Advocacy and Influencer Marketing

With the advent of social media, ordinary people have been empowered to publish and consume large amounts of content about products, services, and brands. Their advice, opinions, or rants, amplified on social media, can either strengthen or weaken a brand. It is important therefore, to listen to these conversations, and to engage and advocate for your brand.

For example, a leading manufacturer of personal computers discovered that there were 5.5 million conversations about their brand on the internet during a 6-month period, with the majority of contributions coming from forums (57%) and Facebook (6%). Given the considerable influence of advocates on purchasing decisions, this company allocates more of its advertising budget to advocacy than any other form of advertising. The majority of the firm’s advertising budget is spent online, with advocacy receiving approximately 5 times more funding than search advertising. The company uses Sprinklr to listen, engage, and moderate. It can respond to priority conversations on the internet within an hour.

Influencer marketing is one of the ways to advocate for your brand through consumers, as discussed in Section Buzz (word-of-mouth)/ Influencer Marketing in Chapter Digital Marketing. If you use this form of marketing, consider following these rules, sourced from The Anatomy of Buzz: How to Create Word of Mouth Marketing by Emanuel Rose:

• Keep the messages simple, relevant, credible and newsworthy. Only then are they likely to spread across the internet.
• Do not make claims that you cannot support.
• Ensure that your brand ambassadors are well informed, and that they can articulate your messages with clarity.
• Listen to the buzz and glean insights from it.
• Measure the buzz, assess its impact, and apply what you learn to improve your buzz marketing efforts.