Presented at the 6th Annual Social Media Marketing Conference, Toronto, Feb 12-14 2013 Bloggers and social media content creators are the new influencers, and often have larger and more trusted audiences than enterprise brands. Influencer marketing is the idea of partnering brands with bloggers and other active social media users to create and distribute relevant content that is targeted towards an audience that cares, and is shared in a way that is authentic and transparent. It involves less shouting and more listening. It means less advertising noise and more quality conversations about things that matter. When brands partner with fans and influencers who are closer to their target audience than they are, they are taking a huge step towards building consumer trust and being part of the social conversations consumers are having long before they ever buy a product. This session will educate brands on best practices for creating powerful influencer marketing programs that help them shift from ineffective advertising to earned advocacy.

1. 6th Annual Social Media Marketing
Conference
Why Influencer Marketing Matters
Presenter: Holly Hamann, co-founder, BlogFrog

2. About Your Presenter
Holly Hamann
holly@theblogfrog.com
@HollyHamann
Co-founder, BlogFrog
Influencer Marketing Platform
18 years in digital marketing
Mathematics and Computer Science Degree
Blogger – www.LoveandMath.com

3. Where are your customers?
#BlogFrog

4. Disruptive Trends in Digital Marketing
Online
Advertising
Social Content
Media Marketing

5. 1. Banner Advertising Doesn’t Work
Advertising budgets are shifting to social media, and major brands
are looking for intelligent, proven and measurable strategies to
improve engagement and influence.

6. 8% of internet users account for
85% of all clicks

7. 2. Consumers Want Content
Content Marketing – compelling, relevant content, developed
internally or through a community of key influencers, is driving more
meaningful and stronger levels of social engagement with consumers.

8. There is only one true branding
mechanism online and that’s
content marketing.

9. 3. Social Media Creates Influencers
Social Marketing – a new breed of technologies and best practices are
emerging to target, automate and measure PR, sales and marketing
processes and the ROI of social marketing campaigns.

10. In 5 years, marketers will spend
more on social, mobile, and video
than search.

11. Shifts in Brand Marketing
Control Partnership
Impressions Engagement
Purchase Consideration
Reaching everyone Niche audience
Conclusions Content
Facts Opinions
Linear (print/tv) Non-linear Mobile and video

12. The New Influencer

13. Customers Follow Her

14. What do influencers have that brands don’t?

15. What is Influencer Marketing?
Partnering with influencers who help create and share peer-trusted
content.

16. Partnerships With Influencers Are Key
• Helps reach more target consumers
• Creates trust
• Provides relevant consumer content
• Helps create highly engaging, authentic content (video and
mobile, blog posts)
• Scalable
• Creates powerful earned media
• Effective supplement (or alternative) to banner advertising

17. What do influencers want?

18. We asked 65,000 of them

19. We Wanted to Know
• What does the ideal brand partnership look like?
• Which product category campaigns are most desirable?
• How does trust and social good influence partnership
choices?
• How is influence measured?
• How effective are brands at connecting, pitching, and
compensating bloggers?
• Which brands are the most successful at forming influencer
partnerships?

20. Survey Demographics

21. Core Influencer Categories
Top “Other” categories:
• Personal
• Beauty
• Books
• Faith/Religion
This is where thousands of untapped powerful niche influencers live.

22. Hours per week spent engaged with other blogs
Bloggers who spend 6 or more hours
per week commenting on other blog
communities show a correlated increase
in revenue.
Hours per week

23. Influencers favor brand-sponsored social media
and blog campaigns!
93% have purchased a product based on information they found
on a blog or online community.
• 60% respected brands who wanted to interact with bloggers,
thought campaigns were fun, validated their blogs, or thought
they were great opportunities to earn revenue.
• Less than 2% disliked brand-sponsored social media or blog
campaigns.

24. What bloggers want in a brand relationship
90% of bloggers surveyed were somewhat or
very interested in working with brands,
provided they were compensated.

25. Most popular brand categories (view 1)
Brand Categories
Highly and Somewhat Desirable

26. What’s TRUST got to do with it?
• 70% of influencers trust a brand more when that
brand is promoted or recommended by someone
they know from a blog or social media.
• 56% of influencers trust a brand more when a
campaign includes an element of “social good”
(raising money or awareness for a non-profit or
social cause).

27. How brands are reaching out to bloggers
58% of bloggers have never been approached
by a brand to work on a campaign

28. Effectiveness of brand pitches
Number of brand pitched received by bloggers each year
• Nearly 2/3 of bloggers reject at least half of the brand
pitches they receive.
• 87% said personal feelings about a brand influences
whether they will work with that brand.

29. Elements of a good pitch
• Personal
• Targeted
• Relevant
• Compensation
• Clear
• Organized
• Concise

30. What product category campaigns were accepted?

31. Reasons for negative experiences
12% of bloggers had a negative
experience working on a brand
campaign.

32. Brands creating successful partnerships

33. Just like any perfect relationship…
Photo source: Warner Bros.

34. Influencers want:
Photo source: Warner Bros.

35. Brands want:
Photo source: Warner Bros.

36. How do you get it?
What bloggers want How to get it
Commitment Engage bloggers for multiple campaigns to create relationships you can rely on
for years.
Partnership Products and trends evolve over time. Take the time to ask bloggers about your
brand and product. Then listen.
Respect Be as professional as you would with any business colleague.
Compensation Asking bloggers to work for free is short-sighted. Create powerful partnerships
by providing mutual benefit and compensation.
Clarity Be clear about campaign scope (amount of work required, deadlines,
compensation, non-competes, etc). Make it easy to say yes or no.
To champion valuable Provide a high-quality product that is appropriately targeted (i.e. don’t ask a
products diabetic blogger to write about your chocolate bar).
Social engagement Follow bloggers on Twitter and Facebook, join their community discussions,
Photo source: Warner Bros. comment on their blogs, get to know them.
Balance Create campaigns that accommodate family-oriented lifestyles.

37. Current Clients

38. Thank You!
Holly Hamann
Co-founder, BlogFrog
holly@theblogfrog.com