by Linda Castillo
I was excited to get my preview copy of Influencer Marketing for Dummies written by veterans in the business, the Clever Girls co-founders Kristy Sammis, Cat Lincoln and Sefania Pomponi. For those of you who don’t know about Clever Girls, it is a social media influencer agency reaching 75 million women every month. Since 2005, this agency creates spectacular content delivering stunning results. One influencer campaign that you may be most familiar with is the 2013 ‘BATKID: NOW & FOREVER’ for the Make-A-Wish Greater Bay Area chapter. The #SFBatkid phenomenon went global and you can watch their brief “comic-book video” of how the Clever Girls helped this story to go viral.
I read this book with two different lenses, as a marketing professional and a blogger. This book was informative because as a marketing professional it is important that I keep up with the best practices in the industry and as a blogger it was great to learn what brands want from influencers. In fact, reading this book at the beginning of 2016 will help shape some of the strategies that I plan to integrate for my blog.
So what exactly is influencer marketing? Influencer marketing is the art and science of engaging people who are influential only to share brand messaging with their audiences in the form of sponsored content.
This book lays out a solid road map for anyone interested in starting an influencer marketing program. Each chapter walks the reader through the different components to finding your influencers, types of influencers, establishing the program (e.g. contract, payment, etc.), metrics, and understanding the current Federal Trade Commission guidelines.
Some of the highlights from the book include:
- The sharing of case studies from brands that are doing it right.
- Listing of ten online resources for influencer information
- A deeper dive into the social media channels in the market now that could be applied as to whether your organization needs to be active in those channels.
- Understanding the evaluation of a blogger; it is more than just how many impressions that they have or the size of their social media channels.
- Review of current Federal Trade Commission guidelines applicable for bloggers.
As a marketer, I found Chapter 4: The New Rules of Engagement and Part IV: Measuring Your Success full of valuable information. The book provided a simple framework of how influencer marketing program can be integrated into existing marketing campaigns to drive sales.
As a blogger, I found Chapter 6: Blog Influencers the most helpful to improve my own blog. The chapter goes into details about what marketers look for when working with influencers. Specifically, to assess the blogger you must take a holistic look from their editorial voice and audience, editorial content mix, timeliness, photography and visuals, impressions and engagement to name a few.
Influencer Marketing for Dummies was very insightful with information that I can use both as a marketer and a blogger. This book contained easily digestible and useful material and I am sure I will go to this book going forward as a constant resource.
The Giveaway!
We are giving away one copy of Influencer Marketing for Dummies . You can enter 5 times via methods below. The giveaway begins January 15, 2016 through February 5, 2016 at 12:00 AM PST. Please be sure to enter via Rafflecopter to track your entries. Good luck!
- Subscribe to the Modern Latina eNewsletter
- Follow Modern Latina on Twitter
- Retweet the Influencer Marketing for Dummies tweet
- Like Modern Latina on Facebook
- Share the Influencer Marketing for Dummies post on Facebook
You can enter up to six times per person via different entry methods mentioned above. This giveaway will end February 5, 2016 at 12:00 am PST. The approximate retail value of the prize is $26.99. The winner will be drawn using random.org. Once winner has confirmed prize, the winner will be announced on Facebook. All entrants must be at least 18 years old and a US resident. Prize fulfillment will take 4-6 weeks.
I was selected for this opportunity as a member of Clever Girls and the content and opinions expressed here are all my own.
Linda Castillo is the Founder and Executive Editor of www.ModernLatina.com. She writes on topics that empower and inspire Latinas including art, motherhood, green living, culture, travel, and issues transforming the Latino community. Linda has earned a B.S. in Business and a M.S. in Mass Communications from San Jose State University.