At this year’s OMMA Social Conference, the folks over at BabyCenter had a presentation called “Influencing the Influencers.” Now for those of you that are not social media inclined (NSMI), influencers are voices of authority in social spaces. An effective social media campaign (aka a Reprise social media campaign) manages to include these influencers in such a way that expands the reach and resonance of a brand’s message. We in the social media trade (SMT) apply the 80-20 rule (or the Pareto principle for smarty pants) to describe the influencers: 80% of the actual conversation is coming from only 20% of an audience. The rest of the audience is listening and then acting accordingly, for instance, buying a product that has an influencer’s endorsement.
So who are these shadowy influencers that determine our fates and how can we appease them? The presenters from Babycenter explained that based on data pulled from their huge pool of users (according to them, 7 out of 10 mothers have used the site) they were able to pinpoint three types of influencers: Field Experts, Lifecasters and Professionals. Field Experts were users that had personal experience in the brand’s offering (in BabyCenter’s case, motherhood) and have taken it upon themselves to give information. Lifecasters were users that are incredibly active and engaged in social spaces but imparted little information. Professionals were, you guessed it, professional bloggers and unsurprisingly they were the smallest group with the largest influence.
But before you think, “Great, now I have even more useless social media jargon (SMJ) to remember” the fine people at BabyCenter went on to explain that knowing these audiences allows a brand to tailor their campaign to reach a type of influencer, or as they put it “Engage the right influencers in the right places”. How do you do it? Here are their suggestions:
Field Experts: Field experts spend the most time in the vertical site (BabyCenter) so create a loyalty or rewards program (think Yelp’s Elite program). Field would love to partner with the site and be recognized as an authority. If you have samples of products, they are the people you want to give samples in the hopes of positive reviews.
Lifecasters: Lifecasters see social spaces as a form of entertainment, so if a brand wants to court them, it should create light, fun content. LifeCasters are happy to share and participate in creative contest or games and respond to light hearted posts.
Professionals: The pros can be tricky, as they are busy working on their own social media empire. A brand should approach these users and develop a one on one relationship with them and then get the brand “next to the content” of the blogger. The presenters cited a Visa campaign that facilitated a popular bloggers’ “bucket list” and let her blog her response.
Are these the only types of influencers out there? Of course not, these are just the ones that BabyCenter categorized based on its users, the majority of whom are mothers. If video game enthusiasts were categorized instead there might be some similarities but there would also be great differences. The real point is not what they categorized, but the fact that they categorized at all and then created solutions based on those categorizations. Brands using social media (BUSM) have to step up their game in order to meet influencers and cater to their various interests, but the result will be significantly effective engagement in social spaces.
Tags: BabyCenter, Business, Internet marketing, Marketing and Advertising, Online Communities, Social Media
