“Why work with influencers? Because we want to reach consumers where they are, speaking their language, and speaking from someone they trust,” says Katie Cornish, who in January was head of social media and influencer marketing at Nintendo, in her presentation at SocialMedia.org’s Brands-Only Summit. (Note: Katie is now Director, Social Media Lead at Novartis).
Her strategy is focused on finding the right type of influencer that can bring long-term potential to a brand. In her presentation, Katie shares her tips and tricks to creating an influencer program and maintaining a relationship with them. Here are a few of her big ideas:
- Use the 3 P’s to identify your influencers. Does their online personality meld with your brand? Can you create content to fit their platform? Are they pertinent to the current campaign?
- Collaborate. Collaborate. Comply. Listen to your influencer. They know your audience better than you do, and consumers can spot forced content that’s inauthentic. But, of course, make sure influencers are compliant and disclose any paid partnerships.
- Build accountability. Include brainstorming and product education sessions when onboarding your influencer. They’ll feel ownership in the process and have a better understanding of what you need from them in the campaign. This also helps create better content.
Watch Katie’s full presentation in this video or view her slide presentation.
Andy Sernovitz builds organizations that help people help each other. His company, GasPedal, builds peer-to-peer communities for people leading meaningful change at the world’s biggest companies, including SocialMedia.org and SocialMedia.org Health. He wrote the best-selling book Word of Mouth Marketing that teaches you how to earn the respect and recommendation of your customers.