• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to content
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • Skip to footer

Neal Schaffer-Social Media Speaker, Author, Consultant, Educator and InfluencerNeal Schaffer-Social Media Speaker, Author, Consultant, Educator and Influencer

Maximize Your Social at the official site of social media keynote speaker Neal Schaffer

  • Meet Neal
  • Influencer Marketing
  • Speaking
  • Consulting
  • Books
  • Blog
  • Hire Neal
  • Nav Social Menu

    • LinkedIn
    • Facebook
    • Twitter
    • Instagram
    • RSS
    • Email

Six Steps to Strategically Building an Influencer Marketing Program

by Neal Schaffer

November 19, 2015 By Neal Schaffer 2 Comments

Six Steps to Strategically Building an Influencer Marketing Program

Welcome to the era of Influencer Marketing. The rise of social media has allowed more people to share more information to a wider audience. This paved the way for a new breed of celebrities: The digital influencers. Today, with virtually everyone using social media for a variety of purposes, any one of us might influence someone else’s purchasing decision on something depending on our relationship, the context of the conversation, and the timing.

The more mainstream social media becomes in the fabric of our society, the more democratized social media influence becomes.

Together with Employee Advocacy, Influencer Marketing was one of the hot topics at this year’s Social Tools Summit, and I expect it will continue to be a topic of much discussion in 2016.

Influencer Marketing? Is it just a passing trend?

Many of you reading this might already know the answer to this question, but it bears repeating. In simple terms, Influencer Marketing is when a consumer’s buying decision is influenced by someone that we call an “influencer.” It could be a celebrity, a friend, a colleague, or a blogger, but the commonality vis a vis social media is that they are often 1) connected with influencers in social as a follower and/or reader and 2) the influencer is perceived as a trustworthy entity.

As our influencer marketing columnist Raymond Morin blogged sometimes ago, there are 3 main types of influencers:

  • celebrities

  • opinion leaders (traditional media, online media, social media)

  • ambassadors (satisfied customers, happy employees)

With the democratization of social media influence, there are simply more people that yield influence in social media. Perhaps this is one reason why Influencer Influencer Marketing continues to soar. It really shouldn’t come as a surprise, because numerous stats have already documented the power of online recommendations:

  • A Nielsen report that shows that 84% of worldwide consumers will take action based on the reviews and recommendations of trusted sources above all other forms of advertising. These “trusted sources” are often our friends that we engage with in social media.
  • A DemandGen study that shows that 72% of B2B buyers use social media to research a purchase and 53% rely on trusted recommendations to make that purchase.
  • A Sprout Social survey that says that 74% of consumers rely on their social networks to guide purchase decisions.
  • A Forrester Research report that 85% of B2B decision-makers rely on trusted online communities when researching business technologies.

While the potential for Influencer Marketing is huge, many companies still don’t have a formal strategy in place vis a vis to planning, measuring and optimizing the ROI from investing in such a program. Now it’s time to create one, and you can do so by following these 6 steps:

1) Research who your influencers are and where they exist in social media

To leverage on the power of influencers for your business, you have to know where they are. Thanks to social media, it’s easy for businesses to find out who potential influencers might be. You can do a simple search by keyword and hashtags to identify who is making their voice heard. Unfortunately, this can be very time-consuming.

This is where a sophisticated tool like Little Bird comes in. This tool will take away your tedious manual search with its ability to analyze and identify shakers and movers in your field and if they are perceived to be able to influence other leaders and key businesses.

With Little Bird, you can create an influencer network map that shows you three things:

  • How influencers are connected to you

  • How you are connected to influencers

  • How you compare to your competitors

From this information, you can then identify which influencers best match your goals so you can start engaging.

2.) Create an influencer marketing strategy

Knowing where influencers exist online is only the beginning. You have to know how to use the information you have to your advantage with an objective in mind, ideally one that aligns with your business goals for social media as I recommend in Maximize Your Social.

Every company will have a different Influencer Marketing strategy as objectives will differ, but some of the more popular business objectives I’ve seen are:

  • raise brand awareness

  • generate leads and sales

  • increase customer loyalty

Knowing the end in mind is critical so that you don’t get lost in both what type of relationship you want with influencer as well as how you plan to measure the ROI of that relationship.

3.) Understand what influencers are talking about online

Have you ever read a Twitter chat that made you cringe? Because someone unwittingly replied to a tweet without fully understanding the context? That’s not the type of engagement you need for your business.

Understand what influencers are talking about online and you can easily plan for an effective engagement strategy and content production.

Following your influencers is one thing, discovering trends relevant to your market from their social media updates is another important piece of data that you should utilize. This will help you come up with content that your audience can easily resonate with.

4.) Engage with influencers online authentically

Aim to make influencers take interest in you and co-create with you by building a lasting relationship through authentic engagement and, providing helpful and insightful information.

Reach out to influencers and be authentic. Show them you genuinely value their opinions, products and services not just by following them, retweeting their tweets or liking their posts.

Be creative in building genuine engagement by:

  • Respond to their audiences’ questions in comments

  • Invite them to a podcast or interview

  • Include them in your content marketing

  • Give them an exclusive product, service, or preview

  • Become a case study for them

Click here for more relationship building tactics that get influencer’s attention.

The more you do this, the more you will build your own credibility with top influencers and their community.

5.) Use Paid Social Media to amplify relevant influencer marketing content

I’ve been evangelizing the value of Paid Social since writing Maximize Your Social in the spring of 2013. Assuming you’ve followed the previous 4 steps and have already invested in a sophisticated influencer marketing platform, you already know who the prominent players in your field are will make it easier for you to utilize paid social media marketing.

Here is an example: Export a list of your influencers’ Twitter handles and their “relevant” followers to Twitter ad platform and create a “tailored audience” or “follower” targeting feature so you can specifically showcase your content to them.

6.) Measure and adjust

Do you feel like you are winging your influencer marketing strategy in the dark? Just like the mistake that most companies make with a (or lack of a) social media strategy, you did a little Planning, a LOT of Doing, but little to no Checking and measuring and therefore no way to adjust and optimize your Influencer Marketing based on a data-driven approach.

It’s important to know, that at the end of the day, it’s not about how many people you’ve reached. It’s about how many “right people” you have influenced, and how the measurement of that aligns with your Influencer Marketing strategy objectives.

As you continually tweak your strategy, don’t miss out on the content marketing intelligence that can be gleaned from your influencer data. Search for trends and patterns that will help you shape your message. Understand it so you can to craft appropriate content for every audience. Customize your message for each market segmentation.

How strategic of an initiative has a formal Influencer Marketing program become for your brand?

  • Bio
  • Twitter
  • Facebook
  • LinkedIn
  • YouTube
  • Pinterest
  • Latest Posts
Neal Schaffer

Neal Schaffer

Neal Schaffer is a leading authority on helping businesses through their digital transformation of sales and marketing through consulting, training, and helping enterprises large and small develop and execute on social media marketing strategy, influencer marketing, and social selling initiatives. President of the social media agency PDCA Social, Neal also teaches digital media to executives at Rutgers University, the Irish Management Institute (Ireland), and the University of Jyvaskyla (Finland). Fluent in Japanese and Mandarin Chinese, Neal is a popular keynote speaker and has been invited to speak about digital media on four continents in a dozen countries. He is also the author of 3 books on social media, including Maximize Your Social (Wiley), and in late 2019 will publish his 4th book, The Business of Influence (HarperCollins), on educating the market on the why and how every business should leverage the potential of influencer marketing. Neal resides in Irvine, California but also frequently travels to Japan.
Neal Schaffer

@nealschaffer

Social Media Author, @RBSExecEd & @IMI_Ireland Educator, Keynote Speaker. New #influencermarketing book: https://t.co/Z9bWWfapJ6
What Instagram Influencers Can Teach Brands About Community Management https://t.co/iktCGsrs5b #influencermarketing https://t.co/SrhmtLpBuU - 1 hour ago
Neal Schaffer
Neal Schaffer
Neal Schaffer

Neal Schaffer

Neal Schaffer

Neal Schaffer

Neal Schaffer

Latest posts by Neal Schaffer (see all)

  • How to Get Verified on Instagram – The Latest Advice and Analysis - January 31, 2019
  • Seven Helpful Social Media Writing Tips For Businesses - January 24, 2019
  • How to Make Money on Instagram? Here’s 9 Different Ideas to Chew On - January 21, 2019
  • 7 Instagram Mistakes That Kill Your Online Business - January 17, 2019
  • How to Reach a Whole New Demographic Using Social Media - January 16, 2019

About Neal Schaffer

Neal Schaffer is a leading authority on helping businesses through their digital transformation of sales and marketing through consulting, training, and helping enterprises large and small develop and execute on social media marketing strategy, influencer marketing, and social selling initiatives. President of the social media agency PDCA Social, Neal also teaches digital media to executives at Rutgers University, the Irish Management Institute (Ireland), and the University of Jyvaskyla (Finland). Fluent in Japanese and Mandarin Chinese, Neal is a popular keynote speaker and has been invited to speak about digital media on four continents in a dozen countries. He is also the author of 3 books on social media, including Maximize Your Social (Wiley), and in late 2019 will publish his 4th book, The Business of Influence (HarperCollins), on educating the market on the why and how every business should leverage the potential of influencer marketing. Neal resides in Irvine, California but also frequently travels to Japan.

Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. jamieriddell says

    November 26, 2015 at 7:54 am

    Hi Neal, Thanks for mentioning BirdSong! If you had a moment to change the link it may be better to explain what data your audience can get from an export.

    Reply
    • Neal Schaffer says

      November 26, 2015 at 8:23 pm

      Revision done Jamie – thanks for stopping by!

      Reply

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

Primary Sidebar

FOLLOW ME!

Follows
  • Twitter
    222k Followers
  • LinkedIn
    40.8k Followers
  • Pinterest
    29.8k Followers
  • Instagram
    16.3k Followers
  • Facebook
    10.7k Followers
  • YouTube
    244 Followers

COME SEE ME SPEAK LIVE!

COME SEE ME SPEAK LIVE!

PRE-ORDER MY NEW BOOK!

PRE-ORDER MY NEW BOOK!

LOOKING TO BETTER LEVERAGE LINKEDIN?

LOOKING TO BETTER LEVERAGE LINKEDIN?

USE THE SOCIAL MEDIA DASHBOARD THAT I USE!

USE THE SOCIAL MEDIA DASHBOARD THAT I USE!

LEARN THE LATEST ABOUT INFLUENCER MARKETING

LEARN THE LATEST ABOUT INFLUENCER MARKETING

ABOUT NEAL

Neal Schaffer is a leader in helping educate executives and professionals on social media as well as in implementing successful social media strategies for businesses. CEO of the social media agency PDCA Social, social media educator at Rutgers University and the Irish Management Institute, social media keynote speaker who has spoken at hundreds of events on four continents, and author of three social media books, Neal is a true innovator and influencer in the growing world of social media for business.

SEARCH THIS SITE

CATEGORIES

  • LinkedIn
  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • Instagram
  • Pinterest
  • YouTube
  • RSS
  • Email

Join my newsletter!

Nealschaffer

Subscribe to get my latest content by email as soon as I publish it.

Success! I'll send you updates as soon as I publish them!

There was an error submitting your subscription. Please try again.

Don't worry: You can unsubscribe at any time. Powered by ConvertKit

Footer

Neal Schaffer

About Neal Schaffer
Influencer Marketing Services
Social Media Speaker
Social Media Consulting
Social Media Books
Neal's Social Media Blog Posts
Neal's Social Media Podcast
Social Media Center of Excellence
Hire Neal
Write for This Blog

Popular Blog Categories

Instagram Marketing
Twitter Marketing
LinkedIn
Facebook Marketing
Content Marketing
Social Media Tools
Influencer Marketing
YouTube & Video Marketing
WeChat and China Social Media
Social Media for Nonprofits
Social Media Strategy

Free Ebooks

Maximizing LinkedIn for Business
How AI is Revolutionizing Influencer Marketing
How to Build an Employee Advocacy Program
Focused Social Selling
The Social Media Tools for Business Buyer's Guide

More Social Media Resources

Recommended Social Media Books
Recommended Social Media Apps & Tools
Recommended Social Media Conferences
Recommended WordPress Plugins

Search This Site

Follow Me

Follows
  • Twitter
    222k Followers
  • LinkedIn
    40.8k Followers
  • Pinterest
    29.8k Followers
  • Instagram
    16.3k Followers
  • Facebook
    10.7k Followers
  • YouTube
    244 Followers

© 2008–2019 Windmills Marketing · Privacy Policy · Terms & Conditions · Contact

https://nealschaffer.com/author/nealschaffer/