Tag Archives: influence

Bolder storytelling through actions

17th June 2011

This morning, I came across a Tweet from Mountain Khakis asking fans to share a story for a chance for free apparel. It always catches my eye how brands encourage users to take such a personal and impactful action such as sharing how a brand has impacted their lives. I was even more surprised when I saw where the link took me.

Bolder, a network built to encourage users to take action states on their homepage, “Everyone has influence. Bolder is a place where Challenges and Rewards inspire action.”

The challenges are simple, for example, that Mountain Khakis tweet doesn’t direct users to the brand after all, but a call for users to share their most memorable outdoor experience.

To complete an action, just share your story and post it to Facebook for your friends to return and Like the content. The top 100 actions, those with the most Likes, will be rewarded with $10 off their next Mountain Khakis purchase.

Encouraging action through the essence of the brand and through the power of a community – not just your friend list – allows the group mindset similar to that of Groupon and the power of social crowd sourcing to infuse. The result is a hyper-personalized community with rewards for both sides, physical rewards for the customer, deep user connections and content for the brand.

SXSW Day 3: Reaching the People that Count

14th March 2011

Today I had the opportunity to attend a panel focused on influencers and how to reach them called “Influencer Throwdown: Proving Influence Once and For All.”

At Engauge we often find that building a one size fits all campaign does not reach its full potential. However, curate a community of influencers, and we just might unlock the doors to the right audience. The difficulty is defining, building and interacting with that audience – a task that is often times easier captured in a brief than accomplished.

When searching for influencers, it’s easy to focus on Klout score, follower count or the number of retweets a person may have, but is that the best way to derive action from your community?

At the end of the day influence is meant to do one thing: drive action, not impressions. Shiny celebrities online may present a message to a large audience, but if that influencer is not a authentic advocate of your brand, what good does it do?

Panelist Krista Neher described it best when she recounted having been solicited to try a new product on behalf of a bean bag company which she had previously raved about to followers. She accepted and was able to spread an authentic and real position on the brand. Her influence not only had to do with the size of her audience, but also an audience willing to listen and react.

While tools such as Klout or numbers such as following should always be a part of your brand’s influencer strategy, don’t let it define it. Look beyond counting people that reach and for the people that count and you’re sure to find new advocates along the way.

The Perks of a High Klout Score

22nd January 2011

Klout has called itself the standard of influence for measuring individual influence across Facebook and Twitter. With 500 Million and 175 Million users respectively, the tool has certainly defined a way to navigate the chatter and overload we all face in social. However, up to this point, the biggest concern for an influence score as an individual is so what? My score is a 45 (a drop from a 51 only a month ago, but who’s counting right?), but what does in earn me?

In a sea of millions of members across networks, searching for the perfect candidate to spread your businesses’ next big thing feels like searching for a needle in a haystack.

Klout is working to change that.

Earlier this month, Klout announced Perks, a platform allowing Klout users with high scores in targeted area, demographics, etc. to be rewarded  with, you guessed it, perks. For example, the company is currently running a campaign in San Francisco along with Audi allowing selected users to take the new Audi A8 for a test drive at an upcoming event as well as a chance to win a luxury weekend getaway.

It’s pretty clear that is is win-win for both sides. Exclusivity for users, perks for being the highly socially engaged. The brand finds not only a highly defined test market, but a market inherently inclined to spread the message to peers that are ready to listen.

As outbound communication becomes more and more defined by the actions of users rather than the advertisements of brands, these platform enhancement will help to finally uncover the ever elusive ROI we were all searching for in social in 2010.