Social influencers will know where to tell a brand's message, says Klout co-founder Joe Fernandez.
Brands should seek out influential people on social media rather than try to determine the right social channel, according to the co-founder of Klout.
Klout is a Web platform that analyses a person's social media activity to measure their influence. Klout assigns a score between one and 100 and provides detail on the subjects the person is most influential in.
New social networks are constantly popping up, so it’s difficult for marketers to keep track of which channel they need to focus their energies on, Klout CEO, Joe Fernandez, said today at the Telstra Australian Digital Summit in Sydney.
In addition, people trust their friends much more than they trust a brand doing mass marketing, he said.
Rather than focus on the social platform, it is better to engage influencers and let them choose the appropriate channel for spreading word about the brand, he said. A brand message told by these influencers will carry more authenticity and reach more people, he said.
"Let them tell the story, because they'll know where to tell it," Fernandez said.
He cautioned this method requires a brand to give up control of their brand message and trust consumers to tell it effectively.
"They're going to tell it in ways that you may not always be comfortable with, but it's going to have the impact you just can't have," he claimed.
While Klout has made its name on the influence score assigned to each person online, Fernandez said he's annoyed by people who rely on the score alone and don't bring in any context.
"The crowd score has been our best asset and our worst enemy," he said.
"It betrays the value of everything we're doing below the surface -- understanding the topics, understanding where somebody's influential, understanding who they engage with [and] the methods they communicate through."
"When I see people try to oversimplify in terms of making decisions without pulling as much context together as possible, I think it leads to bad outcomes."
Pictured: Klout CEO, Joe Fernandez
Adam Bender covers digital marketing and emerging technology for CMO and is the author of dystopian sci-fi novels We, The Watched and Divided We Fall. Follow him on Twitter: @WatchAdam
Follow CMO on Twitter: @CMOAustralia, take part in the CMO Australia conversation on LinkedIn: CMO Australia, join us on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/CMOAustralia, or check us out on Google+: google.com/+CmoAu
Our latest CMO 2022 readiness episode on the great resignation and staff motivation and leadership is now live!
Creating meaningful brands should be a holistic and considered process. However, all too frequently it’s one that is disparate and reactive, where one objective is prioritized at the expense of all others. So, what are the key pieces to the ‘good’ brand puzzle?
Companies encounter a variety of challenges when it comes to marketing overseas. Marketing departments often don’t know much about the business and cultural context of the international audiences they are trying to reach. Sometimes they are also unsure about what kind of marketing they should be doing.
Using data is a hot topic right now. Leaders are realising data can no longer just be the responsibility of dedicated analysts or staff with ‘data’ in their title or role description.
Anyone can become a victim of the sophisticated schemes set up by these scam websites. It's not about being smart; I don't consider mysel...
Mathieu Lecompte
ACCC takes Meta to court over scam cryptocurrency advertising
Nice blog!Blog is really informative , valuable.keep updating us with such amazing blogs.influencer agency in Melbourne
Rajat Kumar
Why flipping Status Quo Bias is the key to B2B marketing success
good this information are very helpful for millions of peoples customer loyalty Consultant is an important part of every business.
Tom Devid
Report: 4 ways to generate customer loyalty
Great post, thanks for sharing such a informative content.
CodeWare Limited
APAC software company brings on first VP of growth
This article highlights Gartner’s latest digital experience platforms report and how they are influencing content operations ecosystems. ...
vikram Roy
Gartner 2022 Digital Experience Platforms reveals leading vendor players