Auditore: Architecting sustainable engagement models that are good for the influencer and good for the company is paramount. Avoid episodic engagement models like simple speaking events and then it good bye until next time. Putting professional communicators in front of influencers that aren't just PR people is key to building sustainable relationships that achieve your communications goals.
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Why Social Influence Matters to Businesses: Best Examples of Businesses Capitalizing on the Trend
Monahan: Charlie Sheen raised mass consumer awareness for Internships.com by tweeting out a job requisition for his own TeamSheen social media intern by using Adlyads. The Charlie Sheen campaign delivered unprecedented results: 200K+ clicks, 20K+ retweets, and 15K+ shares, "Likes" and comments on Facebook! Adly Ads is disrupting legacy media celebrity endorsements and the confines of organic influence growth on the social web.
Roen: The most well known is Proctor & Gamble; they built an entire business out of this with Tremor. They've been an innovator in this space from the creation of Soap Operas to their most recent launch of ManoftheHouse.com. That said, the reality is small businesses never had the luxury of big brand campaign budgets to get customers so they intuitively and out of necessity leveraged word of mouth and influencers. The best recent examples are Twitter and Foursquare's recent launches at South by Southwest in 2011. This conference is a mecca for influencers and these companies used the conference as their big marketing budget; and it worked in a big, big way.
Fernandez: We've been lucky enough to work with brands like Turner and Nike who are thought leaders when it comes to the power of social media influence. Turner created some really cool campaigns around the premier of shows like "Southland" and "Are We There Yet?" that built a great deal of buzz across social media by giving influencers access to show content before it aired.
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Why Social Influence Matters to Businesses: Why Influencers Matter to Brands and Business of All Sizes?
Roen: Social media influence is not simply about the numbers, but rather about value. Customers pay attention to the insight and expertise influencers share because they have a grasp of the market and offer what is perceived to be valuable and credible information. Forming relationships with the right influencers can help a brand's message reach target customers via a trusted source. This third-party credibility develops advocacy and encourages word-of-mouth. All size businesses benefit, but small businesses disproportionately benefit because you don't need large budgets and often times influencers prefer smaller brands because they can really help people discover new products.
Peterson: Provided brands and businesses are circumspect in how they approach "influencers" and are prepared to have an open and honest dialogue, social influencers create an opportunity for businesses of all sizes to spread the word. Conversely, if businesses aren't circumspect and treat "influencers" as a number --- a huge mistake, by the way --- any influencer-based strategy is bound to fail and, in some cases, create intense backlash. Social relationships are the same relationships you have always had; only now everyone can see your mistakes.
Fernandez: Every customer deserves amazing service. Influencers have the ability to unlock markets though. Businesses have always used how much a person spends to determine lifetime value and then made incentive and support decisions from that. Now that influence can be measured, network value can also be evaluated to see how much business a customer might be able to refer to you through their network.
Schaefer: Determining influence is so critical to brands because this is what drives word of mouth validation – typically the most powerful and cost-effective marketing method available. So refining this influence model will be an absolute breakthrough for brand managers and businesses of all sizes. Certainly there is no reason this could not be driven down to a local level.
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