Stiles Says: When it comes to influencers, choose the people sincerely bringing value to the community, not the rabid publicity dogs leveraging their bought fan count for speaking gigs.
With 2.5 quintillion bytes of data created every day, marketers are challenged to stand out amongst the sheer volume of information confronting their target audience.
At the same time, information overload drives consumers to filter their choices to those few who are most trusted, credible and meaningful. Becoming known as “the best answer” for your domain of expertise wields incredible influence on the search and social web.
When consumers are empowered to create, consume, publish, interact and transact anytime, anywhere, how do brands break through to create meaningful connections and engagement? How does the dynamic of content and influence help fulfill consumer information discovery, consumption and engagement expectations while delivering on business outcomes for the brand?
As a vehicle for influence, content is one of the most powerful tools in a marketer’s mix to attract, engage and inspire action. Content is the currency for building relationships that can boost credibility, influence and action.
I think investing in a content and influencer marketing strategy can be one of the most impactful actions a marketing and communications organization can make. By incorporating relevant influencers that can inspire action with your content marketing efforts, you can reach new audiences with brand messages that are credible and trusted.
Influencer driven content marketing is one of the best examples of how digital marketing and public relations are converging. The integration of messaging, content, social media and engagement right along with performance measurement and business outcomes should be the focus of any business that wants to differentiate and grow.
Does that mean go after the people with the highest social network follower counts? Not unless you can demonstrate their ability to influence action. With influencer marketing, it’s essential to make the distinction between an egomaniac that spends all their time trying to be famous and a practitioner that connects with their communities in a meaningful way and creates real, measurable impact. Here’s a handy guide from Traackr an presentation from OpenView Venture Partners and an article from KISSmetrics to help with the process of influencer identification.
Whether your brand is engaging with influencers to provide useful information or you’re co-creating content with influencers, there’s a value exchange that benefits everyone involved. Content is the key to that value transfer between brand and consumer, brand and influencer and for the overall community involved.
What are you doing to discover and engage with influencers in your target market? Is becoming more influential as a brand part of your content marketing strategy?
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