What is an influencer?

“Influencer” is a term you hear lots nowadays “Influencer” is a term you hear lots nowadays. These are the people — usually celebrities, athletes, writers, bloggers, social media types — who are good at building high-quality followings and influencing their followers’ decisions. These can be topic specific or general influencers Top 25 Travel Influencers

It’s a pretty big deal now in marketing Influencer marketing is going strong, with 37% of marketers now dedicating budget to the strategy, and 67% promising to increase the relevant budget year-on-year. It’s a pretty big deal now in marketing

For non profits it’s likely different

Different levels Macro influencers. Those who reach more people, but engage less. Micro influencers. Those who engage more, but reach less. Brand ambassadors. People who mention you a lot because they like you

Once follower counts rise to a certain level, engagement rates drop Once follower counts rise to a certain level, engagement rates drop. According to a 2017 survey by Edelman, 49% of internet users worldwide said they trusted information from online personalities with a small following, whereas only 36% said the same of well-known online personalities. In choosing a micro-influencer - someone with fewer followers, but a more engaged community - you’ll not only be increasing your chances of achieving stronger engagement, but you’ll also be saving money. Your budget could stretch to multiple influencers It’s a mistake to focus solely on follower count instead of quality of content

It helps if your macro influencer is truly involved in cause

Many are micro influencers are VIP or Blogger influencers

Now a big area of literature for organizations and companies

The argument for using influencers “Millennials look for inspiration for their next travel, by visiting their favorite bloggers, Instagrammers and Youtubers – rather than traditional advertising such as TV, newspapers and banners. They want to visit the hidden gems around the world, places that can’t be found in a guidebook. Studies shows that 92% of customers trust online content created by peers above all forms of advertising.” The argument for using influencers

More benefits It’s also a way to tap into specialized audiences And have your brand seen in a different light (through someone else’s eyes) More benefits

The platform matters

Influencer does not necessarily celebrity Everyday Influencer:  Individuals who are passionate about the organization’s program and have an online presence of 500-5,000 followers.  The key engagement opportunity is to give them some social media love and ask them to share your content. Attentive.ly® found when evaluating 90 nonprofit customers that the top 5% of influencers on a nonprofits email list of 140,000 can reach an average of 34 million people, or 85% the total reach of email and Twitter combined. Influencer does not necessarily celebrity

From “Teachers Are Moonlighting As Instagram Influencers To Make Ends Meet”

Dr. Gloria Horsley is Founder of the Open to Hope Foundation: “In the past, this usually involved celebrities, who are among the most well-known faces out there. Now, the pool of influencers has expanded to athletes, industry experts, thought leaders and even admired peers. Essentially, if it's someone your audience trusts, then they are an influencer -- and they can serve as the focus of your influencer marketing campaigns.” Dr. Gloria Horsley is Founder of the Open to Hope Foundation:

Finding your most influential followers This means influencer marketing doesn't have to be expensive and, therefore, out of reach for a nonprofit. The problem with social media for nonprofits is that most organizations have no idea which of their supporters or social media followers are influentials. There’s a good chance you have hundreds, if not thousands, of supporters who would gladly share your campaign message with their social networks if you did one thing—asked them (and not in a wimpy “p.s. can you share this” kind of way)! Finding your most influential followers

“We reached out to those donors and volunteers from our database with an email. In it, we shared our goals of reaching others and having those within our ranks who were passionate and willing to speak about us on social media join our influencer marketing campaign.” Share their own stories on nonprofit’s social media (be featured on a guest blog, be subject of a nonprofit’s Insta story, for example) Share the nonprofit’s social media (retweet, etc.) Share the nonprofit’s material through their businesses, etc. You have to ask

Social media scoring helps find the best influencers The most important factors to understand when scoring influence are: Reach / # Followers (but it’s easy to amass Social engagement of followers Relevancy Post frequency Relationship with your nonprofit Social media scoring helps find the best influencers

There are paid apps/programs available

A new worry: Fake influencers “Over time, we've come to learn that building a large following, in itself, is not overly difficult. If you follow a heap of users, some will follow you back. Unfollow the ones that don't reciprocate, then follow a heap more. Rinse and repeat this process for long enough and you'll surely amass a perceived audience large enough to justify influencer status - but the likelihood of any of these people actually engaging with your content is not very high. But it's enough to dupe a lot of businesses.” “Follower count, in itself, is nowhere near enough - if a person has 100k followers on Twitter, but they themselves are following 98k accounts, you can bet that their level of 'influence' likely won't be very high.” A new worry: Fake influencers

What does your organization want from an influencer?

Measure the success of your influencer marketing While it may not be costing your nonprofit a certain dollar amount, you are still investing time in cultivating these relationships and creating the campaigns. Yet 38% say they are unable to tell whether influencer activity actually helps. Metrics you try to measure: followers, post impressions, interactions, shares, likes and traffic to your website from these posts. Measure the success of your influencer marketing