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Webinar – How to Identify, Cultivate, and Partner with Digital Influencers

We teamed up with Bulldog Reporter and guest presenter, Andrea Wytish, for this on-demand webinar, How to Identify, Cultivate, and Partner with Digital Influencers. This webinar provides an in-depth look at digital influencers and how to best find and work with them to promote your brand.

What you’ll take away from this webinar: how to identify, and engage with, influencers, social listening and the digital landscape, the do’s and don’ts of building relationships, and helpful tools and services.

 

 

Webinar Transcript:

okay greetings everyone welcome to
today’s webinar from bulldog reporters
Industry Insights we have successfully
dug up our tables and replaced them so
we’re ready to go here today’s event is
a great one and it’s called how to
identify cultivate and partner with
digital influencers a very hot topic
indeed I am Richard careful I’m the
editor of Bulldog reporter in the daily
dog one of the web’s leading sources of
PR and marketing communications news
views and thought leadership you can
find us in bulldog reporter calm and you
can sign up to receive the daily dog
there for free we are very happy to
welcome today’s guest andrea whitish
he’s a senior vice president of digital
and influencer relations at evo at
evolve mkd thank you for being with us
today Andrea thank you for having me
absolutely great to have you looking
forward to your presentation andrea is a
traditional and digital media marketing
specialist with over 15 years of
experience her time spent at Conde
Nast’s Parade magazine ignited her
passion for brand storytelling through
an omni-channel marketing approach and
she spent the last few years
specializing in social media and digital
strategy strategy for beauty lifestyle
and fashion brands okay we’re going to
get started here in just a second let me
tell you first that Andrea will be
responding to your questions during your
presentation today so if you have one
for her you can just click on the
comment icon that’s at the bottom right
corner of the screen the second to left
icon there type in your inquiry and
select send to all panelists and we will
see them bring them into the
conversation at the best time and we’ll
try to get you everyone’s questions so
please do ask away okay so without
further ado let’s get to today’s
presentation on working with digital
influencers and here’s Andrea whitish
welcome everyone I’m really excited to
talk to you on this topic at the moment
and just a little about to evolve mkd is
to let you know how and why I’m sort of
talking to the subject so a bottom Katty
is a
our digital and social media and
influencer agency so we actually
specialize in health care aesthetic
beauty and lifestyle and we work with
our brands across category when it comes
to influencers so whether it’s a
celebrity spokesperson two products
eating potatoes or content series we can
help activate against all of those the
ladies on the screen are some familiar
faces that you may know hopefully and
these are some ladies that we’ve worked
with for our brand so Kourtney
Kardashian Jacqueline Laurita from the
house live and we’ll figure out the lady
on the Left if you don’t know her you
know her work she is Kim Kardashian and
the Kardashians makeup artist so we work
with very high-end celebrity based
influencers as well as smaller
influencers as well so the topic at hand
why are we all here today so this is the
hot topics because ninety percent of
consumers trust peer to peer
recommendations while only thirty-three
percent actually trust ads now that’s an
important note to keep in your back
pocket so when we talk about working
with influencers of not having your
content feel like that but also
seventy-four percent of consumers rely
on social media to it
Oh Andrea looks like we have lost Andrea
for the moment hang on a second
everybody our crack team will be all
over this just sit tight for a sec we
were having some problems moving the
slide a minute or two ago and it looks
like that was resolved yes that was
resolved but now I am there we go our
shoes deandrea Adria sorry I don’t know
why I’m dropping off I’ll try not to
move here so back to this slide if
everyone can hear me now and not sure
where you lost me so I’ll just go
through this again ninety percent of
consumers trust peer to peer
recommendations which is really
important verses thirty three percent
trusting ads and seventy-four percent of
consumer rely on social media to inform
their decisions so when influencer
marketing is done it it’s best consumers
are really going to be felt like they’re
being talked to from a trusted brand so
with any campaign that you do that’s
essentially what you’re looking to get
so the big topics are micro versus macro
and who’s right for each brand let me
just give a little education on sort of
what micro and macro means don’t get
attached to these numbers these are just
to give you an idea these are some
general numbers but everyone might slot
be slightly different so the macro
influencer the macro influence there is
someone I kind of with compared to
somewhat of a super bowl right so they
have a lot of reach but there’s a lot of
people watching them for many different
reasons they might be interested in the
game they might be interested in a
commercial but they’re really kind of
big and bold and out there they’re
really great to partner with their great
when you want a mast approach when
you’re trying to get your name out there
quickly they’re also really great when
you’re trying to align your brand with
them so something that really think
about when you’re working with this
macro influencer space also think about
working them in bigger oxidation so more
of a brand spokesperson can may it be
integrated into your TV ads can they be
integrated into
a consumer meet and greets in retail
about walking a runway so for your
clothing line or makeup brand can they
develop a new product launch for you
that they’re really great at kind of
giving more tools to them to work with
and work as a brand spokesperson for you
the micro influencers are kind of on the
lower end but I would like equate them
to a made from netflix TV series like
our zoo zoo new black so in the
beginning not everyone really knew about
it but there was a cult following these
micro influencers have such a dedicated
passionate audience because consumers
are really looking to them to match
their brand attributes and they’re also
very engaging so micro influences are
also really especially great when you
have a very nice audience debt and such
as in the beauty state of vegan organic
you might not have a lot of macro
influencers which will have a lot of my
crew influencers and the consumers on
there are really passionate they’re
going to comment they’re going to engage
so micro influencers have a place in
this in this as well so the trends at
the moment is actually micro influencers
and the reason why is because when the
whole influencer phenomenon hit it
really was about how big and their reach
so how bigger their numbers how can we
get out there with this kind of really
great big brand spokesperson it’s kind
of moved into the trend of the
microstate part of that is because of
engagement now engagement is really big
metric now that people are really using
to measure their campaigns so these are
just the numbers that showcase kind of
from a study that showcase Instagram and
numbers of fans and followers go up
engagement rates go down and the
commenting rates also mimic this a
little bit and part of that reason is
that the micro influencer actually kind
of has the time and the energy to
cultivate their audience a little bit
more plus there’s not as many people
actually commenting engaging as on the
macro where they’re not going to get to
every single comment so it feels a
little bit more like a community where
people will engage the victims getting
into how do we see
set up our campaign that starting point
for me really is what are your end goals
what are you looking to deliver again
use your end goal engagement and design
engagement is it a comment is it as
share is it alike all of those are all
great you just have to decide what’s
right for your strategy is it a click
the web or is it an actual shopping cart
perfect so all of them again have this
place in this space but you really have
to define this against your campaign
goals and metrics this is a great
example this is an influencer that we
don’t work with I’m vegan and she’s a
vegan influencer so I really love what
she does but she’s also really great at
kind of working with brands across many
different aspects so the example on the
left in the middle are actually um sales
driven so there are offer codes for the
product so that’s really going to drive
click the web as well as more so on the
south side and then the one on the right
was a product giveaway on the sales side
of things it’s really great to have
tracking rings to be able to identify
what those metrics and all that traffic
that is coming through also if you’re
looking to do to click to web think more
about campaign sex and platforms exit
off so Pinterest Facebook Twitter all
grey instagrams great as well especially
if you can offer them some sort of code
so on the south side of things think
about an affiliate marketing program
with this influencer it could be
something more formalized like a
commission junction I like to know it is
a kind of form of that in the beauty and
fashion space as well or could it be
one-on-one tracking code that you know
that bad traffic coming from with that
code is not influencer when you’re doing
something along the lines of engagement
many ways to do engagement they could
you would give away for you but if
they’re doing a giveaway ask them to ask
their fans and followers to follow you
to reshare to engage so there’s a bigger
activation that the enter to be part of
this sweepstakes again really great for
doing getting new fans and followers and
and activating the consumer audience the
other piece of it is content and so
content could just be your goal you
could really just
looking for these influencers to develop
content that you use on your channel
when you’re doing that really think
about what the photography looks like
with that influencer doesn’t match your
brand channel if you’re doing a paid
partnership so this one as fact and
veggie as an example she’s very light in
her background so if I’m a brand that
really feels that I want my speed and my
instruments you all to look very light
and and clean she would be someone that
I’d be looking to partner with so
someone that really matches the creative
side of what you do as a brand big piece
of it is where what digital platform
suits your audience these are three of
the three of us in our office and we all
use social media is very differently
part of that is our age but part of that
is our interest as well as kind of who
we are and what our natural activations
are so to give you an example women who
are aged 25 to 54 with a child who is 18
years or younger in a home and they’re
really great at engaging on Pinterest
and Facebook especially when it comes to
recipes and food videos right it makes
sense moms looking for food inspiration
but thats a mentor audience generally
does not engage on snapchat or youtube
like a much younger audience does so
really identifying this platform is
going to be important when you’re
setting up your campaigns now some of
that there’s going to be about the
digital audience itself and that’s
actually a whole other webinar was just
to talk through that too again a little
bit more examples is snapchat it’s a
really young demographic sixty percent
of its users are under 25 and only about
two percent or over 55 so if you have no
other brand it’s definitely not the
audience for you so if your lead channel
the influence your partnering with is a
channel that your audience is not on
it’s not the right fit for you guys
twitter again it’s a great platform but
it really works when you’re talking
about live in the moment executions so
if you’re a brand that is but stay
wine brand partner with an influencer
from the bachelor and talk about the
black bachelor and need your product
into the bat and do a twitter chat the
real-time execution so it’s a little bit
about matching the platform and your
audience but also organically what the
platform does itself hey Andrea sorry to
interrupt this is Richard we have a
question here that is before we move too
far past this I wanted to kind of throw
it out there unit we’re talking earlier
about tracking code for influencers and
we have a question from Joyce who’s
wondering what is the best link tracking
software or program out there that you
know of and could you just maybe have
described that process a little bit
Stuart so there’s going to be a few
different things right tracking codes I
don’t want to say there’s one
necessarily that fits all so we have a
scheduling tool that we use is called
Falcon and it actually has its own
linking that is available so we’ll use
that and give that to the influence or
you could use a google analytics kind of
tracking or google link as part of that
or even a bit meet bitly link so giving
them a link to click off is one piece of
the pie the second piece of the pie is
giving them an actual code so my code
would be andrea influencer and so when
someone purchases i have to type that in
and it gets track on my back end so
depending on what your your sales
shopping cart looks like you’ll have
different ways to get codes to ID to
uniquely identify them when they’re
coming along for you ok great thank you
good for thank your explaining that
Thank You Joyce for the question thank
you great question and the next piece is
kind of shoe do you want to partner with
that’s a really big one this is a
relationship so when you’re getting into
the paid activation think about who you
want to date that’s exactly what this is
the influencers core values and
attributes really need to match your
brand’s and most importantly your
customer that influencer also needs to
like your category and talk about your
category it doesn’t have to be all the
time but you want to make sure that they
talk about your
10th a little bit in the mix of thing
and if you’re partnering with someone
that might be a little off category so
for example for us we have a lot of
skincare brands will actually look at
fashion influencers as as partners for
things and we look at their content
because they do also talk about beauty
and skincare and makeup but we’ll look
at that as an engagement number because
it might be slightly different than what
they’re known for so something to think
about is you can go outside of category
but that person needs to talk about the
category and the audience needs to
engage with that category this is an
influencer that i’ll use as an example
that we partner with for one of our
brands she was a cellulite brand and the
study like brand is basically about
women who are getting fit and they just
can’t get rid of this value life so she
her name is misfit she is a fitness
expert and that all her story is and
she’s really also open about talking
about beauty and aesthetic treatments
which which is a really great fit for
our brand and and has done so well ways
to kind of utilize them is a big piece
of it so this is the example you using
this misfit we actually reached out to
her editorially as a pitch to see if she
was interested in getting this treatment
that resulted in this amazing blog post
as well as a YouTube video and a social
media post from there we were watching
the community to see what they were
saying and also has a really great
relationship with her for she told us
people were asking about pricing she
sent someone to the doctor that she went
to we were monitoring all this as well
as the great social chatter that there
is and we decided that she was right for
us so we then went ahead and just did a
formalized deal that were looking to
launch in the coming weeks of a fitness
partnership where she’s doing video
series of content that actually is meant
to be used on the brand channel that she
will use as well and will also get
supported in other marketing activation
so sometimes the partnerships are back
served when you can reach out for them
organically or you already hear about
them talking about your brand look at
the community see how they’re responding
and then formalize something a little
bit bigger into a partnership
so this goes into sort of the
relationship building side of things so
this is really really important and the
first and biggest piece of it and this
is actually comes from the influencers
that I talk to and reached out to things
that they like and they don’t like to
prep for some of this they really want
you to treat them as people don’t just
treat them as an advertising platform
they will get the message out for you
but when you understand who they are and
get to know them set up a call for your
first meeting meet them in person if you
can to discuss what’s going on with the
brand that’s going to go a long way for
you also understand and listen to who
they are as both a person and a brand
there might be some things that are
interesting for them such as your brand
promoting them on other activations
which is website to newsletters online
whatever it is everyone’s going to be a
little bit different in what they find
interesting but that is going to be
engaging for them to really feel like
they’re immersed in this for you
communication ongoing immersion into
your brand is really important as well
so even if you have find an influencer
that you may not be ready to activate on
a paid partnership just reach out to
them and just say hey this is we want
you to be the first no we know you love
this product or brand we’re going to
launch this in three different colors or
something else we’ll send you a sample
so you can be the first to know letting
them get excited about your brand and
feeling like they’re on the inside and
with your team will also kind of help
with your activation / l overall
according is something that we do at
evolve and something again that’s
important for everyone to do just take
the time to get to know that these are
three perfect examples of what we do de
cording so the example on the left was
actually just starting the relationship
this is tati Westbrook of glam life guru
and she is an amazing influencer and
very lovely to work with we started with
a dinner conversation with her and her
boyfriend new loser manager finding out
what she likes what products you love
what we can do for her how do we work
with her and he had been followed up
with the delivery with a handwritten
note of here our favorite products that
we think will be great for you if
resulted in
multiple client brand mentions but this
one video which is what I think is a
unicorn doesn’t happen all the time but
is a gold mine when you can find it this
was a 12-minute video where she showed
this mask she put it on he dried on her
face she lost it off she had a boyfriend
come in during this whole time and she
has 2.5 million followers on YouTube and
almost 500,000 people viewed this video
and a lot of engagement that started off
with a dinner conversation there is no
paint activation with that the second
one is something that’s just it doesn’t
have to be expensive something that
she’s been cheerful is what we like to
say so this was around an ovulation day
and again we know are influencers really
well so we know at this time what their
party lines kind of what they are so we
delivered this to an influencers
actually around her birthday as well
with these great amazing clothes and
there was a handwritten note that said
just some sweet treats to brighten your
day because girl power trumps everything
she loved it I got text messages I got
not to dues on my social media account
she sent me a nominal if she thought it
was the greatest thing again it was it
was nothing really that expensive just
something different and thoughtful and
directed at her the one on the right is
the beauty editor also an influencer and
she was featured in beauty ink magazine
so we decided to frame if you as well as
the article and mail to her with a note
on congratulation they feel like we’re
invested in that we send wedding gift we
make sure there’s thank you card we’re
really building these relationships
because we believe in these influencers
and we want them to also believe in both
us as evolved as well as the brand hi
Andrea another question for you here
this one comes from blaze and he’s
wondering these are great tips about
defining and cultivating influencers but
he wonders it our blades wonder are
there any particular suggestions that
you like give for for a local brand to
do these kinds of outreach you know some
for example he says a nonprofit that
covers part of a state or perhaps a
restaurant with only one load yeah great
question so I actually recommend using
graham and looking at geo-tagging so
look for locations that are geotagged
and start to dig into them also look at
local hashtags for specific cities on
Instagram as well as Twitter that
actually are helpful that will find some
local people that talk about it I’ll
give you some other tips later in the
presentation that I think will help you
think about that a little bit further oh
great then thank you please thank you
and okay so there’s really two ways to
work with influencers the first one is
paid partnerships which is probably what
most of us are thinking that was really
playing the influencer to talk about
your brand and this is an activation
that we did with one of our influencers
and again he was a fashion expert and
you talked a little bit about skin care
but he was in that space there’s a
little bit more on the fashion side so
we really felt like he was the right
person to partner with and we worked
with him to develop a blog post as well
as social media content that drove to
the blob now this brand actually could
not have social media media brand
mentions so these were unbranded
mentioned for the blog the visit of
state of a control method but what I say
most importantly with paid mentions is
to give them bullet points give them
things not to say about your brand’s or
ways not to position your brand but
really make it about them and what suits
their audience best the more that you
can do that is the more that it’s going
to resonate with audience that they’re
talking to as well as get your point out
there and let it feel a little bit more
organically so pay dues make it
authentic let them determine what’s
important get them to activate let them
hear about what your goals and
objectives are right so early on we
talked about if your goal is alike is it
a reach air is it a follow is it click
to web give them part of the campaign
goals and they’ll help you decide along
the way what you say will think is best
how their audience a staff against it
there are times where in the beginning
when interest story launched you know I
wasn’t a huge fan of them because we
couldn’t necessarily see the numbers of
how many people were engaging with the
content but I have such a great
relationship with some of our
influencers I’ve gotten them to tell us
that you know my insta story actually
gets more engagement than my piece of
content that might be different for
everyone so it may not be a general rule
but let them activate it the way that
they think makes sense based on what
your end goals are amplifying is also
really important let the influence or
amplify it for you and some great ways
to really do that is let them talk about
it before the campaign launches so the
campaign example I gave you was missed
it she did something on set that was
just I’m still excited to partner with
this brand and a behind the scenes from
the photo shoot let them talk about it
let them then develop the content and
and do the mention and then do something
after the mention based on some of the
consumer feedback so the more that you
can get them with touch points expect me
when it feels like it’s behind the
scenes or sneak peek 1 won’t be more
excited to work with you if it feels
more organic and they were parted it and
it also feels better for the consumer
the last piece of amplification is
really important don’t just leave it up
the influencer to amplify so they did
oppose from you now what don’t just
leave it up to their channels take the
content share it on your channels of
course always tag and give them
attribution for it but are there other
ways in your marketing tool box that you
can actually use so you might be able to
feature them on a newsletter you might
be able to put them in your social media
ads into looks like the web campaign
there’s other ways that you can actually
use that piece of content in your page
journals to help support this campaign
and one thing to note on that if you’re
using them outside of just let’s say a
Content mention more click to web on
their channels just be upfront about
them about how you’re going to use this
content if you say ok you’re the other
ways that we want to promote this we’d
like to use it here here and here that
actually might change the structure of
the agreement based on the influencer
the the larger the influencer it
definitely will if there’s someone on
the smaller and they might just be
excited for you to help them get their
name out there the second way and to
work or sort of
work in close with the influencer is to
partner to partner with them but more
through organic ways so this is
essentially just like how our PR team
pitches the editors in a magazine right
to begin them all the messaging they
tell us why it’s important and it’s up
to the magazine either to decide about
how to write about it and so right about
it on the wedding wear on their channel
this same thing goes for influencers so
we kind of do these influencer pitches
more with creative deliveries because
that is what’s going to resonate with
the consumer with the influence or as
well as the consumer when we’re doing
that the biggest thing to do is get
personal so a handwritten note card goes
a really long way especially if you can
tie back to something that they did on
the channel I saw that you did this I
think you might want to try this product
that’s a great thing to the saying that
you’re following their channels and now
you’re engaging the other way is the
mailer itself these are two great
examples brands that we don’t work on
that it cosmetics and did this launch
for an eye cream that had caffeine in it
and it had the influencers name on the
can of coffee with it and it got a lot
of traction the middle one is Benefit
Cosmetics where they put an influencer /
editor on the cover of a magazine seeing
your face on something or your needle
and something is really going to get you
interested and engage the last one is an
example of vents of events so we do
events that can be for media and that we
also do for influencers that we invite
to and we also make sure that one or
half tags and tags are everywhere at the
event and they know about it but also
that there’s Instagram abode moments so
the product is set up in a youth unique
way there’s something really creative on
the table so that they can utilize and
take a photo of so think about the event
from an Instagram bubble moment another
great mailer and that I really love it’s
a way little Tiki here pun intended and
we did this for our cellulite flange and
the thought behind this is really just
so you understand you you’re sending out
a product delivery whether it’s just the
product
or it’s actually a creative thoughtful
delivery think about it from what you’re
sending it in to the what’s inside so
it’s the entire experience so this is an
example where there’s a box with a bow
it’s a really pretty box open the bow
inside there’s a tank top yoga tank top
the buck cookies and a hand had a typed
up note card we did this around
Valentine’s Day and the note on the card
was roses are red violets are blue we
love a food but because that’s what we
do something just different and fun and
unique and obviously the buck cookie
you’ve got a lot of traction think about
it from the entire picture think about
it creatively that’s what’s going to
stand out and that’s what’s going to
help you get these free organic mentions
so any again to reiterate on the organic
side of the Jews personal note goes a
very long way can just be in milk art
from you it doesn’t always have to be a
printed piece but printed pieces are
great as well you need deliveries and
advance where you think about it through
the lens of a camera so whether it’s the
event or what you’re delivering it think
about it from from from the piece of it
see when they open it up how are they
going to shoot it every single piece
really actually is important so here is
going back to the question of the local
side of things but this is just how you
sort of sort influencers there’s many
different ways to do it so manual
sourcing of influencers hashtag searches
are are great so look at hashtag that
are either local to your area there will
be things that will pop up and will be
related hashtags that you can find that
what you can also search through to find
people that are local geo-tagging for
vocal is also really really great
another idea is to look at related so
when you told people up on YouTube does
a great as well as Instagram when you
pull people up you can also see other
people like them now what you have to do
is go into each person channel to make
sure
their core audience and the way that
their talk about brands is matching with
yours so it’s a lot of legwork but you
can definitely find them so to our
analytics so whatever tools you’re using
to one listen or even your scheduling
tools is another way to source
influencers so I’ll use Instagram as an
example we use icona swear out our tool
for measurement for Instagram in it you
can actually see people that are
engaging with your brand you might
actually find some micro influencers in
there and if you’re a really big brand
you might find some macro influential it
influences in there as well so use
whatever social listening or scheduling
tools that your use that you already
have as part of the mix of how you
source them there are other ways to work
and find influencers there are other
tools that actually you can register for
the entire year and you can stay
actually source influencers and get them
connected and they can actually pull up
some influences that are right for you
what’s nice about some of those tools is
they actually provide you with a contact
information so there’s a mailing address
there is their email account we use one
that’s called for card foh our card it’s
a tool that we can actually go in and
store it by category which is really
nice it will pull up food it will pull
up beauty it will pull up other things
and I can then look at the engagement by
whether their website because it tools
in their Google Analytics or if it’s
just for social reach I can look for
influences that way so there’s a third
tool out there that you aggregate sum of
this and that can help you find this in
addition to your manual searches did I
lose everyone on my presentation screen
alright guys we seems to be technical
difficulties here so let me just click
through yeah I did see a foot right back
to the beginning there alright I’m going
to get in there I will be sharing this
after if for some for everyone to so you
can you can see this and digest this
more on your own and okay so tools was
the first piece of it there are
influenced or networks out there that
you can actually work with they usually
work on campaign specific stuff their
influence in marketing network so they
really built a business model on finding
audiences developing the analytics and
the plugins as part of that I don’t
consider about MTG as part of that nicks
and I’ll explain why on the next slide
but they can be great that is actually
what they do they do tend to be a little
more on the expensive guy for a campaign
so if your threshold and you don’t have
large budget it may not be the right
thing for you there might be some other
ways that you can find them talent
agents as crazy as it sounds concrete is
rough i IMD so so are some of your
favorite influencers so influencers may
work with you one-on-one some of them do
to do a campaign some of them will make
you work through their talent agent
that’s not always bad sometimes it’s
good because at agents will get the
contract through they will ask the right
questions and they will help move things
along we like abrams artist or a great
one they sort the number of different
influencers in the lifestyle beauty and
fashion stage and socialite collective
is another date when what we work with
laura coins all the time now when you
source influencers whether you’re using
a tool or even a influencer marketing
network the most important thing that i
can tell everyone is to get human so
even though they might have your goals
and objectives and may think that
there’s a right way to do something you
know your audience best you know where
they are you know what the activation is
so someone really have to be on the
brand side whether its in-house or an
influencer relations and your PR agency
or social agency like a ball
we’re living and breathing the brand
every single day so that’s going to be
really important when you’re getting
these campaigns together I’ll give you
an example a client that came to us and
they were talking about an influencer
campaign that they had done and it’s a
new product and they got three thousand
clicks for the website and I was like
that’s really great but they told me
that their goal of cells and and the
reality is that the influencers that
were pulled together for this program
was not really the right demographic for
this product the product was more so for
an older audience there’s a little more
science background it’s a higher price
point I wouldn’t have necessarily done
the people that they did the influencers
in the video we’re pulling up Falls
which is not really the right message
for this brand some brand it is but for
this one it wasn’t so it’s not only the
goals and objectives they put together
the gold it drove click to web but it
didn’t fully click through a conversion
which was also why their goal was and
part of that is just knowing the brand
so the more that you can get human and
have a brand person dedicated to it or
an influencer relations or PR social
media or marketing agency that you have
it’s going to be really important
matchbox is a great example of a brand
that actually has two people on staff
and all they do all day long is sourcing
influencers and talking to them they
also have set the Smashbox Studios which
they set up appointments to let the
influencers actually use the studio time
for free and of course there are
products on site so there’s a lot of
coordination involved but you really
need to know the brand from the inside
to get these consumers going so
sometimes in house makes sense but
sometimes an agency makes them sometimes
with the combination but really get
human with them and make sure that
someone is on there to pay attention to
the campaign if you’re working with a
partner to develop it you’re doing is
take away with sure Andrea sorry I can’t
interrupt but just as another question
here you may have already answered this
from Rachel but she’s wondering if there
is a specific example of a tool for self
service as the world or campaign based
sourcing influencers and you just talked
about matchbox yep is that I really like
for card foh our card and you can
activate them for the full year and that
will pull up they need to actually
activate or source to consider
influencers for you so they have a large
Bank of consumer I’m sorry influencers
in their roster and you can actually
search for different categories you can
search by and what activation wants you
want website more website traffic versus
actual social media mentions it’s a
great tool self-service tool that I use
there’s also a company called obviously
social which is a little bit different
in that they helped develop the campaign
for you but you can go into the back end
once you’ve decided what the campaign
you can go into the back end and
actually find the influencers manually
is that you want to hire as kind of
their core group so those are sort of
some self-service one is definitely more
of a tool they also will view campaigns
for you and the other one is kind of a
hybrid of the two but those are great
that you like it is going to vary by
category this is they’re very focused in
beauty health lifestyle food and fashion
so there are other pockets out there
that might be important all right great
thanks to Rachel I think he are ya Thank
You Rachel and thank you mandria yeah so
I’m actually on my last slide so does
the kind of recap everything and partner
with the influencers who exemplifies
your audience’s core values right where
are they what do they believe in what do
they talk about that right influencer
you need to look into their channel to
make sure it’s very similar to your
consumer sets goals and create your
metrics around what results mean
everyone has a different measurement for
metrics and engagement can be many
things that could be alike it could be a
comment it could be a share to set goals
around what that activation is and also
set goals and cheer them sometimes they
go hand in hand content might be a
result of every single great campaign
that you do maybe just content let it
stand on its own and make that really
important but if it’s something separate
like a clip to web or even approach this
or a follow make sure that that’s your
top priority and everything is
against that with some secondary and
third tiers signs these partnerships and
really cultivate and growth and get to
know the influencer believe in them
trust in them let them love your brand
get them things before anyone else
getting this partnership with the
influencer it successfully that’s
ongoing especially if it’s not free paid
I mean three category it’s going to be a
great way to get them activated it to
brand and the last one which every
influencer will actually say is what
they hate the most don’t give them copy
and ask them to post about it don’t
micromanage what what you want them to
do allow for their authenticity to shine
through that’s what’s going to make the
content most engaging with consumers in
the end and that’s essentially what you
want it to be so I’m just at a stopping
point and has more additional questions
if anyone has any way do you have some
questions here and here’s a good one
from very she is wondering how do you
measure the success of your influencer
relationships and what key metrics do
you recommend using so metrics are going
to bury those metrics would be click the
web tracking lengths are great for
collective webs of giving them a track
of the link is always something
important purchase is going to be
another metric that you’re looking to do
give them an offer code on or set up a
larger affiliate program marketing
program like a commission junction is a
good one that you can actually work with
influencers and they get a percentage of
the sale to that actually will give them
incentive eyes to work with engagements
really great and when I like to look at
engagement it’s usually more than just
alike it’s usually a comment or
something else a tag or every stair that
is really interesting for my brand we
did it that a makeup artist Joyce finale
and what we found is that she get a lot
of likes on her photos but when she did
this campaign and she talked about it
organically for the skincare product it
got a lot of people tagging other people
it is true word of mouth you can
actually see it in the comments and it
was really nice people were telling
other people we should try this hiding
their friends and they were all through
asking where can they buy how much is it
that is an engagement piece that you
really want to cope
and make that a metric for you all right
those are great thank you thank you Mary
and here’s one from Anna and Andre
Andrea you were talking about kind of
stepping back and let the influencer do
his or her thing you know without
micromanaging and that kind of thing but
Anna asked if you have an influence or
closed on their social channel and they
get a lot of product specific questions
is it okay for the brand to step in and
respond to questions that the influencer
did not address good questions don’t if
it’s organics your brand and you feel
like you would do that or you don’t have
any sort of regulations or rules against
it so we do have some brands where we
could not do that because of who they
are and things need to go through legal
approval if your brand would naturally
do that and you feel like that’s
something that’s organic to you yes I
definitely would do it I would
definitely cultivate that audience tag
them in your comments thank them for the
question give them answers that really
kind of set things up I’ve also their
time that I’ve seen brands jump in which
i think is really great where when
someone has an issue they’ll say hey can
you direct messages we don’t you just
don’t want to like blow out the feed
hear from the influencers actually if
you want to get them off the channel I’m
talking about it if it’s in a negative
side ask them to direct message you but
yeah if it’s organics your brand
definitely jumped in conversation that
will just help get consumers
understanding and knowing that you
really follow me along and you’re paying
attention and you care all right
interesting thank you and thank you Anna
for the question we do have time for
some few more questions here if you have
one please sign in now it’s a good time
to do it we can even run a few minutes
over since we got a little bit of a late
start if necessary and any time Andrea
let me ask you you know it’s interesting
how influencers are almost like
journalists anymore as far as reaching
out to them and getting their attention
catching them and kind of you know
engaging with them so you know you
talked about for example misfits you
know we’re one of these other
influencers that you kind of reached out
to after you
okay sound them is there a specific
strategy that works for you like
obviously with your pitching media you
know you got to be careful what you put
in the subject line and it was
influenced influencers i’m assuming
perhaps you might even make it clear
that you’re willing to pay them if
necessary how do you go about that
initial engagement yeah so that’s a good
question so it’s a very attractive
depending on like how much we want to
influence their usually if the
interested influencers just really
interested don’t respond back to you I
usually email them directly to let them
know I’m on either representing the
brand you’re coming from a brand let
them know that you love their content we
only talk about something that’s going
to resonate with them so you saw
something on their channel and you think
they might be a good fit for this ask
the best way to work with them some
influencers might send you a rate card
back right away which is great save the
rate cards have them on your files when
you’re ready to activate a campaign you
have the right car there might other be
people that want to just talk to you
instead of a call but in your note it
really will depend on the influencer and
how you feel are they warm and fuzzy are
they a little more serious because we’re
talking about cross category you can ask
them if they have time for a call if
they could we’d like to invite them to
our office or we’ll take them for drinks
or dinner or breakfast whatever they
have time and time is obviously
important to everyone so give them a few
different options of ways that they can
connect with you there are also times
where we’ll reach out to an influencer
directly from the brand social media
channel so it feels a little authentic
and they know it’s coming from the vet
brand is sometimes just varies on what
you think the influence you would like
that and sometimes we do it all so if
you reach out in an email first you
don’t hear from man tried wrecked
message or do it vice versa but there’s
a number of tactics but make it personal
look at their content look at what
they’re talking about figure out a way
that a brand is right for that very
similar to where you pitch editorial and
journalist how is this product going to
stand out how is it different and why is
it important for your story because
essentially it is their story that’s
very interesting interesting approach
great okay we have a
more questions here on the line Joyce
chimes in with one here this is someone
what we were talking about just now how
much on average ticket are you paying a
social influence sure I’m sure it varies
she says but can you give her an idea
sure so it it’s hard to kind of give you
numbers i can give you examples so video
content series are always going to be
generally you’re talking youtube or
produced video that you’re doing for the
brand or a brand channel can be quite
expensive from it for a micro macro
influencer you could look at fifteen to
twenty thousand dollars for video the
micro influencers are going to be a
little bit on the smaller side of that
range there influencers that will have
one hundred and fifty dollars where
opposed to thousands of dollars for a
post it really depends and i can’t give
you a hard and fast rule of it because
sometimes when they’re up and coming and
that is actually a really good one sign
me up and cummers they will see the
better ones for you first you’ll be able
to get it for free and seconds are going
to be cheaper if they’re just starting a
blog if there’s just starting and a
social kind of channel and becoming more
man to interstate and it will still have
value so right you’re building a
relationship from the beginning some
pics on that i’ll just get you thinking
a little outside of the normal box of
that is we had a white with a wine brand
that we we work with and during the
bachelor we basically looked at the new
contestants from the bachelor the girls
who just came on and just an outreach
for them and if you hit it right on the
bachelor by the end of it if they’re in
the top three they’re going to be huge
on social but get them from the
beginning reach out to them to getting
feminine products in the beginning and
follow their journey along with them not
going to help you and that will actually
help with your costs along the way so
they start doing paid promotion of
partnerships at some point if you get
them in early and you also get them and
you can sometimes pay them through this
and move this and do that there are ways
to kind of work around some of that too
but there’s no hard and fast rules
videos i will tell you will be the most
expensive just because it’s more for
them to produce okay interesting
very interesting okay thanks for
requesting choice in Cherise chimes in
with a very similar question about paid
partnerships what you were just talking
about and you know you’re going to be
paying them d is there a you know if you
have a ballpark dollar amount that you
might suggest to them right up front or
we’ll add that based on the number of
followers perhaps so it’s usually so
they’re going to probably give you
pricing because they’re of a certain
follower number and it’ll vary but I
would look at engagement so basically
engagements to put more important than
right because you can by fans and
followers you can look at engagement and
that’s going to help you determine what
is important for you but what I would do
up son is asked them for a rate card
because usually if they’re as a mid-tier
or higher they have a rate card already
set so they already know it’s going to
cost a couple hundred bucks for a pose
if I did a blog post its fifteen hundred
dollars if you buy the entire package is
this so after the rape part up front and
what they and this is coming from now
what they actually really do like is if
you ask for the SAT up front so that
when you’re ready to partner with them
you are mean other numbers or you’ve
negotiated along the way to get get them
down to a different number instead of
kind of starting time to figure out what
their numbers it are and making them
think what you’re going to do an
activation right then it’s going to get
frustrating for them if you’re not ready
to pull the trigger and with them on an
activation to ask for all of that up
front interesting okay thanks for that
Andrea thank yew trees for the question
let me just say I’m in the wrong
business here I think I mean implement
there yeah only I had some and maybe he
could beat somebody all right now
another question here from Bonnie she’s
asking if your customer base is
primarily b2b how would this later
impact your influence your strategy or
in what way you’re beautiful you’re
going to want to focus more on CB
channel so LinkedIn and Twitter are
going to be more of the town
that you want to work with or there
might be some other blogs or think that
you can pay them to do but you can still
do things in the same thing if it’s due
to be activation so you could just send
them more pitches about why your product
is is right your service your product is
right and how you can help them and see
if they have time to meet with you
discuss and see if their things are
willing to do but there’s definitely
ways to work in similar categories for
b2b delivering products if it is an
actual product creative you might not
want to be as you know sending but
cookies but you might get something a
little in line with what you’re doing
and keep them keep it on your radar
sukitte kind of engaging with them so
whether it’s an email the next one could
be a product method the more you can
sort of get in front of them is really
great the other thing I would say in any
influence or space is if you’re on your
own own social channels the people that
you want to partner with you want to
engage with a lot so in the b2b space if
you’re following someone and Twitter
comment at them like it then get on
their radar I call it before I send a
delivery sometimes I will tell our gal
to somewhat blow up their feed where
you’re liking a lot of things in a row
and you’re commenting so you’ll show up
you’ll get a delivery and you’ll start
to see it so you can do those types of
things and those little tricks to just
get on the radar in the baby space as
well all right interesting all right
thank you and thank you Barney for the
question we have time for one or two
more quick ones if you want to chime in
folks and I have one for you Andrea he
kind of touched on this a little bit i
believe but aren’t influencers could you
consider them to be sponsors in a sense
I mean for example we’re talking about
disclosure standards from the FTC and so
forth does there any particular
obstacles or things you need to keep in
mind when you are using influencers so
yes if you’re doing a cleat activation
they should say add partner sponsorship
that should be on the content that they
coat now if it’s a blog post and they
have they do sometimes I post a separate
section with which promotes everything
that
will kind of be fine but they don’t
necessarily always have to put it on the
blog that is on so on their website they
might have a separate sections where
they do tell that to the consumer so
that would be good but add partner in
partnership with something a little
creative but it just needs to understand
consumers need to understand and make it
very clear that if you’re partnering
with them this is a paid promotion right
because you can’t even buy her yeah if
it’s organic like a mailer obviously
just like an editorial pitch you don’t
need to do anything about that’s why I
think those are really really great or
events that you don’t like them too
because you let them control the content
and you’re not paying them for it cic
okay all right great well that’s cool
all right we have one more question here
from vinnie is what are there any tools
to track impressions of an influence
your social posts then your campaign
beyond just their follower counts
counting the number of likes kind of
number of retweets shares etc anything
you recommend for that yes there are
tools there are tools that you can track
your hashtag and many of you tweet at
above mkd and half a or just tweeted
welcome Katie I’ll follow up with the
name of a tool for you alright that’s
cool thank you and thanks penny for the
question and you should definitely
follow up there all right good well it
looks like we have reached the bottom of
the hour here and I really want to thank
Andrea whitish for all that very
insightful commentary and this whole new
world of influencers is really something
and it is similar to media so I’ve got
to keep that in mind so thank you andrea
for everything you shared there and all
those excellent high-level point we were
great to have you with us yeah this is
great and anyone who has additional
questions or just need some
clarification feel free to reach out to
me or tweet at evolve mtv and we’ll get
back to you with some more thoughts and
feedback so i really appreciate it I
know time is important to everyone
should thank you everyone for being a
part of this all right great thanks
Andrea that was a great a great event
everybody and you will be receiving like
we said a recording of this event to
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reporter Tom and finally we have our
next event coming up but it’s going to
be a great one it’s going to be on april
twenty fifth and we’re going to feature
who the queen of measurements herself
that a friend of ours katie kayne
founder of katie pain and partners for
her session entitled stop doing stupid
stuff using TR measurements to make
better decisions sounds like a great one
so be sure to be here for that one and
we will see you then thanks to everybody
for listening and have a great day