Become More Relevant By Finding the Right Influencer for You

Are You Relevant?

To someone, or something… of course! It’s all about finding the right connection or niche.
Jeff Beringer has built a sterling PR career on finding the way to make brands more relevant to their target audiences by pairing them up with the influencer—or influencers—that speak to that same niche.
Jeff was the first digital employee at Golin, created The Bridge, and was named one of PR Week’s 40 Under 40. He believes in using the creative application of technology to help brands enhance their reputations.
Golin is a communications firm dedicated to helping its clients adapt by embracing new technologies and creating brave and transformative work and engagement. The Bridge™ is a global network of connected newsrooms existing across five continents, and includes social specialists, seasoned journalists, and analytics experts who collaborate and discover actionable opportunities for brands across the globe.

In This Episode

• Why it’s so important to find the right influencer fit for your brand
• How to collect and interpret data from influencer audiences
• Why more money is being shifted into influencer marketing budgets
• How technology and the digital age has made it easier to track engagement
• Why engagement is a more important metric than reach for campaign success

Quotes From This Episode

“We think of influencers as accelerators of relevance.” —@jeffberinger
“It’s not about a rolodex, but it’s about how you use data to execute influencer marketing at scale and with precision.” —@jeffberinger
“It’s really about who is the best fit for a client, their campaign, and their objectives.” —@jeffberinger

“What we do on The Bridge is really pay attention to the people that are shaping culture around a particular topic and then we’re looking at different ways to—depending upon what our clients campaign objectives are—work with those influencers in ways that are really authentic to the brand, the influencers, and their audiences.” —@jeffberinger

“I think what people are realizing is that there are many influencers that may not have massive reach, but the engagement they’re driving with their audience is in many cases more significant than what you would call an A-list influencer.” —@jeffberinger
“Now we have data that allows us to be incredibly precise in identifying the right kinds of influencers and then work with them in the right ways that help them, and help the content they’re creating for brands, really resonate and be relevant with their customers.” —@jeffberinger
“People are starting to realize that there are better ways to share and distribute their stories. And we’re on the cusp of more and more brands rethinking the way they tell their stories and distribute them. They’re shifting money out of conventional forms of digital marketing and into influencer marketing.” —@jeffberinger

Resources

• In the News: Microsoft is Buying LinkedIn for $26.2 Billion
• Jeff Beringer Twitter: @jeffberinger
• Golin
• The Bridge
• Pope Francis
• PR Week’s 40 Under 40

Would You Rather

Would you rather be stranded in the desert or stranded in the arctic?
Stranded in the desert. I grew up in a place that was fairly cold during the winter. I’ve since moved to Texas and I have no intention of moving back to a cold climate. So, the desert sounds just perfect to me.
Would you rather be able to see through other people’s eyes or hear through other people’s ears?
Oh, that’s a great question. I think I would prefer to see through other people’s eyes. I think seeing from the vantage point of other people, you pick up things that you wouldn’t natural discover on your own.
Would you rather have $1 million in cash, or $5 million that you had to entirely spend online?
Well, that depends. If I can spend it online and put it into my kids’ 529 plans for college, then I would take the $5 million and use it online. But if I can’t do that, I’ll take the $1 million and stick it all in college funds. I have three kids and when the last one was born, I had a financial planner tell me that I need to save up $1 million to put three kids through college, and I have no earthly idea how I’m going to do it yet.