to your company and the program. Make it meaningful by establishing relevant goals, expectations and ways for measuring influencer contributions in a meaningful way.

Influencers

Find contacts by looking for who is popular in your niche. Warm them up/contact them Organize them into a database to keep track Ask them all a single question relevant to your niche Build the post, including Tweetables, a Cliffs Notes

version, and a custom post feature with all of the participants

Publish and share (see promotion techniques of the Giveaway as they are quite similar)

Communication is required to keep everyone in the loop. Expect people to be late with their responses and build

in extra time! Keep in mind that outreach thrives on both patience and

perseverance at each of these three stages: recruit, initialize and grow the relationship, and nurture.

Process

Work genuinely toward making influencers lives better without expecting anything in return.

Build a foundation for joint success. Once you’ve built a mutually beneficial relationship you can do things to improve the success of all parties – like send each other business.

For anyone you’re engaging with, do your research. Study their content to figure out their views and understand how they communicate with the community. This will help you decide how best to work with the individual or business – or if you should work with them at all!

Start conversations for conversation-sake, and be a pleasant communicator. Just like in real life, you may not get an immediate return from every interaction or friendship, but having more advocates on your team never hurts.

Listen more! Remember, there is no one good way to start connecting – every

outreach should be tailored to the person and circumstance. http://traackr.com/blog/2014/11/social-media-engagement-the-give/

Process

Aware: Though your influencers may have heard of your company, you are not on their radar yet. At this stage, you need to raise their awareness and get them to look you up and acknowledge you.

Interested: Your goal is to start building a rapport with your influencers, have them start paying attention to you and your contribution to the point that you can initiate a dialogue with them; better, them with you.

Interacted: Though still sporadic, you’ve now entered in a conversation with your influencers. They know who you are and what you do. You now need to increase your level and frequency of communication, for it to become a regular occurrence.

Engaged: You’re engaged in frequent dialogue with your influencers. With journalists and analysts, this is where the journey ends as their profession prevents them from advocating for specific brands; you will have to become creative to maintain this engagement level over time. With other influencers, your goal is now to turn these influencers into advocates for your brand through high touch activities.

Evangelized: You’ve entered influencer nirvana. You have managed to turn an influencer into an ally to your brand. For this relationship to last, you now need to build the foundation for joint success.

Process

Influencer Effectiveness

Trends

http://www.convinceandconvert.com/digital-marketing/influencer-marketing-for-businesses/

Influencer marketing is quickly becoming one of the most important online marketing channels. Budgets are growing fast, and marketers are seeing strong returns. The vast majority of marketers are generating real revenue from influencer marketing, and the top 13% are making $20 or more for each $1 invested. With returns like this, budgets will keep increasing for the foreseeable future.

Influencer & SEO

Trends

http://www.convinceandconvert.com/digital-marketing/influencer-marketing-for-businesses/

Request Guest Post The influencer does the writing for you,

and therefore is more likely to share the post.

You get the long-term organic benefit of the post, since it is on your website.

You have 100% control over the terms.

Examples

Ask for simple opinions. It can be about anything from a new concept shared by another influencer to a new website or product.

Share your own content and ask for feedback. Some influencers appreciate sharing their technical or business insights, especially when asked to critique a peer's work.

Talk about things other than work. Doing so makes it easier for other people to join the conversation. You might talk about the recent Grand Slam final or a humanitarian issue receiving global attention.

Stay in touch—that's the point. Share freebies like you'd share them with a friend. This

approach may not always be helpful for your influencers, but people love such gestures. Make them feel special.

Read more: http://www.marketingprofs.com/articles/2014/25831/how-to-develop-rapport-with-influencers-via-social-media#ixzz3aGhOTCuR

Engagement

Follow-ups are crucial, but don't stalk

There is no doubt that follow-ups are important, and how you do them is even more important. Top influencers may not acknowledge your every mention or tweet, but you must respond when they do.

It's good practice to make first contact on social networks, as I noted earlier; after successively deeper levels of interaction over time, you can take the next level of conversation to email.

When making contact via email, be clear how you obtained the email address (if it's not readily available to everyone) and also remind the person of your social media relationship. If you hear back, great. If you don't hear back after a couple of attempts, absolutely do not keep sending emails. Continue your outreach via social media instead.

Read more: http://www.marketingprofs.com/articles/2014/25831/how-to-develop-rapport-with-influencers-via-social-media#ixzz3aGgwH2q4

Follow-ups

Interviews on Blog Having an interview series on your blog

once every week or two is a great way to vary up your content, while also guaranteeing a steady stream of influencers and new relationships to your blog.

Keep the interview to around 10 questions or less, and having a standard set of 5, and saving the other 5 to be unique to your guest.

As your interview becomes more popular, you’ll eventually start to garner inbound requests to be featured.

Guest Bloggers

Sample Email

Guest Blogger Outreach

What Metrics Matter Most For Influencer Outreach?http://www.growthonfire.com/what-metrics-matter-most-for-influencer-outreach/

Country Location Social Pages: Facebook, Twitter,

Pinterest, Youtube, Google+ Traffic And Engagement SEO Authority: Google Page Rank,

Domain Authority, Moz Trust (Moz’s global link trust score)

Article Types

Influencer Info

What Should My Filter Settings Be? With all the websites out there, how do you identify

the blogs? It can be difficult, but consider the following as

guidelines: A Domain Authority between 20 and 50 A Page Rank between 2 and 4 Existence of sponsored posts, product reviews, or

giveaways Availability of email or contact URL These metrics are just high enough to insure quality,

but not so high as to include some of the massive publications like Forbes, Wiki, and Huffington Post.

Find Influencers

http://searchengineland.com/how-to-find-local-influencers-on-google-plus-98824

site:plus.google.com blogger "places lived" "orange county"

Google+Finding Local Influencers

https://followerwonk.com/bio/?q=Orange%20County%2C%20CA%20blogger&q_type=all

TwitterFind influencers with Followerwonk. Sign up for a Moz Pro subscription to use Followerwonk's advanced features and gain access to Moz Analytics and other tools to improve your social media, SEO, brand, and content marketing efforts.

Finding Local Influencers

http://www.quora.com/How-can-I-find-local-influencers

Use Facebook to find influencers You can try to search for facebook posts in

Google.

Use this: keywords:yourbrandname site:facebook.com

inurl:posts

FacebookFinding Local Influencers

http://www.socialmediaexaminer.com/find-local-facebook-fans/

Take advantage of tools like Klout or Traakr, Google+ Local or GPlusData.com to determine who the influencers are in your city.

KloutFinding Local Influencers

Engage with corporate accounts; they're easier to get a response from

Provide feedback (including complaints) to brands Engage with corporate posts in which an

author/contributor is mentioned Next move on to interacting with influential

individuals Use humor to interact with brands and individuals Connect LinkedIn, Facebook, and Twitter profiles to

Klout profile Note: Updates to score may be infrequent

also read privacy policy.

http://www.pammarketingnut.com/2011/11/why-i-deleted-my-klout-profile/

Increasing Klout

Klout measures five networks: Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, Foursquare and Google+.

These are just some of the actions Klout uses when determining your Klout Score: Twitter: Retweets and Mentions Facebook: Comments, Wall-Posts, Likes Google+: Comments, Reshares, +1 LinkedIn: Comments, Likes Foursquare: Tips – Todo’s and Tips – Done

Scoring algorithm does not include: YouTube, Instagram, Tumblr, Blogger, WordPress.com, Last.fm and Flickr accounts.

Klout Scoring

Finding influencers with Hashtags

A hashtag tracking tool that helps surface content and influencers, especially related to events that are using a hashtag.

Views include conversations and top content as well as drill downs for influencers.

Results can be copied to your clipboard.

There are also a Newsroom Intelligence and Audience Intelligence paid tools that do not have a free trial.

KeyholeFinding Local Influencers

Prospecting Influencers Before you can use the tool, you need a list of prospects & contacts in Excel like

you see below.  Sort the list by those you have emails for, copy & paste the two columns into a

new spreadsheet, and save it as a CSV. I highly suggest you find first names as well, but it’s not completely necessary (just makes outreach more personal).

http://pointblankseo.com/buzzstream-outreach

Buzzstream

Importing Influencers Next, go into Buzzstream and import the CSV you just created in your intended

project’s “People” tab. Choose the “Match My CSV”

http://pointblankseo.com/buzzstream-outreach

Buzzstream

Match Data with Buzz Fields Then match up the different columns in your spreadsheet with the Buzzstream

value

http://pointblankseo.com/buzzstream-outreach

Buzzstream

Imported Contacts Now that you’ve got the contacts in Buzzstream, select the checkbox next to each

(can select all or filter down, then select all)

http://pointblankseo.com/buzzstream-outreach

Buzzstream

Converting Blog Communities to Influencer Factories

Existing blogger networks such as TapInfluence and Triberr have begun to market their communities to businesses as conduits to potential consumers.

Triberr, already a successful online community that allows like-minded bloggers to congregate in digital tribes around specific topics and share each other’s content in order to increase the reach of any one member, is now marketing that community of “mini-celebrities/bloggers” to companies that wish to hire brand ambassadors.  It’s a great channel for bloggers, and a great option for those seeking to monetize their blogging efforts, but does that qualify the bloggers as effective influencers of purchase decisions within a business’s prospect base?

TapInfluence, originally called BlogFrog, was an online blog network that allowed visitors to “jump from one blog to another” to explore their interests and discover new sites.  Now with over 100,000 registered blogs, they’re converting the network to a pay-for-influence model. 

BloggersFinding Local Influencers

New services such as Traackr and Appinions have become dominant players in the industry because their end game isn’t to manufacture influencers through social scoring schemes but to identify what truly drives specific consumer actions and sentiment across social channels, information that is central to effective influence marketing efforts.

social relationship management software such as Nimble and the new oneQube are evolving to identify and connect the nature of personal relationships with the content being discussed in social channels and the net effect of that social transaction on actual business transactions. Essentially, they’re providing businesses the ability to connect social conversations with transactional and personal data found in typical CRM platforms.

http://www.senseimarketing.com/bewarethe-growth-of-influencer-factories/

Other ServicesFinding Local Influencers

http://www.socialmediaexaminer.com/find-local-facebook-fans/

HashtagsFinding Local Influencers

Don't think you can #hashtag your way to success Hashtags have become a social custom, but don't use them too much—

lest you come across as reckless and inexperienced. Learn hashtags the smart way; turn to your influencers for inspiration:

Don't write a status (or a Tweet) beginning with a hashtag unless it is absolutely necessary.

Focus more on quality rather than quantity: Two or three hashtags, at most, should be enough to maintain relevancy.

Keep a close watch on trending topics within your targeted community and apply hashtags accordingly.

Don't use long versions of hashtags: e.g., #StarbucksSeattleCafeLatteRrocks, #Iknowwhatyoudidlastsummer and the like. Stick to short and simple.

Read more: http://www.marketingprofs.com/articles/2014/25831/how-to-develop-rapport-with-influencers-via-social-media#ixzz3aGdC9Ij0

Hashtags

Abide by good social ethics and practices with Influencers Just because your influencers follow you back on Twitter that

doesn't mean they are your friends now and you can get all personal with them; resist that urge.

Another important thing to note: There is a difference between being polite and being obsequious; your target influencers are probably subjected to a lot of brown-nosing, so you likely won't get far with that approach.

It is, however, a good practice to acknowledge social mentions, including retweets, with a simple "Thanks"; sometimes, if you can improvise a clever way of expressing that appreciation, then it can be a decent way of gaining attention.

Read more: http://www.marketingprofs.com/articles/2014/25831/how-to-develop-rapport-with-influencers-via-social-media#ixzz3aVwboJQU

Social Etiquette

Influencers Rates While some bloggers may happily work with you for free, you

likely won’t garner the results you are hoping to achieve. If you want to guarantee a successful partnership, you have to offer fair compensation.

While an A-list influencer is most likely not willing to do a sponsored post for $300, a newer blogger might gladly do so and reach the niche audience you are so lusting after.

Unfortunately, there are no rules when it comes to blogger rates; influencer marketing is run by zillions of different bloggers setting their own rates and valuing their services through their own measures. Most bloggers will have a media kit ready to go with set rates but since most bloggers evaluate contracts on a case-by-case basis, their list of services and rates are often just a starting point for your campaign.

Be clear on all the details and requirements before you start diving into rates. This will give the blogger the full picture of what you need from her before she’s even able to formulate an accurate quote.

Paid Influencer

Info-graphicInfluencer marketing is the process of identifying, researching, engaging and supporting the people who create the conversations impacting your brand, products or services. At the core of Integrated Marketing Communications, influencer marketing aligns PR, marketing, sales and product around a common strategy.

Why Focus On Influencer Marketing? This year influencer marketing will hit critical mass. 90% of consumers trust peer recommendations, and only 33% of consumers trust ads. If you don’t have an influencer marketing strategy, you could be missing the mark.

http://traackr.com/blog/2015/03/influencer-marketing-wave/

Conclusion

http://www.traackr.com/

74 percent of global marketers say they will use ‘influence marketing’ as part of their marketing strategy in the next 12 months.”

The great thing about influencer marketing is that it can be way less expensive than traditional marketing yet far more targeted and beneficial in the long term.

Treat influencer marketing just as you would any other form of marketing — it comes at a cost that yields real results.

Why should brands invest in influencer programs? We all know now that people’s trust in brands has

declined steadily, people don’t trust brands anymore. If a brand wants to instill trust within an audience, going via influencers is a good way to do that.’

http://smallbiztrends.com/2015/05/negotiate-for-influencer-marketing.html

Conclusion

Links/Sources http://searchengineland.com/how-to-fin

d-local-influencers-on-google-plus-98824

http://www.socialmediaexaminer.com/find-local-facebook-fans/

http://maximizesocialbusiness.com/4-ways-incorporate-influencers-blogging-strategy-19004/

http://traackr.com/blog/2015/04/7-best-influencer-marketing-resources/

http://www.convinceandconvert.com/digital-marketing/influencer-marketing-for-businesses/

http://www.toprankblog.com/2015/03/brandividuals-influencers/

http://www.toprankblog.com/2014/02/9-influencer-discovery-tools/

Links/Sources http://www.grouphigh.com/ http://www.marketingprofs.com/articles

/2014/25831/how-to-develop-rapport-with-influencers-via-social-media

http://blog.klout.com/2011/12/what-does-klout-measure/

http://maximizesocialbusiness.com/5-signs-companys-blog-failing-18508/

http://www.entrepreneur.com/article/238602

http://smallbiztrends.com/2015/05/negotiate-for-influencer-marketing.html

http://traackr.com/blog/2015/05/singapore-steps-up-influence-marketing/

http://traackr.com/blog/category/influencer-marketing/page/2/

http://traackr.com/blog/2015/01/best-influencer-marketing-programs-2014/

Links/Sources http://traackr.com/blog/2014/12/impacters

-ebadeyeri-wearesocial/ http://traackr.com/blog/2014/11/social-me

dia-engagement-the-give/ http://www.senseimarketing.com/visual-inf

luencer-marketing-is-on-the-rise-but-is-it-worth-the-investment/

http://www.senseimarketing.com/sony-finds-influencers-among-friends-not-social-celebrities/

http://www.senseimarketing.com/opinion-is-the-new-black-in-influence-marketing/

http://www.senseimarketing.com/bewarethe-growth-of-influencer-factories/

http://www.pammarketingnut.com/2011/11/why-i-deleted-my-klout-profile/

http://readwrite.com/2011/10/28/17-alternatives-to-klout

http://www.wikiweb.com/find-link-prospects-outreach/

http://www.buzzstream.com/blog/category/influencer-outreach

http://pamsahota.com/tag/buzzstream/