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Influencer Marketing - What it is, and Why YOU Need to be Doing it |
Influencer Marketing - What it is, and Why YOU Need to be Doing it Posted: 06 Mar 2012 01:09 PM PST Posted by Eric Enge This post was originally in YouMoz, and was promoted to the main blog because it provides great value and interest to our community. The author's views are entirely his or her own and may not reflect the views of SEOmoz, Inc. Content marketing is an increasingly hot topic these days. More and more people are starting to realize the potent role that high quality content plays in creating visibility for your brand on the Internet. Seth Godin was quotes a few years back as saying "content marketing is the only marketing left". One of the biggest reasons for this is the intense competition that exists on the web today for nearly any commercial offering. For example, you can see this if you do a search on something like intitle:"lathe operation", as shown here: Even this very niche oriented term generates over 7,000 results. Surely the end user only wants to consider a very few options. As I always like to say: "Google only needs 4 results, so how are you going to be one of the 4?" Superior content is one key component of this. But, superior content is not enough. Unless the world gets to know about it your superior content will get you nowhere. You have to have a way to get the word out. This is where "Influencer Marketing" comes into play. By definition, influencers reach a lot of people (often more than you do), and they have the ability to influence people's opinions. Influencer Marketing DefinedInfluencer Marketing is the name we give to the process of developing relationships with influential people that can lead to their assisting you in creating visibility for your product or service. This type of marketing depends on your having something great to offer your potential customers, and the audience of the influencer, and it also depends on your building a great relationship with the influencer as well. In today's social web, there are a three major ways an influencer can have a big impact on your business:
Of course, they can also Like or +1 your content as well, which has a lesser impact, but is still potentially interesting. To recap the benefits of the influencer, they often have a larger audience than yours, or at the very least, a different audience: However, the benefit is much larger than that. Let's say you had 100 followers in your Twitter account that shared a piece of content, and this results in 20,000 people seeing what they shared. This may result in 20 additional shares and 10 links. Now consider the same audience being reached by one influencer. Those 20,000 connections will be much more responsive to the shared content because of the trust they have in the opinions of the influencer, and this much result in 100 additional shares and 50 links. That's a pretty hefty advantage. Further, the search engines actively calculate author authority, so they will also place more weight on the vote of the influencer. Leveraging the InfluencerAs a fan of content marketing, chances are that you already have your own blog, and your own social media accounts. You probably already use these in tandem, and make sure that you follow similar content themes, and any time you create a new blog post you share it on your social accounts. When you do this correctly, you set yourself up for the following type of virtuous cycle: Doing this effectively is a great start. You can grow your audience over time because people who are already connected with you will share your stuff, and this does reach their audiences. However, this works much more effectively if you can goose the process in two ways:
Both of these strategies lead to the influencer acting as an amplifier for your voice. Building the RelationshipThis is not really so different than making new friends when you move to a new neighborhood. When you go to that first neighborhood party, you don't walk around asking everyone there to give you $20. You ruin your place in the neighborhood by doing that. Doesn't work in the neighborhood, and it doesn't work in building relationships anywhere else either. The process is really quite straightforward, as shown here: The major elements are:
As for interacting, the more personal the better. I built many of my relationships in the search industry by going to conferences and sitting in the front row when people I wanted to meet were speaking, and then being the first person up to speak to them, when the session was over. Face to face contact like that is awesome. The following diagram tries to illustrate which types of relationship building methods are the most personal, and therefore carry the most value: It's also important to prioritize. Which people are worth the most effort? How do you decide? You might fly to a conference to go meet some critical person face to face. Others you might simply interact with on social media accounts. Note that it certainly is possible to build meaningful relationships with people through social media only, but nothing beats face to face. Opportunities are also important. Your first opportunity to make a big impression on someone might be to respond to a blog post, a tweet, or a Facebook update. Your target may ask for help with something, as Rand did in this November 2006 blog post: How did that one turn out you ask? Somebody stepped up and took it on: Oh right, it was me. The analytics report published on August 27, 2007. Point is, jumping on opportunities like this makes a big impression, and can really accelerate the building of a relationship. What are the chances someone will share or link? Once you have developed a relationship, you still need to do the right things to get someone to share or link to your stuff. No one is going to share everything you do, because some of the stuff you do is not that good or not that relevant (don't be offended, no one is great all the time). Here is a formula I have developed for the probability of someone sharing or linking to your content: Let's look at the major elements:
As you can see the reach of influencers is long. Not only can they get you links, they can give you shares that result in other people giving you links. SummaryLearning to work the very human dynamics of people on the Internet is a critical marketing activity. This is not new. It has always been valuable to build relationships with influential people. The Internet simply gives us new mechanisms for doing that. Communication and relationship building is easier than it has ever been. You can easily get started with social media or blog conversations, and that's great. Don't overlook the power of the old fashioned way though. More personal interactions still have the biggest impact. Creating fantastic content is a must, so make that a key part of your plan. Then, supplement that by building the right relationships so you can get the world to know about all the cool stuff you are doing. One last tip, add value to the audience at each step of the way. Even when you are creating content for your own blog, people are only going to share it because it helps others. Give, give, and give, and always be helping others. People will notice, and that's a good thing. For those of you who are interested in more, drop me a line at info at stonetemple.com and I will send you our white paper on identifying influencers. Eric is active on Twitter (@stonetemple) and Google+ (+Eric Enge). Sign up for The Moz Top 10, a semimonthly mailer updating you on the top ten hottest pieces of SEO news, tips, and rad links uncovered by the Moz team. Think of it as your exclusive digest of stuff you don't have time to hunt down but want to read! |
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At the core of permission marketing is the efficiency of earning, maintaining and leveraging attention.
If you don't have to begin anew each time, you can cut the effort and spending you're putting into reaching strangers. And if the consumer can trust that you won't waste her time, she can spend more time on productive work and less time sorting offers to see what's worth looking at.
The method for accomplishing this: make promises and keep them. Make an offer and then follow through. Don't waste my time.
The advanced method: intentionally design your communications to create a habit of attention. Habits are hard to form and even harder to break, and when properly constructed, they can benefit both sides.
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Mish's Global Economic Trend Analysis |
Posted: 06 Mar 2012 10:18 PM PST A set of incredibly weak economic reports from down under have left me with in inescapable conclusion that Australia has entered recession. Australia GDP Expands "Less Than Expected" .04% in 4th Quarter The BBC reports Australia's economy expands 0.4% in the fourth-quarter Australia's economy has expanded by less than expected in the fourth quarter of 2011, as business spending dropped, sending the dollar to a six-week low.3.5% growth? What the heck are these guys smoking? 21st Monthly Decline in Construction Bloomberg reports Australian Construction Index Falls to Lowest in Four Months A gauge of Australia's construction industry fell to the lowest level in four months as commercial construction remained weak and house building declined.Tentative signs of recovery? With construction dropping 21 straight months? Really? Service Sector in Contraction Markit reports Australia Service Sector in Falls in February. Key FindingsHuge Price Squeeze Please take a good look at that chart. Wages have risen 31 months. Input prices have risen 108 consecutive months! Every other component of the PSI is in contraction. Selling prices have fallen for 3 months while new orders have plunged. Trendline Growth For another look at GDP growth in Australia, please consider The Australian economy is not growing at trend The outcome over 5 years? Trend growth at 0.72% per annum, with peak to trough and current total growth as marked on the chart. Ring, Ring Goes The Bell Indeed, it's not surprising (to a few of us anyway). Yesterday I stated Australia Retail and Housing Bloodbath Coming Up. Today I am ringing the bells of recession. Mike "Mish" Shedlock http://globaleconomicanalysis.blogspot.com Click Here To Scroll Thru My Recent Post List Mike "Mish" Shedlock is a registered investment advisor representative for SitkaPacific Capital Management. Sitka Pacific is an asset management firm whose goal is strong performance and low volatility, regardless of market direction. Visit http://www.sitkapacific.com/account_management.html to learn more about wealth management and capital preservation strategies of Sitka Pacific. |
Posted: 06 Mar 2012 11:45 AM PST I can't help laughing at the Financial Times headline story Athens threat to bond holdouts. Greece has threatened to default on any of its bondholders who do not take part in this week's €206bn debt restructuring, raising the pressure on potential holdouts.Pitiful Threat This pitiful threat demonizing evil hedge funds will prove to be as effective as a parent telling a child, "If you don't clean up your room, I will give you piece of cake". The hedge funds want a default. They are the ones covered with CDS contracts that will pay them in case of default. Those covered by CDS contracts have no incentive to agree to deals and threats to blow the entire deal sky high is exactly what most of the holdouts want to hear. Implications of a Disorderly Greek Default and Euro Exit Even more pathetic than the Greek "threat" is a "confidential" (purposely leaked) report by the Institute of International Finance which which represents about 450 banks and other private creditors to Greece. The Wall Street Journal has posted the document, Implications of a Disorderly Greek Default and Euro Exit so let's take a look at the hype. Self-Serving, Misguided Hype by IIF That "confidential" PDF is one of the biggest examples of self-serving nonsensical financial hype stories as you can find anywhere. It was put together by nannyzone supporters attempting to scare everyone about eurozone breakup costs. For starters the ECB will not be impacted by Greece regardless of what happens. The ECB would be made whole by EMU member nations if necessary. Moreover, the idea that tiny Greece will "cause" a Lehman-like cascade is farcical. The "cause" of this mess is the woefully inept treaty that created the eurozone. Greece, Spain, and Portugal are all bankrupt and all will exit the eurozone in due time and one cannot lay the blame for this on Greece. Indeed, had the fools at the EMU, IMF, and ECB allowed Greece to default two years ago, damage would have been minimized. Foolish attempts to "contain" Greece made matters far worse. That the damages will be higher now is a direct consequence of the ECB president Jaan-Claude Trichet's policy "we say no to default". At every opportunity to do the right thing (let Greece default), bureaucrats in the ECB, IMF, and EMU member countries threw more and more money at Greece in repeated attempts to prevent the inevitable. Only Realistic Solution is Eurozone Breakup Throwing still more money at Greece now will not prevent Greece, Portugal, and Spain from leaving the eurozone later. Instead, repeated attempts to stay on this road-to-ruin will do nothing but up costs later on, just as Miracle Monti's misguided LTRO programs will likewise do. For a more realistic discussion of the impacts and a recommended proper approach, please consider Report Shows Netherlands Would Benefit by Leaving Eurozone; Country by Country Aggregate Costs; Dutch Freedom Party Wants Euro Exit Referendum; Critical Juncture for Eurozone The euro and the eurozone are fundamentally flawed. Those flaws cannot be fixed by throwing more money at the problem. The only solution that really works is a breakup of the Eurozone, and the sooner the bureaucrats accept that simple fact, the better off everyone will be. Mike "Mish" Shedlock http://globaleconomicanalysis.blogspot.com Click Here To Scroll Thru My Recent Post List Mike "Mish" Shedlock is a registered investment advisor representative for SitkaPacific Capital Management. Sitka Pacific is an asset management firm whose goal is strong performance and low volatility, regardless of market direction. Visit http://www.sitkapacific.com/account_management.html to learn more about wealth management and capital preservation strategies of Sitka Pacific. |
Obama Unveils New J.P. Morgan, Wells Fargo Bailout Plan, Disguised as Mortgage Relief Posted: 06 Mar 2012 09:46 AM PST Under guise of helping homeowners, president Obama has finalized his plan to further aid banks. Please consider Obama's alleged Mortgage Relief Plan. The White House on Tuesday announced it was cutting the mortgage fees charged by the Federal Housing Administration's refinancing program in another effort to help the languishing housing market recover.Broadly Positive For Whom? Contrary to the opinions of Seiberg, this plan will not be "broadly positive" for housing and the economy any more than numerous other misguided attempts purported to do the same thing, all of which failed at their stated intent. Throwing more taxpayer money down the drain will of course be "broadly positive" for big banks that will see income rise. Indeed, much of the rally in bank shares this year has been in regards to "broadly positive" measures by the administration and the Fed purposely designed to bailout banks in contrast to stated reasons. Moreover, the plan is sure to be "broadly positive" for Obama's reelection chances, and "broadly negative" for taxpayers who will no doubt end up footing the bill, perhaps in more ways than one. Mike "Mish" Shedlock http://globaleconomicanalysis.blogspot.com Click Here To Scroll Thru My Recent Post List Mike "Mish" Shedlock is a registered investment advisor representative for SitkaPacific Capital Management. Sitka Pacific is an asset management firm whose goal is strong performance and low volatility, regardless of market direction. Visit http://www.sitkapacific.com/account_management.html to learn more about wealth management and capital preservation strategies of Sitka Pacific. |
Misty Water-Colored Memories, Dirt-Cheap Stocks, and Patient Opportunism Posted: 06 Mar 2012 02:12 AM PST Looking at forward earnings estimates, buy recommendations, and numerous explanations once again as to why "stocks are cheap" I am left wondering (to paraphrase Barbara Streisand) "Can it be that it is all so simple now? Or has time repeated every lie?" Looking back, all that's left from the housing crash is "misty water-colored memories" of opportunities to cash out at the top (or dreams of not buying in the first place). The same can be said of the Nasdaq technology bubble that peaked at 5132 in March of 2000. 12 years later, the Nasdaq has managed to crawl back to 3000. Will it be another 10 years before the Nasdaq again hits 5000? "Dirt Cheap" says Analyst Dick Bove In 2000, in 2007, and again recently, we have heard many misguided explanations as to why "stocks are cheap". Some use forward earnings estimates, others tortured rationale such as "stocks are cheap compared to bonds", and still others use historical P/E estimates as if recent history is a guide to repeatable earnings. Recently, analyst Dick Bove said Bank Stocks 'Dirt Cheap' as Image Starts to Turn The Rochdale Securities vice president of equity research has long held that big banks have been most hampered not by their balance sheets by rather by negative perceptions - from Washington, Wall Street, and individual investors.Warning: A New Who's Who of Awful Times to Invest Please compare the analysis by Bove to that presented by John Hussman in Warning: A New Who's Who of Awful Times to Invest Banking NotesBubbles Are Not Reblown To Hussman's distinctly sobering bank forecast, let me add a couple of thoughts. For starters, the last bubble is not re-blown. Consider the "4 horseman" of the internet boom: Microsoft, Intel, Dell and Cisco. Where are they now? Sure there are some new leaders like Google and Apple, but the old ideas have languished. Consider the housing bust: In spite of every trick in the book used by Congress and the Fed, housing prices make new low after new low. Consider the banking sector: In spite of every effort by the Fed to get banks to lend, banks simply are not lending. I suggest the financial sector will be dead money (at best) for years, perhaps decades, just as waiting for the return of Intel, Cisco, or Microsoft has been. Cisco Monthly click on chart for sharper image Citigroup Monthly Is there going to be another credit lending bubble? Take a look at excess reserves parked at the Fed for your answer. The same can be said for reserves piling up at the ECB. So where's that earning's growth going to come from? Mars? About That Increase in Lending Analysts went gaga (a continual state of affairs actually) over recent increases in bank lending. For example, consumer credit expanded by $19 billion in December of which $11.8 was non-revolving credit. I took a look at non-revolving credit in Consumer Credit "Demolishes Expectations" Really? No Not Really! The "Non-Bounce" in Non-Revolving Credit and noted that $8.8 billion of that is growth in federal government loans (which just happens to be where student loans are parked). Non-Revolving Loans Minus Government LoansEight Reasons Banks Aren't Lending
Are U.S. Stocks (In General) Dirt Cheap? Still think bank stocks "dirt cheap"? Heck, are stocks in general dirt cheap? Let's return to Hussman for an opinion. Last week, the estimated return/risk profile of the S&P 500 fell to the worst 2.5% of all observations in history on our measures. This is not a runaway bull market. Rather, it is a market that again stands near the highs of an extended but volatile trading range. I am convinced that the breakdown of the market from this range has been deferred only through repeated and extraordinary central bank actions.Hussman has made those kinds of arguments before and so have I. If anything, I think Hussman may be an optimist. Indeed, I believe there is a decent chance of "Negative Returns for a Decade"
Clearly I have been preaching a consistent message, and equally clearly the market has other ideas. I was in a similar situation in 2006, calling for a recession when the yield curve inverted, waiting an agonizingly long time for it to arrive. This is yet another agonizingly long time for me as it has been for Hussman who writes ... My greatest concern as an investment manager is the possibility that some number of our shareholders will grow so exasperated with remaining defensive during these periods that they capitulate and take a significant position in the market at the worst possible point.Red highlighting is mine. Here is a quote from Howard Marks at Oaktree Capital as referenced by Hussman. Howard Marks, Oaktree Capital, The Most Important Thing (2011) "You simply cannot create investment opportunities when they're not there. When prices are high, it's inescapable that prospective returns are low. That single sentence provides a great deal of guidance as to appropriate portfolio actions. Patient opportunism - waiting for bargains - is often your best strategy." I tracked that message down to chapter 13 of Marks' Google Book The Most Important Thing: "The Most Important Thing Is .... Patient Opportunism" The wait may be agonizing, but it beats the consequences of plunging in at exactly the wrong time as happened in the Nasdaq in 2000, in housing in 2005 (on arguments "get in now before it's too late), and in the stock market in 2007. History suggests there will be better opportunities around the corner for those who have the patience to wait for them. How long that wait might be is still anyone's guess. Mike "Mish" Shedlock http://globaleconomicanalysis.blogspot.com Click Here To Scroll Thru My Recent Post List Mike "Mish" Shedlock is a registered investment advisor representative for SitkaPacific Capital Management. Sitka Pacific is an asset management firm whose goal is strong performance and low volatility, regardless of market direction. Visit http://www.sitkapacific.com/account_management.html to learn more about wealth management and capital preservation strategies of Sitka Pacific. |
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