Your brand has advocates that can help increase sales, improve customer service and elevate how the marketplace perceives your products and services. In our latest white paper, we highlight the most effective ways to motivate and enable your advocates to become influencers.

1. Inspiring Advocates to Influence:
How to Improve Revenue, Retention, Reputation

2. 92%
Introduction
Motivating and enabling your brand advocates to become influencers
encourages them to share positive experiences and information about
your products and services with their networks. of Consumers Trust
WORD-OF-MOUTH
Consumers, not brands, lead marketplace shifts now. They drive product
changes, demand quality, real-time customer service, and make purchasing RECOMMENDATIONS
decisions by leveraging the connections and information that technology from friends and family above
affords them. Consumers no longer depend only on marketing messages all other forms of advertising
for insight. They share, learn and actively influence each other on their
terms without the barriers of geography or time. Consumers elevate brand
54%
reputation that directly impacts retention and revenue.
Advocates tapped by brands to serve as influencers help augment sales,
marketing and customer service efforts. Even more important, consumers
trust each other more than marketing professionals. According to a
Nielsen report released in April 2012, 92% of consumers around the
world trust word-of-mouth or recommendations from family and friends,
of Moms
above all other forms of advertising – an increase of 18% since 2007. Per a LOOK AT THIRD PARTY
360PR MomSquad® report in December 2011, 54% of moms will look at BLOGS AND WEBSITES
third-party blogs and websites for insight during the purchasing process. for insight during the
purchasing process
Consider this
Your marketing strategy and execution plans need to take into account
the ever-changing consumer purchasing and customer service experience.
Learning how advocates can help supplement your efforts and influence the
diverse and growing number of consumer touch points is critical to
business success.
This paper serves as an initial “how-to” to help your company:
• Identify advocates
• Assess how, where and when an advocate has the most opportunity
to influence
• Inspire advocates to influence their networks
• Establish metrics to measure social influence and its impact to
reputation, retention and revenue
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3. Who are your advocates
and how do you find them?
A brand advocate is someone who speaks,
pleads or argues in favor of your brand. In the Know when you’re
world of social media, advocates don’t always
speak in your favor. Sometimes they express under review
concerns which help you improve — if you’re
listening. All mentions generate opportunities to Employing a tool that can proactively notify you
represent your brand in the public eye, further when your brand is reviewed lets you quickly turn a
solidify relationships with advocates negative experience in to a positive one. In addition
and possibly acquire new champions. to monitoring review sites, you should claim your
listings on these sites so customers know how to
The first step is listening for these contact you and know you are paying attention
opportunities and making the most of to them.
them. Tracking a massive sounding board like
the internet may seem overwhelming. But Popular online reviewer sites you should pay
understanding the tools available to listen and attention to include Yelp, Google Places and
proactively notify you of company mentions, Foursquare. Angie’s List (consumer paid community),
sentiment and advocates helps you save time, Open Table (restaurant), and Insider Pages (medical/
minimize risk and improve profitability. health care) are top niche sites that may also be good
to watch, depending on your industry.
Listen to the
Be hospitable and engage
talk of the town Enable your advocates to share their voice with
If your company has local stores dispersed across you on assets that you create and develop. Add
a region, nation or internationally, you will a blog to your website where you can interact
need a geography filter in your monitoring tool. with consumers through comments. Add contact
Comcast recently reported savings of over forms so they can request more information.
$1 million in customer service Create accounts on social networks like Facebook,
costs from an LinkedIn and Twitter. Encourage conversation and
outage that
occurred during
Comcast recently interaction on all of them.
last year’s World reported in a case study
Series. Geographic SAVINGS OF OVER
1 Million
filtering allowed
Comcast to $ Check which location-based applications such as
quickly isolate Foursquare, Front Flip or QR codes are available
the issue and by filtering on geography in your area that can further in-store engagement.
communicate status Consumers often share tips, comments, and
by monitoring and experiences on these applications, providing key
responding to complaints insights that help define and identify your advocates.
originating from the affected area.
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4. Understand the tools
Many monitoring tools exist and range in price from free to very expensive. Our largest clients can
generate thousands of mentions per day across all forms of media leading us to partner with industry
best practice tool providers, BurrellsLuce and Engage 121. This partnership enables Summit Marketing
to monitor, manage and report in real-time the connection between influencers and brand reputation,
retention and revenue. Your needs and budget will dictate the best tools for your business.
• Alert Tools
Tools that notify you of online mentions of your company/products/services based on keywords
you choose (company name, product name, etc.).
• Social Networking Tools
Numerous tools exist to monitor posts, tweets and status updates published on your social
networking assets.
• Social Monitoring Tools
Robust and integrated monitoring tools listen to third-party conversations on blogs, forums,
review sites and communities. Typically more expensive, these tools commonly support influencer
identification, content scheduling, local level engagement and reporting.
Low cost tools for beginners
If you’re just beginning your search for advocates, you may want to consider the following tools:
• Google Alerts – http://google.com/alerts
When Google Alerts identifies a keyword mention, it sends an email to you immediately,
daily or weekly based on your preference.
• Seesmic – http://seesmic.com:
Monitors Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn from your desktop or mobile device.
• Social Mention – http://socialmention.com:
Monitors 100+ social media properties and reports back on the keywords you set.
• Brand Monitor – http://brandmonitor.thismoment.com:
Great for tracking articles, blog posts, and tweets in near real-time. Also provides reports.
• Engag.io – http://engag.io/welcome:
Compiles information about you and your competitors including all comments
made on your various social assets to improve tracking and response efforts.
If you are in the market for a social media management tool, be prepared for an onslaught of data.
We recommend assigning a resource to analyze your data and suggest improvements accordingly.
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5. Which advocates have the most
opportunity to influence?
Followers, likes, pins, or views are not necessarily
or the most important factors in determining
a person’s influence potential. Many influential
people today were only emerging online
participants a few years ago, and new influencers A c c o r d i n g t o B i b b L a n t a n e ’s
appear on the scene every day. Brands that initially S o c i a l I m p a c t t h e o r y, t h e r e a r e
3 Factors
neglected these emerging influencers regret it now.
Once you identify advocates, the next step is to assess
how much and what kind of influence each may have.
All customers are important and should be cared for. T H AT C A N D E T E R M I N E A
How advocates are cared for and where they may
best help influence can be determined based on
PERSON’S INFLUENCE
Bibb Lantane’s Social Impact theory.
Understanding influence, purpose and potential of an advocate helps determine priority response, crisis
support and campaign outreach efforts. Only the can brand reputation can be managed best throughout
the entire customer lifecycle.
S t r e n g t h : How important Often times, we find advocates who may only participate in one niche
the influencing group is to the community. The community may be small but the following is loyal and often
individual. takes actions recommended by the advocate. The community happens to be
full of our target market. In this case, the quality of community overrides the
quantity and we create a plan to approach the advocate accordingly. These
advocates should be placed in the Strength influencer group.
I m m e d i a c y: Physical Advocates who are hyper local and use location-based applications may help drive
(and temporal) proximity of foot traffic to local destinations (physical proximity). Advocates who like to talk
the influencing group to the about shared-interest topics – and have their own blog – may influence through
individual at the time of the temporal proximity. Advocates who enable their blog readers to comment, post
influence attempt. and make it easy to share content could help elevate traffic to your site, increasing
leads and improving retention. These advocate groups align with the Immediacy
influencer group.
N u m b e r : The number of Advocates who are most active in large online conversations — and across diverse
people in the group. channels — can have substantial influence. These advocates, based on the simple
factor of total reach, typically serve in the Number influencer group. This is true
whether or not the advocate has his or her own dedicated site/blog/network profile.
Determining where each of your advocates aligns under one or more of these three factors can be done
by analyzing their social assets, behaviors and various social indicators. We take a look at analysis tools
and what indicators to consider on the next page.
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6. Social indicators to consider when
determining influence potential
• Number of readers
• Number of back-links
• Number of blogs listed on blog roll
• Number of groups linked to blog
• Alternative forms of content (ex: podcasts/video blogs)
• Post schedule & content topics
• Location
• Sharing venues (ex: Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest)
• Sentiment analysis
• Number of readers in other venues
• Access to writing for other venues
(ex: one of our blog writers also was a writer for a major online magazine)
Analytic tools
In addition to the monitoring tools mentioned earlier, analytic tools can help you obtain the social indicators
noted. The analytic tools highlighted below are free and provide a variety of information like:
• Number of website viewers
• Viewer demographics
• Recommendation of similar sites that may introduce you to previously unknown advocates
• Alexa & Quantcast – http://alexa.com & http://quantcast.com:
These simple and free tools require only a URL to use. Sites lacking a significant following may not
have data available through these resources, but one of these sites will typically provide at least basic
information. Visitor demographics, back-links, and recommended similar sites are just some of the social
indicators you will find.
Determine an influencer’s grade
• Twitter Grader – http://twitter.grader.com:
This Hubspot-hosted tool is easy to use. Twitter Grader provides good insight as to what factors go into
the grade and tips on how to improve it. In addition to an influence score, Twitter Grader provides
rankings at the city, state and national level.
• Klout – http://klout.com:
Due to its ever-changing algorithms, Klout is most effective when it is one of many tools used to
determine influence. It also can provide indication of other topics the advocate may be interested in, thus
serving up potential partnership and campaign ideation possibilities.
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7. Inspire advocates to
influence their networks
Be where they are
In addition to your own social and web assets, your brand needs to incorporate outreach tactics.
Find the forums, blogs and conversations where people are talking about your brand. Listen to what they are
saying and don’t be afraid to jump in when you can add value to the conversation. Often, companies open
accounts on a variety of social networks and grow frustrated when no one follows or participates. More than
likely no one knows the brand exists on those platforms yet. Getting out of your own backyard and visiting
where others live and converse is critical to social business success.
Have a purpose
Creating content always starts with establishing purpose. Is your purpose to inform, engage, inspire or move
a person to action? Content can actually achieve multiple objectives at a time, but its primary purpose must be
established before it should be created. In addition to content purpose, you should consider three
key factors:
• Distribution channels – Determine the where, when, what, why and how. Not every channel works for
every type of content. Know your audience prior to distribution and share content that is helpful, is wanted
and/or addresses an issue. Think integration: Leverage traditional and online channels to work together
and expand awareness. Use an editorial calendar for all content to make sure channels are receiving an
appropriate amount of attention and delivering messages meaningful to your audiences.
• Human senses – Technology accelerates change.
It does not, however, change the essence of what
provokes organic engagement and response.
To tap into that human dimension, create content
that appeals to the different human senses – sight,
sound, touch, smell and taste. Create word pictures.
Describe in detail. Provoke memories deeply rooted
in the basic senses. You will grab attention faster
and keep it longer. Human
Senses
• Tone – Does your content need to be serious, funny,
emotional, loud, etc? The tone sets the stage for
copy and art and can make or break the user experience.
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8. Technical agility
40%
Some see technology as a barrier, when in fact it is the solution. M o r e t h a n
Partner with your IT teams. Stay up to date on the latest tech solutions
and learn from your peers. Understand the possibilities and use technology
to your benefit. Technology can help lower costs and accelerate revenues,
if used effectively.
Do you enable the actions you want people to take? You may need to take
a step back and strengthen your overall foundation before moving forward
of consumers
with social outreach. Maybe your website needs to be redesigned. Perhaps WATCH TV WHILE
you need to to add a forum, a blog, a donation button or sharing icons ALSO USING A
throughout the site.
COMPUTER, iPAD
What objectives do you expect your website to help you achieve? Will or MOBILE PHONE
users find your site informative and intuitive? Hubspot’s Marketing
Grader (http://marketing.grader.com) is a free assessment tool that can
People may experience
provide you insight to website and social performance. your brand on a 5”
screen in the morning
5 am Your
Message when they wake up ...
Make it easy A 24”
screen
Your
Advocates will influence their networks but you must enable them Message when they
get to
to do so. If you want your advocates to share something, make sure 9 am work ...
it is shareable. If you want them to solicit action, make sure it’s easily
actionable. If you want them to tell the world how awesome you are,
then be awesome and deliver what you promise. A 9.5” screen
Your in the
Message
coffee shop ...
12 pm
Make it consumable from anywhere A 60”
screen
Consumers are becoming electronic device junkies. More than 40% Your on TV
Message in the
of consumers watch TV while also using a computer, iPad or mobile 7 pm evening ...
phone. People may experience your brand on a 5” screen in the morning
when they wake up, a 24” screen when they get to work, a 9.5” screen
in the coffee shop, a 60” screen on TV in the evening and then back to And then back to
the 5” screen before they go to bed. Creating visually diverse content the 5” screen before
that grabs your advocate’s attention – regardless of their device, is more 10 pm Your
Message
they go to bed.
important than ever.
In addition, smart phone growth is exploding. Consumers activated 1.5 Mold your message so it’s
million smart phone devices from December 1, 2011 to December 24, easy to consume wherever,
2011, while 6.5 million devices were activated on Christmas Day. This
whenever and however your
growth pattern is sure to impact content consumption and utilization.
Optimizing all of your digital assets for mobile viewing is critical. Taking advocates want to consume it.
into account texting, mobile applications, and browser resolution further
enables influencers to share their brand experience real-time, potentially
producing faster revenues.
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9. Begin with the end in mind – what is success?
Social success – specifically measuring advocates as influencers – needs to be directly aligned with
overall business goals.
No brand is perfect, and you should set your goals realistically. What percentage of mentions should be
positive? What is your website lead conversion target? What costs can be saved if customer service issues
are handled online vs. an 800 number? What percentage of donor growth should be generated by social
media activity? Establish trending expectations, month-over-month growth projections, and overlay it
on your business goals to determine how your influencers impact reputation, retention and revenue.
Knowing your key performance indicators before you start directly impacts the social flow you
want to achieve. Understanding metrics helps determine what tools should be used to ensure you
capture and accurately report relevant information. For instance, if you want an advocate to share a
URL with their networks, then you may want to consider using a tool like Bit.ly that allows you to
track how many times the URL link was clicked and shared by others. (You can learn more about Bit.ly
at http://bit.ly)
After building a key performance indicator plan, you may realize you need Strength influencers over
Number influencers, and so on. Starting with the end in mind drives the entire social strategy and game
plan. Don’t wait until launch. By then it will be too late.
ADVOCATE INFLUENCER RESULT
EXAMPLE: Advocates are identified and inspired to share a video. Did the advocate share the video
and therefore become an influencer? Did the number of video views increase? Did those who watched
the video take the action requested/desired? Did they complete the action? Did reputation improve?
Did customer attrition decrease? Did revenues increase?
If there is a breakdown identified or trends aren’t moving in the right direction, you need to review
and adjust.
Here are the first areas to check:
• confirm your advocates are aligned to the proper target influence groups
• ensure you are empowering/inspiring your advocates with meaningful and motivational content
• be certain the best efforts of your advocates aren’t being diminished or negated by poor quality and
service issues from your brand
There is much to consider, but given the amount of data now available and the real-time nature of it,
mid-stream reviews can be conducted and adjustments can be made quickly and with confidence.
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10. Summary & additional perspective
Technology combined with change can be overwhelming and challenging to the best-laid business
plans. The risks are high but so are the payoffs if you implement a strategy that takes advantage of all
the opportunities that exist in a digital world. Identifying and connecting with your advocates, and
empowering them to share their experiences with others can be achieved through innovative solutions.
Other agencies can help you engage advocates. Summit Marketing helps you inspire these advocates to
become influencers through intelligent, effective marketing strategies, messaging, creative content and
specific digital tactics.
Summit will also fuel your strategic planning process by identifying:
• when advocates want to talk to you
• when advocates want to share with others
• your audience’s preferred communications channels
• offers and communications that drive customer interactions
These are critical in repositioning a brand/campaign, providing a message platform that identifies points of
differentiation and generating tactical communications that build a meaningful and motivational dialog.
How can you gain the full advocate advantage?
Individuals share opinions about your brand with the push of a button. You must keep your finger on the
pulse of your customer base. Identifying and courting current and future advocates strengthens your brand
and creates business driving influencers. To keep your edge or gain an advantage in the marketplace, contact
Summit Marketing today.
References
http://www.nielsen.com/us/en/insights/reports-downloads/2012/global-trust-in-advertising-and-brand-messages.html
http://practicalanalytics.wordpress.com/2012/01/19/omni-channel-retail-analytics-a-big-data-use-case/
http://files.shareholder.com/downloads/ebay/1740974805x0x553936/1062c9ec-0318-47a3-8250-bc728d25b28b/eBay_
ShoppingShowcase_Sam_V4.pdf
http://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2012/04/the-100-year-march-of-technology-in-1-graph/255573/
http://vimeo.com/5846105
http://www.360publicrelations.com/momsquad.html
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11. Doug Toomay
Director, New Client Engagement
(O) 913-562-3407
(M) 816-739-3112
Doug.Toomay@SummitMarketing.com
Lisa Qualls
VP, Interactive Services
(O) 913-562-3401
(M) 816-210-4444
Lisa.Qualls@SummitMarketing.com
Kansas City St. Louis, MO Washington, DC
8515 Bluejacket Street 3 CityPlace Drive, Suite 500 2011 Crystal City Drive, Suite 750
Lenexa, KS 66214 St. Louis, MO 63141 Arlington, VA 22202
800-843-7347 866-590-6000 571-483-2400
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