Marketing Influence in Social Media

By Frank DiFulvio

(WHI News) — To identify the ambassadors and influencers that will fit the best to a campaign in social media, marketing professionals and business leaders should not rely solely on their social score. This is not because a specialist has a great influence, or a user enjoys a buzz in social media, it may meet the criteria of a branding campaign. The science of marketing influence is based on a contextual, more complex analysis, which can only be assessed case-by-case.

To understand the value of an ambassador or influencer in the context before us, we must not only identify what type of influencer can match among its criteria, but also more difficult to measure evaluate certain aspects, such as their true expertise and authority accorded them in their niche. And wonder how this influencer (or ambassador) may be able to help.

This contextual analysis can be done by first validating five ¨ C ¨ of influence in social media, in the adoption curve and use of influencers (and ambassadors).

These new indices influence value can be now grouped into five ¨ C ¨ parts:

1. Context: Naturally, at first, it is the super – user (social butterfly) that stands out. Analyzing their scope and influence in the network, and measuring their social score, we can already establish their capital in the context of a marketing campaign influence. Thereafter, it will consider the relevance of their niche (network) and their timing (synchronicity).
2. Contents: By observing and listening to the conversations and discussions that accompanied their messages, you can determine the level of commitment to their community of interests, and measure the amplification of their messages. You can then more easily identify potential ambassadors among networkers and broadcasters are beginning to emerge.
3. Community: Starting with the one they get from their community of interest. In analyzing the comments and exchanges generated by their messages, you can determine the quality of feelings (positive or negative) raised by the influencer (or potential ambassador) targeted in the community.
4. Credibility: This is the stage that will reveal the skills of true experts (or experts) and discoverers connected through the quality of their work and their involvement in the network. Users of their networks readily acknowledge their great master of social media, as well as their authority in their industry. Their personal branding becomes a professional reference for the other influencers, and often demonstrates its multiple skills.
5. Confidence: The success of a marketing campaign influence is mainly based on the trust established between the influencer and the user – consumer (prosumer). They are often asked to teach at conferences and major universities. They affect all other types of influencers.

The real meaning of contextual analysis

In an article published on Lithosphere.Lithium.Com, last year, analyst Michael Wu, PhD, tiebreaker the two factors that reveal the influencers (or ambassadors) of the motivations of the affected target.

Even if we must prioritize the contextual and relational analysis in marketing influence, the latest statistics show that trust and commitment are essential between the influenced (prosumer) and the influencer (or ambassador) can only be installed when the two find themselves at the top of their adoption curve of social media.

In this meaning, to understand and assess the potential for a marketing campaign to influence, we must consider at the same time mutual curve of adoption and use of social media by both parties. As Michael Wu wrote in his article, the success of a marketing campaign depends on many contextual factors, such as the synchronicity of intentions, and the relevance of the use of targeted social platforms.

However, because they can’t be measured with algorithms and tools for different measures, and as such they represent specific values into the equation, the relevance of content and the level of trust that must establish the relationship remain, in my opinion, the factors that must be considered separately. That is why they are part of my top five ¨ C ¨ of the marketing influence in social media.

In my next article, I’ll demonstrate how this five ¨C ¨ list correspond to the curve of adoption and use of social media, and how this curve is pretty similar for both parties as for the enterprises and brands. And, I’ll show you how it’s also corresponding to the five levels of the pyramid of the hierarchy of social media influence.