This document provides guidance on building an army of brand influencers through an effective social relationship management (Social RM) strategy. It discusses identifying the most engaged 1% of customers as brand influencers and advocates, and focusing on building long-term, authentic relationships with them through mutual value exchange. An effective Social RM strategy can help brands generate word-of-mouth marketing by turning these influential customers into ambassadors who passionately advocate for the brand online and offline.

1. A Guide to Building an Army of Brand Influencers!
!
!
@PlatinumSeed!
@SuLittleZA!
Social RM Masterclass

2. Whenever you see this icon, you’re just one click
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knowledge with your followers.
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3. Social RM is a high touch business strategy centered on engaging and collaborating with customers and communities on social
platforms, with the ultimate goal of building trust and long-term brand loyalty.
In this ever-evolving digital landscape, key social networks own your customer data via large communities. When aiming to
achieve social marketing objectives brands are often left at the mercy of sudden platform updates, changing algorithms and a
consumer desire for “social cred”.
Facebook has become a “pay to play” space while Twitter currently has no contextual filtration algorithm; many users follow others
just for the sake of a follow back, or are being paid to advocate on behalf of brands without disclosure. These tactics are making it
more difficult to cut through the clutter of what’s real and what’s relevant.
The key for brands to ensure authenticity is to include relationship, loyalty and advocacy marketing in their social media toolkits –
and reward not only those with reach but also those with a true passion. This translates to an authentic desire to advocate on a
brand’s behalf both online and offline, beyond a paid-for campaign period; they're the ones who are in it for the long haul through
good times and bad because they want to be.
A sound Social RM strategy can help brands build this allegiance with the most active consumers in their community, turning them
into an army of brand Influencers.
We call them.. ‘The 1%’
Introduction

4. Social RM

5. Social RM
Social RM is an authentic, collaborative journey of engagement and
mutually beneficial value exchange between a business and their loyal
consumers over time.

6. How does Social RM
demonstrate value at a
business level?

7. INVESTMENT
RETURN
Social ROI Cycle
Listen &
Engage
Authentic
Business

8. Marketing
INVESTMENT
RETURN
INVESTMENT
RETURN
Social ROI Cycle
Attract
Listen &
Engage
Word of
Mouth
Authentic
Business
@SuLittleZA ©

9. RM
INVESTMENT
RETURN
INVESTMENT
RETURN
Social ROI Cycle
Attract
Listen &
Engage
Analyse &
Optimise
Trust &
Loyalty
Authentic
Business
@SuLittleZA ©

10. Business
INVESTMENT
RETURN
INVESTMENT
RETURN
Social ROI Cycle
Analyse &
Optimise
Word of
Mouth
Authentic
Business
@SuLittleZA ©

11. Marketing
RM
Business
INVESTMENT
RETURN
INVESTMENT
RETURN
Social ROI Cycle
Attract
Listen &
Engage
Analyse &
Optimise
Word of
Mouth
Trust &
Loyalty
Authentic
Business
@SuLittleZA ©

12. media is
breaking!
3 BIG mistakes that we need to stop making..

13. !
Forgetting the ‘social’ in social media !
!
01

14. “People will forget what you said,
people will forget what you did,
but people will never forget how
you made them feel”
~Maya Angelou

15. Focus and reliance on 3rd party platforms.!
02

16. Not knowing our social customers. !
03

17. Well, how do we fix it?

18. Develop an integrated RM
communications strategy that offers
value while engaging the consumer
throughout their lifecycle. !
!

19. Integrated Communications Strategy
Loyalty Loop
OWNED
CHANNELS
EARNED
CHANNELS
(WOM)
BTL
POS
DIGITAL
ATL
BTL
POS
DIGITAL
DM
PR
@SuLittleZA ©

20. Influence
Awareness
Evaluate
Consider
Purchase
Consumer RM Lifecycle
THE
LOYALTY
LOOP
Engage
Adapted: McKinsey

21. Social RM harnesses word of mouth by building authentic
relationships with brand Influencers.

22. How do we recognise our
brand Influencers?

23. REACH
SPHERES OF INFLUENCE:
RESONANCE
RELEVANCE
What determines the success of an Influencer?
Adapted: Altimeter

24. SPHERES OF INFLUENCE:
Influencer’s ‘reach’ or audience size determines their Opportunity To See (OTS), however
reach is not a reliable value of influence when looked at in isolation.
REACH
What determines the success of an Influencer?

25. SPHERES OF INFLUENCE:
Resonance measures the influencer/audience relationship with regard to their ability to instill change in
mindset or entice them to perform an action.
Smaller niche communities often demonstrate more impact than others, earning a more engaged and
passionate audience surrounding a shared interest.
RESONANCE
What determines the success of an Influencer?

26. SPHERES OF INFLUENCE:
RELEVANCE
Relevance measures a strong relation between influencer’s audience and pillars of interest, with the
brand’s values, cause and objectives. How credible are they in the industry? Are they a trusted source in
their field?
What determines the success of an Influencer?

27. Influencers use Reach, Resonance & Relevance
to authentically advocate, raise awareness,
inform opinion, drive action and impact
sentiment on behalf of brands. !

28. What different tribes of
Influencers should we
consider?

29. AMBASSADORS
ADVOCATES
ACTIVATORS
Influencer Tribes: Who are we looking for?
Activators, Advocates & Ambassadors are 3 key Influencer tribes to consider
when developing Influencer engagement lists for long-term relationship building.
@SuLittleZA ©

30. ACTIVATORS
Content creators, curators,
amplifiers:
Authors, Industry
Bloggers, Media,
Celebrities, Artists,
Journalists,
Publications, Analysts,
Thought leaders
Influencer Tribes: Who are we looking for?

31. ADVOCATES
Evangelists:
Active community members
(1%), clear brand fans, NPS
8-10, signed-up to loyalty
program, being tracked for
advocacy
Influencer Tribes: Who are we looking for?

32. AMBASSADORS
Paid Spokespeople:
• Employees
• Sponsors, partners
• Brand Ambassadors
• Long-term paid advocates, authors
• Affiliates
Influencer Tribes: Who are we looking for?

33. So, where do we find our
brand Influencers?

34. Always begin searching in communities where users
are already aligned with, or close to our brand.
Where do we find our brand Influencers?

35. EMPLOYEES & PARTNERS:
Send employees, agency and
sponsorship partners
outreach mailer with key
content and information
Where do we find our brand Influencers?
EMPLOYEES
& PARTNERS
@SuLittleZA ©

36. Where do we find our brand Influencers?
DATABASE:
Profile existing customer
database for Reach,
Resonance & Relevance
DATABASE
@SuLittleZA ©

37. Where do we find our brand Influencers?
COMMUNITY:
Use RM tools like ContinuOn to
source, profile, manage and
track most engaged and
advocating consumers
COMMUNITY
@SuLittleZA ©

38. Where do we find our brand Influencers?
WORLD WIDE WEB:
• Identify potential consumer
touch points online
• Research local awards in
shared interest, industry
categories
• Consider presence in offline
world, then search for
suitable online presence
WWW
@SuLittleZA ©

39. WWW
DATABASE
EMPLOYEES
& PARTNERS
AFFINITY &
EASE OF OUTREACH
Where do we find our brand Influencers?
@SuLittleZA ©
COMMUNITY

40. Now that we’ve identified our
Influencers, how do we
engage?

41. 3 RM Engagement Strategies

42. ATTRACT:
• Optimising touchpoints for social
• Mass reach paid media
• Conceptual content
• Influencer outreach
• CPA Compliant Campaigns
• Word of mouth referrals
• Tactical content
3 RM Engagement Strategies

43. CONVERT:
• Like FB / Follow TW tactics
• Recruiting campaigns
• Profiling and lead generation
• Proactive engagement
• Targeted communications
• Data enrichment
• Profile mapping
• Ecommerce / purchase
3 RM Engagement Strategies

44. RETAIN:
• Community Management & Escalations
• Crisis management
• Market research & Business Intelligence
• Tailored brand experience
• Re-marketing
• Data management
• Experiential
• Points for purchase & participation
• Rewards
3 RM Engagement Strategies

45. What kind of information can
we ask of our Influencers?

46. PROFILE
PARTICIPATION
PERCEPTION
PERFORMANCE
Key Influencer data to collect
@SuLittleZA ©

47. PROFILE
• Demographic
• Geographic
• Psychographic
• Social profiles
• Product repertoire
Key Influencer data to collect

48. PARTICIPATION
• Online Interactions
• Offline interactions
• Purchase behaviour
• Intent
• Advocacy
Key Influencer data to collect

49. PERCEPTION
• Customer feedback
• Sentiment
Key Influencer data to collect

50. PERFORMANCE
• Consumer Insight
• Market research
• Business intelligence
• Reach, Resonance,
Relevance
Key Influencer data to collect

51. How do we manage Social
RM with Influencers in the
long-term & at scale?

52. • PROFILING
• ENGAGING
• TRACKING
• MANAGING
• REWARDING
• EXPERIENTIAL
The Social RM toolbox lays the tech
foundation to support a robust and scalable
consumer engagement and rewards strategy.

53. Is Social RM measurable?

54. Social RM Objectives & KPIs
Build trust &
brand loyalty
Collect data &
insight
à Engagement!
à Sign-ups!
à Sentiment!
à Growth!
à Sales / leads!
à Response time!
à Quantitative data!
à Qualitative data!
à Customer data!
Facilitate
word of mouth
à Earned reach !
(volume/impact/virality/!
Amplification/AVE/OTS)!
à Click throughs!
à UGC!
!

55. • Resulting in — increased authentic earned reach,
consumer insight and brand loyalty.
!
Social RM!
In summary.. !
!
• Brand vision — establish brand as personable, trusting,
collaborative, authentic and most progressive of its kind.
• By doing — listening, engaging, amplifying and growing
an owned Influencer base through mutual value exchange.
• To achieve — top of mind awareness and brand trust,
that leads to advocacy and word of mouth.

56. !
Looking to re-engineer your social loyalty and advance
your Social RM strategy at scale?
!
• Identify your key engagers
• Nurture and incentivise brand Influencers
• Attribute physical sales to social networks
• Finally own your social data
Find out more: www.continuon.co

57. Want more information?
Burning questions?
What tools to use?
Require RM strategy or training?
Get in touch: Hello@PlatinumSeed.com
Thank you.