In The Headlights : May 8, 2019 Issue - Trust Insights Marketing Analytics Consulting

Influencers are not prepared.

Influence marketers are not prepared.

In last week’s newsletter, we talked about the upcoming changes in social media, as more conversations and connections move to, as Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg calls it, private social media. From groups to direct messaging, social media is changing from town hall to conversations in living rooms – and marketers for the most part aren’t invited.

No group will be impacted more than the influencer marketing crowd. Why? Influencer marketing as it is today is based on popularity in the commons, on big, public audiences. But as the public moves to private conversations, influencers will not necessarily be able to reach or impact nearly as many people if no one’s paying attention in the commons.

The future of influencer marketing is easy to see if you think along the lines of how social media will be changing. Influencers who are ahead of the curve are already curating their audiences in private conversations, from Facebook groups to Slack channels (have you joined our Analytics for Marketers Slack?) to email lists and SMS messaging lists. Brands would do well to follow suit – build communities and conversations in places you own or at least control.

What should you be doing right now to prepare for this future?

Dust off that email newsletter and make it valuable.
Build private communities and invite your existing influencers to be ambassadors and curators.
Encourage your audiences in public to join you in private by offering tremendous value in private.
Build a robust analytics tracking structure to measure your awareness within individual private influence communities.

The time to plan and pivot for a private social media world is now. Get ready, get ahead of the changes, and succeed while your competitors wonder why they’re spending tons of money on old-style influence marketing and seeing no ROI.

For a more in-depth discussion of this topic, listen to this week’s Trust Insights podcast episode.

In this week’s Bright Idea, we’re highlighting our talk at this year’s Social Media Marketing World 2019 on attribution analysis. In it, you’ll learn the 5 different styles of attribution analysis and which is the best fit for your company. Watch the video now!

Watch Attribution Analysis for Social Media Marketers!

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Upcoming Events

Where can you find us in person?

InfoShare, May 2019, Gdansk, Poland
NEDMA, May 2019, Boston
MAICON, July 2019, Cleveland
Content Marketing World, September 2019, Cleveland
INBOUND, September 2019, Boston
MarketingProfs B2B Forum, October 2019, Washington DC

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