Public Relations & Social Marketing Insight

"I mean, influencers are a nice idea. But actually, they’re not needed. They’re no better than a couple of normal people endorsing your brand and will have no long-term impact. They’re overrated and make no difference to your business as people trust them no more than anyone else on the internet…”

Imagine if someone said this to you, straight-faced. We’ve seen it happen and it’s stuck with us. Not only do we respectfully disagree, but we’d like to take this chance to refute the above notion and actually point out the benefits of getting ‘influencers’ on your side.

Increasing customer advocacy is now a top priority for 67% of CMOs, and with 74% of customers relying on social media to guide their purchasing decisions you can begin to see why it’s such a high priority.

Here’s 8 reasons why getting widely trusted people from your field to sing your praises can only be a good thing for your business....

Perhaps we don’t have that much in common. Ah, but we do. Personal brands are we. Our agendas may differ—better job, more clients, book sales, or (your goal here)—but we seek the same things: recognition, respect, influence and success.

You, my friend, are a brand.

A photographer. Life coach. Presentation expert. Alternative energy entrepreneur. Website developer. Skin care clinician. These are six simplified profiles of clients who have hired me recently to help them create more effective online marketing by developing their personal brand....

...Organizations such as Intel are beginning to look and operate more like media companies. They’re evaluating topics and trends in real-time and creating a brand narrative across multiple networks, a transition that doesn’t happen overnight. It takes a lot of content to fuel that many channels–and a dedicated team to manage the ideation, creation, and analysis of that content. More importantly, it takes a lot of quality content to generate engagement with audiences across continents and timezones, and for Intel engagement is a key metric.

In fact, Intel conducted a study benchmarking the Facebook engagement rates of other brands similar to Intel in size and standing. They found–much to their delight–that Intel came out on top with higher levels of engagement than any of the other brands. Intel also discovered that organic engagement (vs. paid) had steadily increased over time, confirming the right content is hitting the right audience.

But how does Intel come up with the “right” content, then find the “right” audience? What are they doing differently than those other brands?...

The idea of becoming a thought leader is a nebulous andconfusing concept to grasp. Every leader’s approach is different, and there’s no secret formula to success.

Becoming a thought leader doesn’t happen overnight. It takes time — not to mention a willingness to share the “secrets” of your success — and the right mindset to master. But once you understand that it’s not about your ego or selling people on your company, you can start to unlock its true value.

To put the cycle of successful thought leadership in perspective, here are five distinct phases that need to happen...

...When it comes to organic search, Google and other search engines place a premium on backlinks. They interpret backlinks as “votes” for the content.Of course, to generate backlinks, you must create content that prompts other digital properties to share your content with their audiences.

For the type of content that grades out as shareable, it’s typically not product information or a personnel announcement or an industry award — information we characterize as company-centric. Instead, it’s the type of business storytelling that’s useful or informative and ultimately helps people in their jobs.In short, thought leadership plays at the industry level, not the company level, ideally offering takes that can’t be found elsewhere.

Such dot-connecting points to blogging as one of the best platforms for thought leadership....