May 27, 2016 10:00 am
Published by Kirsty Sharman
As a brand, growing your presence online is becoming more and more important. With social media and technology flooding the internet with over 200 million pieces of content a minute, it’s essential that brands find a way to stand out from the crowd.
What’s interesting to watch as the marketing industry progresses is how brands find ways to hack their growth. The term ‘growth hacking’ was coined by Sean Ellis in 2010 and in my opinion is more than just a term, it’s a new way to exist – especially in an industry as fast-paced as marketing.
Top marketers have discovered more than one way to hack brand growth. They often discover them by hitting a roadblock in the digital world – and having to find a solution, or a hack. Two of the biggest roadblocks to hit marketers in the last five years are ones you’ll know well – the rise of Ad Blocking, and the change in algorithms across multiple social networks.
This is where influencers started coming into play. Firstly to combat ad blockers by allowing brands to post content in formats consumers actually want to receive it in, and not the age old display banners. Secondly to combat algorithmic changes across platforms like Facebook, Twitter and soon to be Instagram – let’s remember that social networks want popular posts to come up at the top, and the popular posts often come from the popular people – otherwise known as Social Influencers.
The important point to remember here is that ad blocking and algorithm changes are introduced to make the internet a better place. The reason they make being a marketer harder is because we have to be more creative, use smarter technology, and trial new things to get to the top.
If you’re a competitive person like I am, you should really see these roadblocks as an opportunity to get ahead of your competitors. The hack is simple. Find the quickest and most effective way to go from the bottom of the triangle to the top.
Why? Because other people talking about your brand in a positive way has more power to influence consumers than you do – even when your brand has well crafted Facebook posts or beautifully designed banner ads.
But there is something quite important to remember here – if we’re going to use Influencer Marketing to hack brand growth we need to be clear on the rules of growth hacking. If we go back to the definition you’ll see that it needs three things to exist: creativity, analytical thinking and social metrics. When it comes to influencer marketing the last two can be covered by working with smart technology platforms. The creative part still needs to come from you, or the influencer, or ideally a collaboration of both.
For that reason I’ve put together a quick checklist to guide you on through the basics:
- Use accredited influencers to ensure your content reaches the right audience (reliable social metrics)
- Encourage collaboration not dissemination – make sure you’re using a technology platform that allows you to communicate with the influencer about content, briefs and ideas (to encourage creativity)
- Use the three-check-system below to ensure that you’re running a campaign where everybody wins (analytical thinking)
A campaign where everybody wins is what you should aim for, the perfect triangle. The brand wins because the campaign meets business objectives (check 1), the influencer wins because they are proud to post the content
(check 2), and the audience wins because they enjoy the experience (check 3).
Now that you’re one step closer to hacking your brand growth, there is only one more point to mention. Social influencers did not come into existence because they wanted to be part of the Influencer Marketing trade. They came into existence because they are incredible at doing what brands try to do every day – finding a way, through all the roadblocks, to create content that consumers actually want to engage with. The time is now to learn more about these influencers and explore how you can collaborate with them to hack your way to the top.
This post originally appeared on Business 2 Community click here to read it.
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May 12, 2016 12:21 pm
Published by Kirsty Sharman
As our platform grows we still want to show that we appreciate and value all our influencers. Every month we feature influencers from different categories on our blog, not only to show our appreciation for their work but also inspire like-minded influencers on the platform. This month we are featuring some of our very talented beauty influencers. Choosing who to feature is never easy however while going through multiple profiles these three talented ladies certainly grabbed our attention.
WishWishWish:
Carrie Harwood, is the creator of a London-based beauty blog, WishWishWish. Carrie shares her extremely helpful beauty tips and product reviews on her blog. She also has a YouTube channel which focuses on her lifestyle but still features the odd makeup tutorial. Her blog and very popular Instagram account is renowned for its beautiful pictures and going through her Instagram will certainly inspire you to re-think your photography skills. Take a look at her Webfluential profile.
Shawnee, aka Agent Shawnee has a very unique and funky YouTube channel where she focuses on her love for anime and gaming. You may be wondering what this might have to do with beauty? Well Agent Shawnee puts her unique spin on makeup and gives her subscribers tutorials on makeup looks that mimic her favourite anime characters. Her unique and geeky spin on beauty truly makes Shawnee stand out from the crowd. With her impressive Twitter following of 214k, it’s safe to say Shawnee’s fans love her work. Have a look at her Webfluential profile.
Temporary Secretary
From a young age Sarah discovered her love for both fashion and beauty. This UK blogger shares all her beauty and fashion tips and tricks on her blog – Temporary Secretary. Sarah utilises her degree in fashion and marketing to market herself and as a tool to monetize and manage her online store. Here’s Sarah’s Webfluential profile.
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May 9, 2016 10:30 am
Published by Kirsty Sharman
At Webfluential we have a global community of over 8000 influencers. As our community continues to grow we want to ensure that we keep you up to date with changes on social media platforms that may affect you. The most recent change to have taken place is Facebook allowing businesses and influencers to be verified. Being verified not only gives you credibility but it also ensures you are taking the necessary steps to meeting the Facebook guidelines of posting sponsored content.
The blue badge is the new symbol of Facebook approval – pages with this tick have been confirmed as authentic pages or profiles for a public figure, media company or brand. The grey badge indicates that the Facebook page is a verified page for a business or organisation.
So how can your brand get verified? It’s easy….
- Establish your status
If your Page is categorised as a Local Business or as a Company & Organization, then you will probably need a grey verification badge. The blue verification badge is only available in certain regions so you may not be able to apply for it at this stage.
- Find the verification
Go to the top of your Page and under the General Tab, click on Page Verification. Then select Verify this Page and Get Started. You will enter your publicly listed phone number for your business, your country and location and your preferred language. Then click Call Me Now and wait for Facebook to buzz you with the verification code. Enter this four-digit code, click Continue and enjoy the awesome new badge on your Page.
Hot tip: Link your Page to your website and ensure your About section is complete
- Need an alternative?
If you don’t fancy getting a call or you don’t have a publicly registered phone number, you can use a business document. Just follow the same steps as above and select the Verify this Page with Documents instead button, upload the picture of your official document and make sure it clearly shows both your business name and your address. This process takes slightly longer as Facebook needs to verify the information against public records.
Hot tip: You can use a driver’s license, passport and birth certificate as well as articles of incorporation
What happens if you don’t?
If you don’t verify your Page, then you can’t post sponsored content and for influencers and brands this is not a great thing. You can post your own content, sure, but you can’t link to someone else’s services or solutions unless you have a badge. The verification process is easy and critical for influencers with their own brand pages. If you read through the Facebook Branded Content Policies, you can see that posts which ‘disclose the content is sponsored or provided by a third party’ are only allowed for Verified Pages.
Instagram is also at the party
Instagram is undergoing a number of changes (some of which have caused utter social mayhem) and one of these is a Facebook-a-like type profile with a new contact button, a location tag and category for easier business classification and identification. It’s a pretty nifty new design which can mean a great deal for the brand and the influencer in terms of being easier to contact and increasing potential reach.
Facebook owns Instagram. Facebook wants you to verify your business. It seems only logical to assume that, once the dust has settled on the Facebook platform, Instagram will follow suit. Getting verified today could save you a lot of hassle down the line and may well see you sorted across multiple platforms from the start. While you’re at it, you may as well verify on Twitter too. It pays to be prepared!
Hot tip: Don’t pay someone to verify your brand or Page for you. This is the land of the con artist and will only waste your time and money.
This post was written on behalf of Webfluential by a Webfluential contributor.
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