Appinions: The science of influence marketing

If an influencer doesn’t tweet, are they still influential? Perhaps the better question would be: If we benchmark influence based only on social media profiling, then who might be missing from the influence equation? By most personal influence standards, the answer would largely leave most offline influencers in the dark.  As such, this is where [...]

Event though influence seems to be on one of the burners for most brands and agencies, some are still tangling with the question, do I need influence to be part of my overall strategy? The easy answer is a simple “yes”, everyone can benefit from connecting with the influencers who matter to you. Now this [...]

Much of this blog is about how brands need to empower themselves by properly utilizing digital influence. Every now and then, we also try to deliver ways for the average user to become influential. There are dozens of different tactics a person can employ to become more influential, but there is one that is time [...]

With anything to do with the web world, especially aspects that have grown in popularity, everyone always asks the question “when will the bubble burst?”. We’ve all been burned before, and the web is very much an easy come and easy go kind of environment. This question has been posed about digital influence, since it [...]

One of the most glaring issues with the entire web world revolves around the needed return on investment. This has been the case for a long time, but the truth is there is a substantial return on investment, but it is not as direct as other ventures. You have to view brand building online as [...]

It is fair to say (and has been said several times) that social media is the moneyball of the marketing and communications world. What this means in its most basic form, is that you can achieve without the budgets of the big boys. This might be hard to swallow but it is reality. Since social [...]

All industries can use influence, but right now there is one that really needs the proverbial shot in the arm. The Airline industry in North America has been in a decade long public relationships tailspin. If you scan through the forums, the level of negative conversations spewing from users is impressive to say the least. [...]

Too many brands are looking at influence in a bit of a backwards manner. Social media is fairly wild and unpredictable world, filled with activity and a lot of words; words that matter. The focus needs to shift to relationships when measuring the effectiveness of influence, along with the effectiveness of a brand’s overall web [...]

Time and time again this blog has touted the importance for the public relations industry to embrace influence. Well, it is time to get on the digital soapbox once again. PR agencies not only embrace influence, but they have to understand it and most importantly be able to sell it. The ultimate selling feature of [...]

As we all know consumers follow trends and patterns, and it all comes down to behavior. Brands need to understand these behaviors in order to market and communicate, and the avenue to achieve this is heavily slanted towards influence. Influence is vital to this because it truly reflects the needs of consumers. Social media is [...]