The WOMMA 2013 Influencer Guidebook provides a comprehensive overview of influencer marketing, addressing the changed digital landscape and defining what constitutes an influencer. It outlines various attributes, classifications, and measurements relevant to influencer marketing while emphasizing the importance of understanding industry context, brand objectives, and influencer characteristics. The guidebook aims to serve as an educational resource for marketers without establishing industry standards, focusing instead on best practices in developing and implementing influencer marketing programs.

1. Brand Influencers
WOMMA 2013
Influencer
Guidebook
2013
What makes an influencer?

2. Brand Influencers
Introduction
WOMMA 2013
The WOMMA Influencer Guidebook is a
practitioner’s resource intended to address
the needs of the association membership.
This is not an update to the 2008 WOMMA
Influencer Handbook - this is a complete
rewrite taking into context not only how
much the digital and social landscape has
changed, but also the nuance and
sophistication of the now ubiquitous
practice of influencer marketing.
Five significant advancements have been captured in this document:
★ The description of the attributes that make up an influencer
★ The classification of five categories of influencers
★ The inclusion of ‘key influencer’ and ‘influencee’ in the definitions
of influencer marketing
★ The differentiation between ‘potential to influence’ and the
practice of empirically measuring ‘actual influence’
★ A discussion of three levels of considerations when constructing
an influencer marketing program

3. Brand Influencers
WOMMA 2013
Intended use of this guidebook:
This guidebook is intended to be an educational resource for marketers to
better understand the mechanics and metrics of influencer marketing. This
guidebook is not intended to offer industry standards or serve as a definitive
statement on the ‘one right way’ to measure and conduct influencer marketing
programs. Standards develop in industries over many years of productive
debate, refinement and case studies. Additionally, academic research exists and
continues to develop that further clarifies the importance of influencers, their
effectiveness in achieving outcomes and the attributes and characteristics of
individuals or groups suited to achieving those outcomes, as well as how one
would best measure the potential to influence and the actions taken by
influencees.
Getting started in influencer marketing:
A practitioner should consider performing the following steps before
embarking on an influencer program:
★ Identify time-bound objectives and goals for the program
★ Assess the appropriate industry level factors
★ Develop a benchmark understanding of the brand’s existing potential
influencers and those of the competition
★ Create success criteria and determine those capabilities necessary to
measure success empirically
★ Develop and execute a program to achieve a specific outcome targeted to a
specific category of influencers
★ Measure and report results - adjust accordingly
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4. Brand Influencers
WOMMA 2013
This guidebook will aid in the creation and implementation of these influencer
marketing program steps.
Who is behind this effort?
Both individuals and organizations have been instrumental in the creation of
the Influencer Guidebook 2013. For a complete list of contributors visit
womma.org/influencers. The principal active contributors to this document
were (in alphabetical order):
Neil Beam – Director, MotiveQuest and Chair of the WOMMA Research and
Measurement Council
Bill Chamberlin – Principal Consultant of Social Insights, IBM
Jane Collins – VP of Market Research, BlogHer
Susan Emerick – Manager of Enterprise Social Programs, IBM
Michael Fein – Director of Research and Analytics, Fanscape
Amy Laine – Principal Market Insights Analyst, IBM
Ashley Libby – Principal and Founder, The Anca Group
Dhara Naik – Account Supervisor and Digital Strategy, Social@Ovilvy
GR! Brand Experience was responsible for the design and layout of this
guidebook and images were kindly contributed by Big Stock Photo.
Our friends and collaborators at #SMMStandards (The Conclave) helped
develop the influencer definitions.
The tireless and diligent WOMMA staff.
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5. Brand Influencers
Influencer
Definitions
WOMMA 2013
Marketers and business communicators
have been targeting so-called ‘influencers’
or ‘influentials’ for decades. It is a strategy
born of experience and intuition - a sense
that people are influenced by other people
and that some wield greater influence than
others. But there is wide variation in what
people mean by ‘influencers’ or ‘influencer
marketing’. The situation begs for a
common language and conceptual
framework to aid practitioners.
WOMMA has developed the following definitions with an eye for
academic rigor and practitioner utility. With this in mind, consider
that there are more than seven billion people on the earth. While
anyone can exert influence on others it is rarely practical for brands
to focus on reaching everyone. Hence there is an interest in engaging
those individuals who have disproportionate influence in the
marketplace.

6. Brand Influencers
WOMMA 2013
The following definitions were developed by members of WOMMA in
collaboration with members of other leading trade groups in the field of public
relations and marketing.
WOMMA defines Influence as:
The ability to cause or contribute to a
change in opinion or behavior.
Where the initial actor is a Key Influencer who is:
A person or group of people who possess
greater than average potential to influence
due to attributes such as frequency of
communication, personal persuasiveness
or size of and centrality to a social network,
among others.
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7. Brand Influencers
WOMMA 2013
Key influencers interact with others, and those they influence are Influencees:
A person or group of people who change
their opinion or behavior as the result of
exposure to new information.
Therefore, Influencer Marketing is:
The act of a marketer or communicator
engaging with key influencers to act upon
influencees in pursuit of a business
objective.
Research shows a marketer is most effective when focusing resources on key
influencers with the highest propensity to influence a population of influencees
that are most likely to be influenced. Later, this document explores some
descriptive Attributes of an influencer thereby enabling a program manager to
identify influencers and influencees for effective program design. The attributes
themselves are useful for characterizing five categories of influencers who each
possess a unique attribute profile.
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8. Brand Influencers
Attributes
WOMMA 2013
The definitions of influence, key influencer
and influencee are important and
demonstrate the relationship between
individuals. However, a practitioner needs
tools to differentiate the qualities or
‘attributes’ of one influencer or cohort from
another. Following are some practical
attributes that a program manager can use
to benchmark an individual’s or group of
cohort’s potential to influence.

9. Brand Influencers
Attribute
Affiliation with Brand
Reach
WOMMA 2013
Description
The extent to which an influencer is affiliated with the brand. Are they seen as
independent and unbiased or possessing bias? Is there a formal relationship
between the individual and the brand? Are they compensated?
A count of the number of people that the individual is connected to directly or
indirectly via social media and off-line channels. This represents the potential
number of people who could possibly receive a message from the individual.
Network Centrality
The number and strength of connections between people in a social network. This is
a statistical term and is readily modeled using software when data is accessible.
Intent to Influence
The motive of the individual when communicating. While this is difficult to measure,
the influencer’s intent can affect their perceived trust and the outcomes achieved.
Degree of Enthusiasm
Often measured as sentiment. The strength of emotion expressed in a conversation
for a given subject.
Venue Duration
The length of time in which the individual is engaged in a venue (Facebook, Twitter,
user group, community, etc.).
Topic Duration
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The length of time in which the individual posts on a given subject.

10. Brand Influencers
Frequency of Content
Content Quality
Content Engagement
WOMMA 2013
The number of repetitions of posting content on a given subject in a unit of time.
The degree to which the content is well written, well timed, engaging, visually
appealing and audience specific.
The extent to which other people recirculate or propagate the content: Virality;
Number of comments; Retweets; Forwards; or Samplings.
Two-Way Engagement
The extent to which the individual engages with others in a two-way dialogue. The
degree to which the individual pushes content versus interacts.
Authority and Credibility
The extent to which the individual possess expertise, trust and commands respect.
Authority and credibility is earned or achieved through education, elections,
experience or time. In some cases, it is bestowed by the community.
Geographic Reach
Where the individual is effective. Consider global, national and local, as well as
language spoken and online versus offline.
Improvement of an individual’s or cohort’s attributes may be an influencer
program in itself. Consider ‘content frequency’ when an employee who is an
ambassador for a brand who blogs once a quarter. Increasing the frequency of
posting can increase this individual’s propensity to influence. Now consider
‘content quality’ and ‘two-way engagement’. By improving the attributes of an
individual or a group of individuals the potential outcome could also improve.
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11. Brand Influencers
Three Levels
of
Consideration
when
Developing
an Influencer
Program
WOMMA 2013
Let’s say you are tasked with developing an
influencer program. Which category of
influencer(s) are best suited to your your
brand objectives? What program goals
should you set? How do you measure
success?
There are three logical program
considerations that affect both the
selection of a specific category of
influencer on which one should focus and
success metrics within that program:
1. Industry
2. Brand
3. Influencer Attributes

12. Brand Influencers
WOMMA 2013
Industry
Start with understanding your industry in context to influence and influencers.
Is your company B2B or B2C? Are your goods durable or consumable? Durable
goods such as automobiles, faucets, or airplanes have different channels,
buying cycles and service needs. How your consumers interact with these
products and services is dependent upon your specific industry factors.
Industry-Level Considerations:
★ B2B
★ B2C
★ Durable goods
★ Consumable goods
★ Services
★ Regional factors
★ Regulated and non-regulated
★ Channel and retail considerations
★ Brand history, attributes and unique circumstances
★ Macroeconomic factors
★ Microeconomic factors
Brand
What is the brand’s objective for the influencer marketing program? Are you
attempting to affect customer acquisition? If so, where in the purchase funnel
would influencers be helpful? Perhaps customer retention or brand reputation
is the program objective, in which case influencers can amplify good sentiment
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13. Brand Influencers
WOMMA 2013
towards the brand or dampen conversations that are negative towards the
brand.
Brand Level Considerations:
★ Improve retention
★ Improve customer lifetime value
★ Improve or accelerate acquisition
★ Provide better customer service and support faster and to more people
★ Improve brand reputation
Here one would also want to consider marketplace conditions relative to your
objectives. For example, what are the influencer programs at the competitor?
Also consider your existing capabilities of your influencer program. An inhibitor
or enabler to your goals may be your company’s governance and regulations
around social media and consumer engagement. The absence of a policy may
be as much an inhibitor or enabler as the existence of a overly burdensome
policy. Legal departments at some firms will require a policy to be in place before
proceeding with an influencer program, should one not already exist.
Influencer Attributes
The third consideration set is influencer attributes themselves. One could start
with a benchmark of existing influencer attributes for both your company and
competitors. Have you identified key influencers? Are these influencers
supporting your brand or your competition? What is their reach and degree of
enthusiasm for the brand? Once a benchmark of these attributes is understood,
an influencer program could be designed with the aim of improving the
attributes of influencers. Should you improve the reach of an existing set of
influencers or recruit new influencers who have greater reach? Can a program
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14. Brand Influencers
WOMMA 2013
improve the frequency of content or should you design a program to
encourage existing influencers to start conversations on a venue where
prospects and customers (influencees) are more likely to engage?
Influencer Attribute Considerations:
★ Improve the reach and connectivity of the influencer network
★ Clarify affiliation, alignment and knowledge of the brand
★ Improve the ability of individuals to influence: Improve content quality;
Biographical information; and Individual’s presence
★ Optimize frequency and timing of content posting per venue
★ Optimize venues: Are your influencers talking where influencees are
present?
★ Improve topic duration, the length of time someone is engaged and active
on a particular topic
★ Improve the degree of enthusiasm towards the brand and topic
★ Location: Global; National; Local; Language spoken; Online versus Off-line
Each Category of Influencer, which will be introduced in the coming pages,
lends itself better to some program considerations than others. The specifics are
noted in the the detailed description of each influencer category. The job of an
influence marketing practitioner is deciding which influencer program to run.
This begins with understanding and documenting the program considerations
unique to your business and then aligning these considerations with those of
the population you wish to affect. The specific key influencer(s) you select are
the link between the desired business outcome and the influencees.
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15. Brand Influencers
WOMMA 2013
In this guidebook, we outline a number of
steps that are involved in program design.
In this section we discuss measurement
considerations.
How to
Measure
an
Influencer
Program
There are two distinct states of influencer
measurement that are relative to the point
in time an influencer marketing program
begins:
1. The potential to influence (before)
2. Actual, observed influence (during/after)

16. Brand Influencers
WOMMA 2013
These matter because potential and observed influence are distinct program
states, both in terms of time and available tools utilized for measurement.
Additionally, as practitioners of influencer marketing, we must always keep in
mind that it is rare to measure actual influence. Instead, we observe proxies of
influence in the form of outcomes or actions taken. For example, the
redemption of a coupon that was given to a friend is an observed action
(redeeming a coupon) of an earlier act where a friend influences a purchase (the
giving of the coupon and any context around that transfer).
Measurement of potential to influence requires a methodology for determining
who is influential in the network. While there are no certainties, your objective is
to determine the key influencer or cohorts that will maximize the influencer
program outcomes for your brand. Contemporary methodologies assess the
people, the network and the content including:
★ The offline conversation volume and brand awareness
★ Third-party scoring results
★ The individual's or cohort’s sentiment towards a brand or topic
★ Content quality and quantity
★ Network size and centrality
★ The individual’s or cohort’s authority, trust and credibility
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17. Brand Influencers
WOMMA 2013
Consider the following example. Let's say that you have decided to launch a
celebrity influencer program. You made this choice because you determined a
celebrity influencer best addresses your business objectives and aligns to both
your industry and brand level considerations - and you have budget.
Having decided to use a celebrity influencer, you must then determine which
celebrity is best suited for your influencer marketing program. To do this, you
need a methodology to rank each potential celebrity. We suggest documenting
the key attributes (found in the Attributes section of this guide) of each
celebrity you are considering and evaluate the attributes against your brand
and program goals. All of the quantities of these attributes can be used to
assess multiple celebrities to indicate potential to influence.
Shifting now to measurement of actual, observed influence, practitioners
typically measure the spread of influence or the outcome of actual influence.
This is in contrast to the initiation of influence. There are several methodologies
for measuring actual, observed influence. The two most prominent are:
1. Metrics attribution back to the influencer or cohort using web analytics,
unique URL tracking and campaign codes
2. Observing changes in activity or attitude before and after a program or in
absence of a program
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18. Brand Influencers
WOMMA 2013
To document actual, observed influence you will need to gather metrics over
time. These include:
★ Number of conversations about the campaign or topic of interest
★ Number of people that share the influencer’s content
★ Number of comments on the influencer’s content
★ Number of actions taken on branded properties as a result of the influencer’s
actions (click-through rates, time on site)
★ Purchases attributed to the influencer’s content
★ Referrals attributed to the influencer’s content
The observed measurement of the conversations can include both web
analytics and social monitoring (listening) measurement capabilities. In
addition, you may also need to include off-line measurement techniques such
as surveys, BrandEncounter® or TalkTrack® syndicated studies, among others.
Attributing sales to the influencer campaign requires being able to link the
purchase back through to the key influencer’s content or conversation.
To summarize, there is a distinction between the diagnostic and predictive
measures of potential to influence from that of empirically measuring actual,
observed influence. A methodology for determining both states of influence
in influencer marketing program design is required.
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19. Brand Influencers
WOMMA 2013
Ethics are a key consideration when
engaging in influencer marketing. All
WOMMA members are committed to five
key ethical principles, which all come into
play with influencer marketing:
1. Trust: Engage in practices and policies that promote an
Ethics
environment of trust between the consumer and marketer
2. Integrity: Abide by regulations, promote honesty and
transparency in practices and methods and avoid consumer
deception in marketing practices
3. Respect: Promote and abide by practices that focus on
consumer welfare
4. Honesty: Consumers should be free to form their own
opinions and share them in their own words and WOMMA
members do not support any efforts that tell others what to
say or how to say it
5. Responsibility: WOMMA members believe that working
with minors in marketing programs requires sensitivity and
care, given their particular vulnerability to manipulation and
deception

20. Brand Influencers
WOMMA 2013
Communications platforms and tools are evolving rapidly and may not take all
of these factors into consideration.
For more information, please visit womma.org/ethics for our updated Ethics
Toolkit, Disclosure Guide and other resources. If you have questions or concerns
about ethics in the WOMM community, please feel free to contact our Members
Ethics Advisory Panel (MEAP) for help in addressing them.
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21. Brand Influencers
WOMMA 2013
Not all influencers are created equal. We
have identified five distinct categories of
key influencers that brands can identify
and engage in their influencer marketing
programs. They are:
★
★
★
★
★
Categories
of
Influencers
Advocates
Ambassadors
Citizen Influencers
Professional/Occupational Influencers
Celebrity Influencers
In the following pages we define and describe these influencers.
Please keep in mind that which category of influence an individual
falls into is both situational and contextual. For example, a blogger
could fall into any number of categories. One who derives her
income as a food blogger would be considered Professional/
Occupational. A blogger who is a foodie but has no affiliation and
recommends a restaurant is an Advocate.
Each category of influencer demands a specific program and
measurement technique while the type of influence each exhibits is
distinct by audience.

22. Brand Influencers
Brand Influencers
WOMMA 2013
WOMMA 2013
Definitions - Five Categories of Influencers
Advocate
Ambassador
Citizen
Professional
Occupational
An individual who
shows support for,
pleads the case of
or defends a brand,
cause, product or
service while
remaining formally
unaffiliated with the
brand and
unremunerated
An individual
remunerated by or
otherwise ‘allied’
with a brand or
cause; their actions
are, in some
manner, endorsed
by the brand with
an acknowledged
and transparent
affiliation that is
mutually beneficial
The ‘everyman’ of
influence. Citizen
Influencers are
otherwise average
people who have
greater than
average likelihood
to influence though
their social network
Individuals, who by
definition of their
job function, are in
the position to
influence others
directly through
their authoritative
or instructive
statements
Celebrity
An individual
whose name
recognition
commands a great
deal of public
fascination
(‘celebrity status’)
and has the ability
to use their status
to communicate
with broad effect

23. Brand Influencers
WOMMA 2013
Characteristics - Five Categories of Influencers
Advocate
Ambassador
Citizen
★ Intermittent or one-
★ Sustained passion
★ Everyday people
time advocacy either
about a brand or
experience
★ Have positive
sentiment towards
the brand
★ Open and willing to
share specific
experiences with
others
★ Independent from
the brand
for the brand and the
brand’s cause
★ Possess similar
qualities and values
of the brand - shares
the brand mission
★ Strong team players
★ Teachable in terms
of methods and
messaging to spread
the word
★ Intrinsically
motivated to
support and endorse
the brand and its
purpose
★ Social beings who
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naturally talk and
share information
with people in their
network
★ Share to help friends
and colleagues, not
necessarily a brand
★ Have a neutral or
balanced stance in
opinions and
experiences, giving
both positive and
negative
perspectives
★ Trusted by their
network and
considered authentic
Professional
Occupational
★ Employed in their
area of influence
★ Have a desire to
share their
knowledge and
experience
★ Well established and
highly regarded in
their field
★ Credentials are
earned either
academically or
though extensive
experience in a
particular field
Celebrity
★ Hold media
attention and public
fascination
★ Possess their own
unique qualities that
should either align
with the brand, be
desired by the brand
or have appeal with
the brand's desired
audience
★ Are audience
specific and belong
to one of many
verticals including
entertainment,
politics, business,
authors, sports,
artists, parenting, etc.

24. Brand Influencers
WOMMA 2013
Who
Advocate
Advocates are individuals who speak out during the natural course of
their interaction with the brand. An advocate is not formally
recognized by or affiliated with the brand.
What they do
Typically, advocacy is the act of pleading or making the case for
something. For a brand, this includes positive sentiment and one of
the following: A recommendation; A call to action to purchase; or
Suggested usage or suggested change to opinion.
When
Advocacy occurs when a person has a high degree of
emotional attachment towards something and is
compelled to tell another about it. Advocacy can be one
time or the individual can advocate over a long period of time.
Why relevant to the brand?
There is a direct link between online advocacy and offline sales.
When advocacy increases, sales increase; when advocacy decreases,
sales also decrease. Research by Jacquelyn Thomas at Northwestern
University stated that in certain cases 53% of a brand’s sales volume
change can be explained by changes in online advocacy.

25. Brand Influencers
WOMMA 2013
Goal
The goal of an advocate influencer program is to share the results of a positive
(or dispel a negative) experience, create a position (a strongly held belief for a
brand) and drive support for the position.
Potential to influence
★ Degree of positive sentiment this individual displays towards the brand
★ The extent to which the individual will defend the brand
★ Length of time the individual has been discussing the brand
★ Venues where the individual advocates and alignment of those venues to the
brand's target audience
★ The degrees of two way engagement and content engagement others have
with the individual (thread depth)
Observation of actual influence
★ Unique URL click-through to a website from advocate content
★ Use of referral codes and coupon redemption
★ Sentiment of individuals who interact with the advocates
★ Sentiment of threads or sites where advocates are engaged
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26. Brand Influencers
WOMMA 2013
General examples
★ Brand advocates
★ Legal advocates
★ Healthcare advocates
★ Political advocates
Specific examples
The Toyota Prius has loyal advocates that stand for the car and its
environmental protection.
Mini Cooper has loyal advocates that promote the brand and the
ownership experience.
Tom Shoes has loyal advocates that shout out for the brand, its
cause, and its one-for-one premise.
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27. Brand Influencers
WOMMA 2013
Who
Ambassadors are individuals who are formally recognized to represent a
brand and are able to speak and act on its behalf. There exists some form of
acknowledged agreement between the individual and the brand.
Ambassador
What they do
Ambassadors serve as an extension of the brand, however, may or
may not work directly for the brand. Additionally, only individuals,
employees or partners of a brand that possess desired attributes and
characteristics would be selected to be public facing ambassadors.
When
Ambassadors are committed to representing and serving the
brand for the duration of their agreement. When a person
acts as an ambassador, however, can be situationally
complex. For example, an employee of an international
brand is an ambassador when she serves as volunteer for a
local non-profit. Here she is an ambassador of the non-profit,
not the brand.
Why relevant to the brand?
Effective ambassador programs tap into the passion of the
individuals to enhance the brand's cause and to grow, strengthen

28. Brand Influencers
WOMMA 2013
and amplify the community. Ambassadors can be a diversified resource to the
cause that are bound by an agreement and not always compensated.
Goal
An ambassador program seeks to further the brand and its cause, whether
through individual, community, or broad (regional / national / global) outreach.
Potential to influence
★ A match of the individual's values to those of the brand
★ Degree of strong emotion the individual displays toward the brand
★ The individual's willingness to engage in a formal relationship with
the brand
★ The individual’s prior ability and willingness to communicate with
peers and the public
★ The individual's willingness to be coached and encouraged by the
brand
Observation of actual influence
★ Boost in online brand buzz attributed to this individual, including direct link
back to person's presence or action and brand mentions
★ Unique URL tracking or click-through to your website from individual’s
content
★ Tracking of referral codes or coupon redemption unique to the individual
and program.
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29. Brand Influencers
WOMMA 2013
General examples
★
★
★
★
★
★
Employees
Volunteers
Contractors
Affiliates
Government official
Business partners
Specific examples
The Fiskateers are customer ambassadors for
Fiskars Scissors and its crafting community.
Jared Fogle is a Subway customer turned
brand and weight loss ambassador.
Select AT&T employees are brand
ambassadors on Twitter.
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30. Brand Influencers
Citizen
WOMMA 2013
Who
A citizen influencer is a person who talks and shares information and opinions
to their network of contacts, but does not necessarily advocate. They are not
affiliated with the brand and are typically anonymous to the brand itself.
What they do
Citizen influencers share information and their opinion. They will write reviews
and recommendations to the broader public but are generally not concerned
about the outcome of their actions. Citizen influencers do not necessarily have
the intent to influence the masses; instead they talk or share to an individual or
a small group of known people.
When
A citizen influencer will talk and share during the natural course of their day.
Their influence is not necessarily intentional but an outcome or
byproduct of their actions. Social media has amplified the
effectiveness of their influence depending on the number of
people in their network and the visibility of their content.
Why relevant to the brand?
A single citizen influencer may not affect a brand significantly,
however the cumulative affect of multiple citizen influencers
taking action can be significant. Consider the affect of cumulative
reviews for a product.

31. Brand Influencers
WOMMA 2013
Goal
A citizen influencer program intends to use local conversations and efforts to
increase recommendations, referrals, and ultimately the brand's sales - or to
increase awareness and further the brand's cause.
Potential to influence
★ Ratings and reviews written by the individual
★ The individual’s use of social networks and email
★ Posts and comments on non-branded venues such as blogs and
Facebook pages
Observation of actual influence
★ Links, click-throughs or purchase attribution from ratings and reviews
★ Web analytics that attribute sharing button activity to actions taken on a site
★ Partnership with third-party scoring companies to design and attribute
influencer programs
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32. Brand Influencers
WOMMA 2013
General examples
★ Neighbors
★ Friends
★ Coworkers
★ Family members
Specific examples
Moms are citizen influencers on child care and children’s
products such as diapers.
Teenagers are citizen influencers
on hot, trending topics such as
new movie releases and music
singles or albums.
Neighbors are citizen
influencers on such subjects
as lawn care, automobiles
and light bulbs.
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33. Brand Influencers
WOMMA 2013
Who
Professional and occupational influencers are the individuals who
derive part or all of their income from influencing people. Lifetime/
career professionals, policy makers and bloggers are examples.
What they do
It is the role of these individuals to gather the facts and opinions of
others and use their position and venue to communicate. The intent
of professional/occupational influencers is to make an
impact on their audience and influence them.
When
Professional
& Occupational
Professional/occupational influencers are influential
during the course of their work. They may also also
influence during a speaking engagement, professional
trade show or association meeting of peers and the
public.
Why relevant to the brand?
Professional/occupational influencers typically possess
both authority and reach. Brands traditionally rely on
their PR department to manage these influencers.

34. Brand Influencers
WOMMA 2013
Goal
A professional/occupational influencer program aims to increase brand equity,
brand awareness, adoption rates, sales or memberships. Another aim may be to
affect the industry and environment where a business operates.
Potential to influence
★ A review of the individual's expertise and accomplishments
★ Quantity and quality of publications (blogs, articles, white papers,
books) authored by the individual
★ Number of references to the individual author and publications
★ Number and quality of previous speaking engagements
★ Existence of a personal website that focuses around the topic area
Observation of actual influence
★ Links and click-throughs from blogs, articles, books and
speaking engagement content
★ Change in the dialogue or content resulting from the
professional/occupational influencer
★ Commentary, links and click-through after a speaking
engagement and posted content
★ Sharing by others of the individual's content
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35. Brand Influencers
WOMMA 2013
General examples
★ Journalists
★ Physicians
★ Policy makers
★ PR professionals
Specific examples
The president of the Orthopaedic Trauma
Association is a professional influencer of
orthopaedic trauma surgeons.
The President of the United States is
an occupational influencer of policy
and the political parties.
The editor of the local paper is
an occupational influencer of
the community.
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36. Brand Influencers
WOMMA 2013
Who
Celebrity
An individual whose name recognition has earned a high level of
awareness and commands a great deal of public fascination (they
possess ‘celebrity status’).
What they do
From a program perspective, celebrities are paid and contractually
bound to leverage their status to influence outcomes on behalf of
the brand. Frequently they are effective at building brand awareness,
perhaps stimulating discourse based on their involvement with a
selected brand or cause.
When
Commonly celebrities are contracted to work on behalf
of a brand. If a celebrity is acting as an influencer outside
of a paid contract, they would be considered an
advocate or an ambassador.
Why relevant to the brand?
Celebrities have a greater reach than most other
categories of influencers. Their actions are typically easy
to measure.

37. Brand Influencers
WOMMA 2013
Goal
A celebrity influencer program is designed to spread a message widely, increase
awareness, and produce the brand's desired customer or fan response such as
increase purchase rates or gain more support for a cause.
Potential to influence
The degree of popularity of the individual as measured by name recognition
Size of the individual’s social network and community
The values, concepts and content to which the celebrity is aligned
Amount of imitation of the individual's behaviors or style evident
in public
★ Past negative and positive behavior as an indication of future
behavior
★
★
★
★
Observation of actual influence
★ Boost in online brand buzz stimulated by this individual's association (direct
links back to the celebrity's presence or action and brand mentions)
★ Unique URL clicks to a website
★ Referral codes or coupon redemption
★ Media and other press coverage
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38. Brand Influencers
WOMMA 2013
General examples
★ Musicians
★ Actors and actresses
★ Authors
★ Athletes
Specific examples
Jennifer Hudson is a celebrity influencer for
Weight Watchers, influencing on the subject of
weight loss.
Roger Federer is a celebrity influencer for Moet &
Chandon Champagne, influencing on the subject
of luxury goods and lifestyle.
Mia Farrow is a celebrity influencer for UNICEF,
influencing to improve the lives of children worldwide.
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39. Brand Influencers
Disclosure
WOMMA 2013
WOMMA updated its Social Media
Disclosure Guide in 2012 to take into
account regulatory investigations in the US
and UK, as well as to address the changing
landscape of WOM marketing in rapidly
emerging platforms such as Twitter,
Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest, Google+,
blogs and more. There was a common
misperception that disclosure was only
required for bloggers and only when
bloggers were being paid. Regardless of
the platforms used or the type of
relationship with an influencer, marketers
have a number of responsibilities when
engaging in influencer marketing.

40. Brand Influencers
WOMMA 2013
Brands must institute a company-wide social media policy for their own
employees and ensure that their agencies, partners, networks and vendors have
policies that are in alignment with the brand’s policy or guidelines ensuring that
influencers are educated, monitored and supervised accordingly. Furthermore,
brands have a responsibility to ensure that their relationships to influencers are
adequately disclosed in five ways.
1. Brands must educate influencers, agencies, partners, networks and vendors
they work with on marketing campaigns about the circumstances in which
disclosure is required and what that disclosure could look like.
2. Brands must reasonably monitor their campaigns to ensure that influencers
are making the required disclosures and that claims by agents and thirdparties are substantiated and not false or misleading.
3. If the required disclosures do not appear or claims are not in compliance,
marketers must employ commercially reasonable efforts to address the
situation, which may range from having influencers insert the required
disclosures to requesting they pull the content in question. Brands should
also have a policy or guidelines in place to deal with non-compliant
influencers including ‘compliance training’ for first-time non-disclosers and
dismissal for repeat non-disclosers.
4. Brands must ensure that their agencies, partners, networks and vendors who
may be responsible for engaging influencers on their behalf have a policy
that is in alignment with the brand’s policy or guidelines with regard to
these responsibilities.
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41. Brand Influencers
WOMMA 2013
5. Brands must educate their employees regarding the nature of required
disclosures to ensure that when employees communicate about the
products or services of the company for which they work, they appropriately
disclose their relationship to that company and that they do not
misrepresent themselves as ordinary customers in providing endorsements
or reviews of the brands or products associated with that company.
For more information, please visit womma.org/ethics for our updated Ethics
Toolkit, complete Disclosure Guide and other resources. If you have questions
or concerns about disclosure in the WOM community, please feel free to contact
our Members Ethics Advisory Panel (MEAP) for help in addressing them.
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42. Brand Influencers
WOMMA 2013
Thanks for reading.
For more information on word of mouth
marketing and influencers contact WOMMA
or visit the links below.
Spread the word! womma.org/influencers
womma.org
@womma
facebook.com/womma
linkedin.com/company/word-of-mouth-marketing-association
youtube.com/user/watchwomma