Transcript: Lesson Four

Extending Your Social Reach

Video 1: Taking Your Social Content Strategy to the Next Level

As a brand, there is a lot you can do to get your message into the social media atmosphere. But if
you really want to amp up your overall reach, you need to get your message into the hands of
others — both influencers and the users themselves — to proliferate the content. In fact, according
to Edelman, 63 percent of consumers trust influencers’ opinions of products “much more” than
what brands say about themselves, and 58 percent of people have bought a new product in the
past six months because of an influencer’s recommendation.

The fashion and beauty markets were some of the first to really embrace the idea of putting their
products in the hands of influencers, both celebrities and real people, in order to promote their
products. One famous example is Burberry who, back in 2009, decided to run a campaign that
invited their customers to showcase their iconic trench coat. Their audience was delighted to help,
and the photos started to pour in. They’ve continued to use this strategy throughout the years and
now Burberry is considered one of the top luxury brands on social media. The company’s
Facebook page now boasts over 17.4M likes. Companies rushed to follow their example, which
helped push many fashion bloggers and Instagrammers to fame as influencers--individuals who
talk about the products they love (and because of their influence, are now paid to promote).

That sounds like a good reason to let others do the talking for you, doesn’t it?

Additionally, with the added challenges of General Data Protection Regulations (GDPR) on privacy,
and changes in platform algorithms that begin to limit brand exposure, it’s increasingly hard to
reach your audience. If brands aren’t trusted (and more than 30 percent of all internet users
employ ad blockers) it will be even more important to rely on the voices of others to be heard.

Jacqueline Babb, Associate Professor and Chair of Marketing, Aurora University

“Groups and communities are becoming a more relevant part of the social media experience, and
so brands should be looking for influencers within those groups and communities and encouraging
them to create user-generated content that can be shared in those groups and communities in an
authentic way.”

Influencer marketing and user generated content (often called UGC) can help:

● Build consumer trust and loyalty

● Extend your brand reach into audiences that may not follow you
● Provide social proof and amp up your credibility
● Extend your budget
● Put you directly in touch with your audience
● Boost SEO and
● Enable you to get past ad blockers because the content doesn’t come across the
same way as a typical ad
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Extending Your Social Reach

By working with influencers and letting your audience help you market through content that they
are generating you’ll be able to greatly extend your reach and build brand awareness.

Video 2: The Varying Shades of Influencer Marketing

Let’s talk about how you can work with influencers.

Did you know that just 3% of people generate 90% of the impact online? Getting to know some of
those three percent and finding ways to work with them is a valuable strategy for businesses
looking to expand their reach on social media.

There are many possibilities when it comes to working with people who are influencers. Let’s break
that down so you understand the variety of options. But before we do that, I want you to keep one
thing in mind—working with an influencer is not about you.

Let me repeat that: Working with an influencer is not about you.

It’s worth repeating because to work best with an influencer, you need to keep that in mind. When
you choose to work with an influencer, you want it to be a mutually beneficial relationship. What
are they getting out of it? What are their goals in wanting to work with you?

Now let’s discuss the various types of influencers and go over the choices you have framed
through that new lens. What will each influencer be hoping to gain?

First of all, there are celebrity influencers. Celebrity influencers are people you know from the
entertainment world of sports, film, television, music and more. But working with the likes of Drew
Barrymore or Cristiano Ronaldo is going to cost you a pretty penny. There will be agencies,
lengthy contracts, and strict rules about how you use their content and what they will do when
working with you. Sometimes celebrities are bookable by influencer networks, but for high-end
influencers, you’ll likely be working with their talent agency or their agent directly. Influencers are
interested in money but also supporting brands and causes they can get behind and endorse in a
way that makes sense for their brand.

Industry influencers are people who might have celebrity status within a specific industry, for
example, Elon Musk in the tech world, PR pro Brian Solis, marketer Mari Smith, fashion icon Chiara
Ferragni, The Points Guy Brian Kelly, or Whole 30 diet founder Melissa Hartwig. Industry
influencers tend to have high topical relevance and are extremely influential in their specific
categories. You can generally reach industry influencers through the gatekeepers within their own
companies or sometimes even directly. These individuals may be interested in money, but they are
also looking for ways to build their own influence and to provide value to their audience.
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Extending Your Social Reach

Journalists and media personalities are different than other types of influencers. Working with
these individuals is a public relations play. Getting your favorite Wall Street Journal reporter to
write about your product or company is not as easy as just calling them up and telling them how
awesome your product is. You will likely need to hire someone who is great at public relations and
comes with relationships that they can draw upon. Someone who understands the complexity of
pitching the media and managing reputation. And even then, you’ll need to provide your PR
person with compelling, interesting stories that will interest the audience of the media you’d like to
target. Media outlets want stories with real value, and better yet, exclusive information that will
drive traffic (and therefore ad impressions) to their website or their publications.

Content creators come in two camps. Some content creators develop highly consumable content
such as this TikTok video by illusion whiz Zach King. There are also content creators who are
behind the scenes creating content brands can leverage, like Ross Symons who creates amazing
origami on Instagram @White_OnRice. These individuals are looking to boost their paychecks,
gain visibility for their work (to lead to bigger opportunities) while providing value for their
audience. You can often reach these individuals directly or through influencer networks. To find
emerging influencers, start monitoring the channels and see who people are talking about, and
which creators seem to be coming up in the ranks. Working with an emerging content creator can
be economical and beneficial on a variety of levels.

Next are micro-influencers. Micro-influencers are everyday people with large and passionate
audiences. They share and talk about specific topics with enthusiasm and they may offer exclusive
events, contests, and content to build their reach through word-of-mouth. These micro-influencers
are often free or inexpensive to work with or will accept a gift card in exchange for their
participation.

Local influencers are individuals that are regionally influential. If you are a small business with a
local audience, these are the people you might want to work with, whether it’s an influential
restaurateur, a local sports or news figure, or a local band or entertainer. There may or may not be
fees involved, depending on the nature of what you might be asking them to do.

We’ve gone over the types of influencers and I’ve talked a little bit about the fact that you might
have to dig into your pockets a bit to work with some of these people. But how much do
influencers really cost to work with?

The short answer is, the cost of working with influencers varies. But in the majority of cases, it’s
likely not for free.

Digiday outlines several different ways that influencers are paid, including:

● Commission: Akin to affiliate models, influencers get a cut every time a promo code is
used to purchase whatever they’re selling.
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Extending Your Social Reach

● Upfront fee: Reserved for more top-tier influencers, fees are paid upfront, followed by a
rolling commission-based model.
● Gift card: Influencers — particularly smaller ones — will render services for a brand gift
card.
● Per click: Used particularly by YouTube influencers, this compensates influencers every
time people click on product links in their bios or in videos.
● Cost per engagement: Brands can measure engagement metrics, then apply them as an
attribute against different platforms so influencers get paid per engagement (like or
comment) they receive.
● And invitations: Influencers receive party invites for exclusive events where it’s normally
difficult to get in. In exchange, they cover the event.

Digiday also suggests that fees can range anywhere from $1,000 per 100,000 followers on
Facebook or Instagram to a flat fee per photo of up to $200,000 for celebrity influencers.
Generally, appearance fees start at about $30,000, and if you arrange for a commission as part of
the contract, they are usually 25 percent of the sale. Of course, you’ll need to adjust monetary
amounts if you are in other countries. So, you have a lot of options, which is good news. One last
thing to keep in mind, however, is that you can--and should--also ask your own customer base and
ask them to speak on your behalf, or to help you create content. Their voice will carry more weight
and even better, it develops further affinity with your customers, which means they will be even
more loyal to your brand.

Video 3: How to Work With Influencers

So you’ve decided you want to add an influencer component to your social media strategy. How do
you decide who to work with, and how do you get started?

Let’s start by talking about how you determine who is influential. You want to work with someone
who can directly impact the opinions and behavior of an audience that will potentially buy your
product or service.

Influencer marketing company Mavrck suggests that three factors determine how easily influencers
can impact behavior:

● Reach: The ability to deliver content to a target audience

● Relevance: The strength of connection to a brand or topic
● Resonance: The ability to drive a desired behavior from an audience

Every influencer has some measure of these three factors, but you need to review each area to
understand how they may be a good fit for your campaign goals. Is their audience relevant to
yours? Does the influencer fit your brand tone and voice? Is their reach into an appropriate target
audience deep enough? Can they evoke action?
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Extending Your Social Reach

Then you need to turn the lens back on yourself. Will the influencer find value in the project you
want them to take on? What is that value? Is it money, greater visibility, free product or exclusive
access to a person or an event? You need to be able to answer those questions as well--the best
brand–influencer relationships bring balance to the equation.

Samarah Daher, VP Media Operations at Refinery29

“When working with influencers, it's important to do your research beforehand, making sure you
find an influencer who is on-brand to your brand. And then, I would say once you find the right
influencer, really trust them because they probably are more familiar with the audience you're trying
to attract and the platform that they're most known on than you are. And so, use their learnings to
help you build a better strategy.”

Let’s talk about how these influencers can work with your brand. There are a multitude of
possibilities for influencer campaigns. Here are some ideas:

○ Influencers sharing brand content you’ve created

○ Influencers sharing brand content that they have created
○ Sponsored posts that feature the influencer
○ Contests or competitions
○ Events with face-to-face contact with the influencer
○ Channel takeovers - let them run your Instagram for a day
○ Live streaming events
○ Road trips with influencers - going city to city so fans can meet them
○ Guest posts

So how do you do it? Here are a few tips:

● First, begin by building a relationship in social media. Follow the influencer, engage in
casual conversation, share their content, and ask them questions. @mention them where it
makes sense. Show that you appreciate and are interested in the work they do. This type of
engagement is easier with non-celebrity influencers. Just be careful not to go overboard or
you’ll be seen as spammy, or akin to stalking them.

● Find ways to make it a win-win for the influencer. Your campaign should also help them
build authority and further their own content or their reach. There are some simple ways that
you can do this:
○ Ask to interview them, and include their commentary or quotes.
○ Ask for advice you can share with your audience.
○ Host an AMA (Ask Me Anything) webinar.
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Extending Your Social Reach

○ Get a testimonial from the influencer.

● Trust the influencer. They got there by doing something right--when you let them have
creative license they will really shine. Don’t assume the script you give them is what the
influencer wants to say or what their audience wants to hear. Giving the influencer
guidelines and brand details is certainly acceptable, but trust them to know what their
audience wants. Approach the relationship with an openness to collaboration and be ready
to make a few compromises.

● If you don’t know where to start, there are a variety of influencer networks you can work with
such as some of the following on this slide.

One last thing to keep in mind when working with influencers--be aware of laws and guidelines in
your region. This is important when it comes to providing transparency in the relationship you have
with the influencer. For example, in the US, there are Federal Trade Commission (FTC) guidelines
that must be adhered to or your brand may face fines.

There you have it, everything you need to know about working with social media influencers.

Video 4: What is User Generated Content and Why Does it Matter?

Let's face it, most brands don't have the resources or expertise to compete with larger, more
established companies with bigger marketing budgets. So how can you create high quality
content at scale? Well, one great way to get content is to crowdsource. That’s right, get your
customers and fans involved! Let’s discuss how brands can work with their audience to create
value with their content. We call that user-generated content, or UGC for short.

What will propel you forward is content that we call “earned,” or simply put, media exposure
earned by your brand through word-of-mouth.” Earned media" is the type of media or exposure
your brand has earned by doing something positive or negative. Earned media comes in various
forms, including reviews and feedback, recommendations, press coverage and articles, amongst
others. The reason earned media works so well to build relationships is because it places users into
your media channel, turning attention away from your brand and onto your audience. The most
important type of earned media is user-generated content, or simply content that your fans,
customers and followers are creating about your brand. In fact, according to marketing company
YotPo, 76% of consumers say content from past buyers – such as reviews and photos – influence
their purchase decision.

And, the best thing about user-generated content? It’s free.

The pinnacle of earned media is user generated content. Why? Because:

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Extending Your Social Reach

● UGC helps brands understand their target audience.

● UGC improves site engagement and time spent on the website.
● UGC increases customer satisfaction through conversations.
● UGC provides means for other users to connect, which then builds a stronger community.
● UGC improves the brand's search engine ranking and online visibility.
● UGC is inherently peer-reviewed, making it more trustworthy.

More importantly, user-generated content creates a competitive advantage for brands that is
inherently difficult to replicate because communities can't just be copied.

It sounds great, right? But before you go ahead and ask people to help you create content, you
should be aware of some of the challenges that working with UGC can bring:

1. No Brand Control: Since UGC comes directly from users, the content creation is out of your
control. This opens up areas for concern with trolling, negative comments and various legal
compliance issues, just to mention a few. Users may generate content that is off-brand or
harmful. You are taking a chance when you open up your brand in this manner.

2. Content Moderation is a Must: You need a social manager to help curate and moderate
the content, engaging and guiding the community and rewarding those who really go
above and beyond. If the content is being posted in a channel you own, the moderator will
need to be able to manage negative and abusive content. If the negativity is on unowned
channels, then you may need to involve PR from a crisis perspective to manage the
conversation before it gets out of hand.

3. No Legal Ownership: This is a tough one for some brands to swallow. If you aren’t creating
the content, then you don’t own it. That means you’ll require consent from the user before
their content is reused or re-shared. At minimum, provide acknowledgement that the
content does not belong to you and source the original creator of the content.

But don’t let those three points scare you! There is tremendous advantage to tapping into the
power of the crowd.

For example, let’s look at HubSpot’s Culture Team: Using the hashtag #HubSpotLife, HubSpot
sources photos from employees all over the globe showcasing how much we love working at the
company. This does a few things -- it promotes our culture, it builds affinity with potential
customers and with partners, it drives reputation and it helps our recruiting efforts. And it also
helps us feel even more cohesive as a team because we can directly relate to these photos.
Sharing employee photos is an easy way for B2B companies to jump on the UGC bandwagon.

Bruno Cardinali, Head of Marketing North America at Popeyes Louisiana Kitchen

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Extending Your Social Reach

“At Popeye's we leverage a lot of UGC into our social channels and not only social channels, but
also on TV commercials. The reason why we do it that, the reason why UGC is so important for us is
because Popeye's is a brand that it's loved by few. So few, not everyone have ever tried Popeye's,
but those who have tried Popeye's absolutely love the brand and absolutely love the products that
we sell. , to celebrate that fandom, to celebrate that love and really share it with everyone else. So
that's why I think UGC for us specifically makes a ton of sense.”

Wayfair invites their customers to share their latest purchases and decoration ideas on the hashtag
#WayfairAtHome. Not only are their customers doing the talking for them, but they are part of a
community of other people who love Wayfair’s furniture and home solutions, building up affinity
and word-of-mouth.

User-Generated Content will only continue to become more and more important as platform
algorithms change, and organic reach is harder for brands to achieve. By giving your employees,
customers, partners, and fans license and opportunities to talk about your brand, you are
propelling yourself forward in a more authentic, holistic and yes, inbound-y way.

Video 5: Encouraging User-Generated Content Among Your Audience

So you love the idea of including User Generated Content in your social media strategy, but how
do you go about getting fans and followers to create content for you?

First of all, you want to shift your mindset when it comes to how you think about your audience.
Don’t just push content at your audience and hope they respond. Engage with them directly
instead. Make them want to be part of the action, part of the team or part of the community.

Start with social listening. Find out what makes your audience tick, what grabs their attention, and
most importantly, what they want. You need to understand your audience to be able to truly get
them excited to participate in your call for content. You want to understand who is sharing, what
they are sharing, where they are sharing, when, and why are they tagging your brand or your
products.

Next, search for conversations by location and hashtag to see how your audience is already talking
about you. Boost them by resharing and highlighting their delight to your broader audience.

Create one or two branded hashtags. Branded hashtags are connected to your brand or
product in some way but are really about your customers. Share these hashtags in prominent
places and include them in your campaigns. Add your hashtags to your marketing materials. Ask
influencers to develop content using one of these hashtags. And most importantly, ask people to
share photos and anecdotes from events on a hashtag.
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Extending Your Social Reach

One fun thing that you can do to encourage user-generated content is to randomly reward your
followers who are creating great content. They’ll be delighted and more inclined to create
additional content, plus when others see there is the possibility for reward they will feel
incentivized to join in the fun.

Don’t forget to ask your employees to create content or to regularly share content on your
branded hashtag. Your employees are your most loyal fans and they can be a fantastic extension
of your brand.

You can also run contests asking individuals to create or do something. For example, a few years
ago, Starbucks ran what they called a “White Cup Contest.” Customers across the country were
asked to sketch on their Starbucks cups and submit pictures as entries. The winning entry would be
the template for a new limited edition Starbucks cup. Nearly 4,000 customers submitted entries in
a three week span. The contest was a great way for Starbucks to earn publicity and prove that it
strongly valued customer feedback.

Here are some things to keep in mind when running a user-generated content contest:

Match the contest or the request to your audience. For example, if you ask fans to submit video
clips sharing their experiences with a particular brand or product, you need to keep in mind that
creating a video requires a certain level of technical expertise that some people are more likely to
feel comfortable with than others. Adobe, for example, may be able to ask their users to do more
technical things with their content than someone who is selling coffee.

Request and curate content that you can use in your marketing campaigns. If you are running
a contest make sure that the types of “entries,” such as pictures, video, or testimonials, that you
receive will be useful for other marketing purposes, for example, in advertising.

Make the effort required comparable with the reward being offered. If you’re giving away
thousands of dollars in value as part of your user generated content campaign, you’ll probably
want users to demonstrate a more substantial level of buy-in than if you were offering simple
coupons or discounts. If the prize you’re offering is big, making participants deliver something of
value in return guarantees you’ll wind up with content you can use in your future marketing
campaigns.

Straighten out any legal issues before running a UGC campaign. Before launching your user
generated content campaign, you’d be wise to consult legal counsel on two important issues: the
rights you’ll hold over any content submitted to your promotion, and any restrictions that govern
giveaways. First, you need to inform participants about what will happen to the content they create
following submission in clear, easy-to-understand language. But also, if your state or municipality
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Extending Your Social Reach

(or the mediums through which you run the contest) control how, when, and under what
circumstances giveaways can occur, you’ll also want to be sure your promotion is in compliance
before running afoul of the law.

Take some time to discover what excites your audience and empower them to develop content
and be part of your community. Putting the trust of your brand into the hands of your audience
may seem a bit daunting, but if they love what you offer and what your brand represents, they can
be a potentially louder voice than any marketing campaign you may employ.