bloggers

Are Bloggers/Influencers, Worth the Money to Influence Consumers?

Are bloggers/influencers, worth the money to influence consumers?

My take…

#1… it’s all about the situation, the context, and the bloggers/influencers. #2… it’s most often, although not always, more about the content than the “influence.”
#3… everyone influences someone, so empower your customers, potential customers, and especially employees personal influence.
#4… most of what the marketing community refers to as “influence” is simply media.

You are buying media impressions (hopefully contextual and/or interesting ones) so measure and invest in them that way.

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Straight Forward Suggestions for Crowdsourcing Content

Every business needs content in order to be found in search, and to differentiate them from the competition. Without quality, helpful content (and lots of it), you’re lost in a school of fish that are all the same color. Who’s going to find you? Who’s going to pick you?

The trouble with content development is that it can be expensive. Website copy, blog articles, e-books, reports—they all take time and effort (and dollars) to produce. However without them, you really can’t do an effective job of marketing your business—especially in the social age. It’s the classic chicken-or-the-egg syndrome. The more social our businesses become, the more we need that variety of content that speaks to our listeners and helps them solve their problems so we can A: get their attention, and B: develop relationships with them.

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12 Most Important Reasons I Love Bloggers and You Should Too!

Bloggers are amazing people who add a great deal of value to my life and work – and in my social media saturated work/life, that means a great deal! 

Every day I am thrilled to be part of the awesome blogger community, and here’s why you (and your brand) need to love bloggers too:

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Quick Tips on How to Get Your Startup Noticed

I had the chance to sit down with Adarsh Pallian, the CEO and Co-Founder of Geotoko, a Vancouver-based startup that measures location based deals, to ask him how startups should begin marketing their new products.  Pallin did not hold back, and left me with some fantastic tips to kick start the marketing engine.

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Joining Collective Bias as Chief Social Marketing Officer…

I’ve been working in digital marketing since 1997, and each year I believe more strongly in the power of relationships for effectively connecting brands with consumers.   Back then, I never could have imagined the incredible connection-building possibilities provided by social media, but I am enjoying witnessing the world-wide adoption of social media as a viable business tool!   There’s no place I’d rather be than in the middle of this shift, and am pleased to have the opportunity to share my expertise with and learn from the team at Collective Bias as their Chief Social Marketing Officer. This is very exciting and something John Andrews, the founder of Collective Bias, and I have talked about for a long time.

I love the blogging community because when it comes down to it, they genuinely want to share useful information, and to connect people to information and products.   That really hit home for me when I was CMO of e.l.f. Cosmetics (Eyes Lips Face) from 2008-2010.  I pioneered a program to develop and utilize blogger relationships to exponentially increase and sustain the e.l.f. brand visibility, and because of the blogger energy, talent, and networks,  the program at e.l.f. brand evolved and succeeded with a unique approach toward not just beauty, but also accessibility, interactivity and consumer engagement.   At that time, the jury was still out on the business value of social media, but the success of this program confirmed for e.l.f. (and other previously skeptical businesses), that building relationships with consumers not only enhances the long-term viability of the brand, but has a direct short-term effect on the bottom line.

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Blogging Is Dead

It’s almost like a rite of spring. Every year, pundits proclaim the death of blogging.

As far back as 2007 ReadWriteWeb was asking the question. In 2008, it was Wired, wondering if the rise of Twitter, Facebook, Flickr and the like would be more en vogue for individuals, who were getting pushed aside as the conglomerate professional blogs were beginning to take prominence. In 2009, Copyblogger declared blogging dead (again) but noted that it would continue to live on. Just last year, Problogger debated the role that email played in all of this, and concluded that it’s not an either/or decision.

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Finding Inspiration to Write

Today I was part of a great Twitter chat #SOBcon. Lots of smart folks and a question came up that I found intriguing because of the dialogue it stirred in everyone.

“Where do you find your inspiration to blog or write”

The stir came when it was suggested that inspiration and having an editorial schedule could be polar opposites. Many agreed with this notion, some did not and sliced it down the middle.

The issue came down to this conundrum:

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Why Chris Brogan is Invincible

I am fascinated with uber-blogger Chris Brogan as a cultural icon of the social media revolution. Whether it’s trying new business models or pioneering sponsored posts, he is our canary in the coal mine, exploring the leading edges of our field.

But a post this week established a new milestone even for Chris. For your edification and entertainment, I am re-printing the entire post. Under a hand-drawn picture of a stick figure at a podium, he wrote:

“Okay, don’t do this. If you’re going to speak to people, speak TO (or even better WITH) them. Don’t look at your slides, read your slides, and tell me what’s on your slides. I know how to read. Stop it. Okay?”

… That’s it — 41 words.

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Who Do You Trust?

It’s been well documented that people don’t trust corporations as much as they used to. But who do they trust? It’s largely people from two categories: third party experts
(academics, some media sources, analysts, etc.) and “people like me.”

But when it comes to social media, we’ve also heard that people don’t trust bloggers (from Forrester, no less). I’ve often doubted that assertion, particularly because it seems rather misleading. While the category of bloggers as a whole may be untrusted, people develop relationships with the blogs they follow and read most closely, and therefore develop a sense of trust with them.

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