What is an influencer? According to Wikipedia, “influencer marketing, (also Influence Marketing) is a form of marketing that has emerged from a variety of recent practices and studies, in which focus is placed on specific key individuals (or types of individual) rather than the target market as a whole.”
But I think I prefer this definition a bit more, and it comes from InfluencerAnalysis.com:
An influencer is an individual who has above-average impact on a specific niche process.
Influencers are normal people, who are often connected to key roles of media outlets, consumer groups, industry associations or community tribes. Influencers may or may not be aware of your company, but represent control of an audience segment that is important to your business.
But when you hear the word influencer, what is the first thing that comes to mind? You probably think of promotion. Sure, an influencer, who of course has an engaged following of people, is able to take an idea, a product, service, brand, or content and amplify it simply by sharing it with their audience. If you could use influencers to help with your content strategy, you’d be doing quite well. But there’s more to it than that. There is still more of a potential that you’re missing out on.
As the author of the post, How to Include Influencers in Your Content Strategy, Amanda Gallucci tells us that “knowing when and how they can best be engaged at different stages is critical to moving these leaders from outside influencers to brand partners.”
How can you measure an influencer’s true value? How can you utilize the skills and following of an established influncer? Amanda answers these questions, and more in her post, that can be found on Moz.com by following the link below.
YouMoz: How to Include Influencers in Your Content Strategy