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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.
3HOW INFLUENCERS AND CONTENT MARKETING CAN HELP BUILD YOUR BRAND
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
4HOW INFLUENCERS AND CONTENT MARKETING CAN HELP BUILD YOUR BRAND
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.
5HOW INFLUENCERS AND CONTENT MARKETING CAN HELP BUILD YOUR BRAND
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.
6HOW INFLUENCERS AND CONTENT MARKETING CAN HELP BUILD YOUR BRAND
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
7HOW INFLUENCERS AND CONTENT MARKETING CAN HELP BUILD YOUR BRAND
“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.
8HOW INFLUENCERS AND CONTENT MARKETING CAN HELP BUILD YOUR BRAND
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
9HOW INFLUENCERS AND CONTENT MARKETING CAN HELP BUILD YOUR BRAND
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