The Philosophy Behind Influence Marketing (and Why It Matters)

What Does Influence Mean?

Influence can be anything. And we’re all influencers of something.
A more specific answer would be helpful, no? Thankfully, Kristen Matthews can help. She is a big fan of understanding the bigger picture of influencer marketing and how it can relate to the ways a brand builds relationships with its influencers. Authenticity takes center stage as a key element to the entire strategy. Also, investing into a small- to mid-sized influencer allows for a clearer voice, more intimate relationship with consumers, and perhaps even more genuine excitement around the brand.
Understanding and being willing to offer proper compensation to your influencer is also key. With these elements of authenticity, organic fit, and mutual benefit— anything is possible.
Kristen uses her experience as an influencer marketing expert and creative branding consultant to create strategies that brands can own in-house. She prides herself on the ability to consult with any type of brand to help build or improve their influencer marketing strategy and overall online presence.

In This Episode

• Why authenticity is really the key to everything
• How to gain influencers that are genuinely excited about your brand
• Why a mid-sized influencer actually has more time to interact with consumers
• How engagement brings higher ROI in the long term
• Why it’s essential to compensate your influencers properly

Quotes From This Episode

“You have to have a very consistent, clear, concise message.” —@KristenWords
“Finding those perfect niches and topics that align with your brand and your brand’s values, that’s marketing gold right now.”  —@KristenWords
“What I like about influencers over traditional marketing tactics is that you’re not just reaching out to everybody and hoping that ten of the people that you are targeting see it. With influencers, they specialize in a topic. Their audience follows them for something very specific.” —@KristenWords

“If you think about it, an influencer with that mid-level reach has more time to activate and engage with their following than the person with the million people following. They don’t have time to answer everybody’s questions or add that little touch of personalization that we all seem to like.” —@KristenWords

“I think that disconnect with the brands and influencers, and the brands not really thinking through what fair compensation to the influencers would be, is a big mistake.” —@KristenWords
“Working with people that are going to give an authentic and exciting message, a blog post, or piece of visual content that goes back to your brand is very important.” —@KristenWords
“I think one of the most important things to keep in mind, if people are trying to be an influencer themselves, is to engage with every single person who engages with them.” —@KristenWords

Resources

• In the News: Here’s What Your Instagram Feed Says About Your Mental Health
• Kristen Matthews on Twitter: @KristenWords
• Group High
• PrAna
• Donkey Kong
• Thuzio
• Lee Oden
• Jay Baer

Would You Rather

Would you rather live in “The Walking Dead” universe or the “Jurassic Park” universe and as awesome as they both sound, remember, you’ll probably end up dead in either one. But which one would you rather be in?
Definitely “Jurassic Park,” dinosaurs are not as scary as zombies.
For a year, if you had to, would you rather wear clown shoes every day or a clown wig every day?
Clown shoes. I like my hair.
Would you rather be able to change into a bird or into a fish?
I actually had this conversation last week and I absolutely want to be a bird.