I keynoted an opening presentation with an auditorium of 200 marketers in Toronto at Marketing Magazine’s conference “Engaging Influencers” this week.
Given the reaction of the crowd, it’s about time this section of marketing was covered off. You could tell for some, it was reinforcement of stuff that wasn’t getting nearly enough airplay in their offices, for others - you could see the pin drop and give consideration to an entirely different world out there beyond the scope of their current “marketing air wars”.
For another constituency, habits were so engrained that people were trying to fit what they were learning into what they already knew and practiced. Not an easy forcefit. My friend David Alston from Radian6 explained adroitly what this actually meant using a really clever metaphor of the “church of the community” - engaged brand owners and the “church of the audience” - mass marketing practitioners — worthy consideration for another post.
In my opening keynote, I covered off in the attached presentation:
- some of these people are not like the others - the parallels and proof that influencers exist
- our networks, white papers and new book - Wikibrands
- refuting Duncan Watts and supporting The Tipping Point
- how we should value these people differently
- a call to action - why we should care, the Marketing Divide, the power of a “person like me”
- the flipping on its head of the mass marketing model
- growth expectations for word of mouth #1 and individual components of the new marketing spectrum
- the stories of Mozilla Firefox and lululemon
- why influencers are so damn valuable
- RECS - the formula of influence - Reach x Exposure x Credibility x Suasion
- the inequality of Influencer participation
- the traits of an influencer - ACTIVESP
- 6 types of Influencers - their definition, motivations and profiling questions
- Crossing the Chasm - how each type of Influencer works in sequence to spread ideas
- the 36 motivations that spark Influencers to do stuff - the who (the audience), the what you do (the activity) and the what you are (brand/product), yes there are 36
- the six dos and don’ts of influencer marketing
- reinforcement that humans are social animals - engage, converse, relate - don’t brag, broadcast and conquer
As much as their were some good case studies presented at the conference, it made ourselves at Agent Wildfire have a little swagger in our step realizing just how up front of our industry we really are and what an incredible set of assets we offer our clients - a nice unexpected reinforcement.
Please share us your thoughts on the attached and stay tuned for three important Agent Wildfire influencer announcements and launches in the new year.
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