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Autumn is finally here and the year of Influencer Marketing has been one of massive industry growth and success. While the major social media networks continue to crowd into each others’ space, they are also finding new ways to build the base of influential creators on their platforms.
Deeper understanding of the value of influencer content and better tracking of social media endorsements also continues to help brands realize the value of this effective strategy, especially in relation to outdated and fuzzy mass media buys. Marketers are also increasingly seeing how niche targeting through influencers can help them make an impact for their various customer segments. When done at scale with creators that are true brand advocates and partners, influencer marketing is having a major impact for businesses that make a commitment to the strategy.
So , as you dig into that coat closet for cooler temperature and start thinking about how to expand your budget for influencer content in 2016, here is our curated ION roundup of the five stories you need to add to your reading list ahead of this first weekend of the fall.
Content Marketing World 2016 Talks Influencers
ION’s Take: The crowds in every Influencer Marketing session at Content Marketing World 2016 earlier this month made it clear: Interest in influencer content is high among content marketers who know the transformative power of providing value before your sales pitch. Packed audiences were in place to hear about the success of Dell, Microsoft and other enterprise companies that touted their influencer programs. This quick roundup of the key sessions at CMW shows how the content marketing industry is realizing the value of powering up their efforts with influencer collaboration.
Cleveland is alive with the biggest names in Content Marketing this week. The annual Content Marketing World show, hosted by the Content Marketing Institute, has drawn over 3,500 marketers to the Midwest to discuss best practices for marketing in a world of ad-blockers, fragmented audiences, and too much content in general.
Brands Tapping Multicultural Influencers
ION’s Take: One of the great powers of influencer marketing is the way it can help brands target niche audiences. The increasing diversity of the US alone means marketers need to find ways to broaden their message and ensure it gets to their customers wherever they are. Business 2 Community briefly explores how one influencer is helping the fashion industry make their targeting more inclusive, opening the door to sales from a previously untapped market.
Last week, Digiday published a post about how brands have started tapping into multicultural influencers to reach this niche demographic. This all surfaced when L’Oreal tapped Muslim YouTuber, Amena Kin, for a True Match foundation video (check it out below): We’re happy to say, this is only just the start.
YouTube Community Helps Creators Engage With Subscribers
ION’s Take: The rumored build-out of YouTube as a social platform was true. While Community is only live with on some key influencer channels, adding non-video updates marks a major development toward YouTube becoming a full-blown social media network.
YouTube Community is here and it builds out the video-sharing platform in the way Venture Beat reported last month. The new tab helps creators share non-video content with their subscribers right on their channel page. The new Community tab was developed in collaboration with and from feedback provided by many of YouTube’s top influencers.
Hank Green’s Internet Creators Guild (ICG) Launches New Members-Only Web Destination
ION’s Take: While YouTube, Twitter, Tumblr and more seek to help creators, some of their own are also getting together to help their community. The Internet Creators Guild has now launched their own site to help share ideas, deal with industry concerns and understand the best practices for working with brands.
The Internet Creators Guild (ICG) – a nonprofit launched by prominent YouTube star Hank Green and longtime VidCon executive Laura Chernikoff last June to champion the digital creator community, has just unveiled a brand new website.
Facebook inflated video ad metrics for last two years
ION’s Take: Finally, a cautionary story from Marketing Dive about working with social media buying. Facebook’s claims to have conquered social video looks to have been inflated, according to an independent investigation. This speaks to the value of actual social media endorsements such as likes, comments and shares versus passive views that may only represent a very short dwell time while being scrolled past on a mobile device. These are the kind of reports that inform the Ayzenberg Earned Media Value Index, which monitors the value of social media actions and endorsements and was recently updated for Q3 2016. Check it out on the Ayzenberg website.
After Facebook told advertisers several weeks ago it has been overlooking video views of less than three seconds in its measurement of time spent for the past two years, several agencies began investigating further, according to a report in The Wall Street Journal.