Influencer Marketing Can Be An Easy Button

There isn’t a marketer alive not looking for an easy button. Our culture and societal influences make us thirsty for them. We want things here, now, fast, cheap and smart, and we don’t want to put forth any effort to get it.

Social Media Marketing seems like an easy button to those that know no better. “Just open a Facebook page!” “Just get on Twitter!” “It’s Free!” and other assurances have driven many of today’s marketers to think Social Media Marketing is an easy button for their success.

But it’s not. However, one facet of social marketing can get close.

When you collect around you a community of enthusiasts, loyalists or fans and can measure both their reach and true impact for your brand, you have a conduit to here, now, fast, cheap and smart, all with little effort. Because when you do, you can see exactly who it is that motivates the most people to act on your brand’s calls to action.

Influencer marketing tools (Klout, Kred and more) are supposed to help you identify who influences the most people around your brand. What they actually do is distract you with silly numbers and show you the alleged reach of your marketing message. In reality, a fraction of what you think is your reach is actually realized.

My tweets, for instance, certainly don’t reach 80,000 eyeballs. Yet the influencer tools will tell you they do, and that I, Jason Falls, am very important. While I’m flattered these tools think of me in that light, what they should tell you is where to find your easy button.

It’s not enough to know who your influencers are. What you need is which ones actually have an impact when carrying your message forward?

Jason Falls may actually reach 2,500 digital marketers with each Tweet and 10% of those may take action on said messaging. But if Arik Hanson actually reaches 750 digital marketers and 95% of them take action, who is your true influencer?

If you’d like to get as close to an easy button to distribute your message in the social space, ask these questions of your influencer toolset vendors:

1. Do you measure what actions are taken by the influencer as a result of our content?
2. Can you rank our influencers by multiple data points?
3. Can you tell me, in addition to how many people are reached by a given influencer, what the quality of his or her following is?

If they can make this data available, you can see a modest blueprint for an easy button. Brand has a message to send. Based on timing and resources, look at your prioritized list of influencers and pick the number you have time to contact. The bigger the impact of those influencers, the easier your button gets.