Hippie Business Blog : lessons

Friday, March 10, 2017

6 Influencer Marketing Lessons Marketers Can Learn from Journalists

While I wore many hats during those days—from reporter to managing editor to social media maven—building strong community connections was probably the most important hat of all.

Truly, the people I engaged with were more than connections. They were lifelines. They represented untold stories, interesting perspectives, inside scoops and friendly gateways to new sources, allowing me to craft quality news pieces that people actually wanted to read, share and talk about.

Now as a digital marketer, my community connections and sources often go by a new name: influencers.

Influencer marketing is booming—and it’s not hard to see why. Influencers lend authority and credibility to your content, and connect you with new audiences. In addition, influencer marketing content delivers 11 times the ROI than traditional forms of digital marketing, according to a 2016 study by TapInfluence and Nielsen Catalina Solutions.

But the secret in the sauce here is that your strategy, content and the influencers you choose have to be quality and relevant to your audience.

Thankfully, there’s a few pointers marketers can take from journalists to ensure that quality and relevance is there.

Let’s dive in.

Mind-Bending Facts

“Of the Americans who earn over $150,000, 82 percent had a bachelor’s degree. Just 6.5 percent had no more than a high school diploma,” writes Catherine Rampell of The New York Times.
The share of an average U.S. household budget going toward gas in 2012 was nearly 4%, tying for the highest level in almost three decades, according to Energy Information Administration figures cited by The Guardian.
Last year, Franklin Templeton asked 1,000 investors whether the S&P 500 went up or down in 2009 and 2010. Sixty-six percent thought it went down in 2009, while 48% said it declined in 2010. In reality, the index gained 26.5% in 2009 and 15.1% in 2010.
During the Federal Reserve’s June 2007 policy meeting, the word “recession” was used three times; the word “strong” was used 61 times. The economy entered recession six months later.
Since U.S. markets bottomed in March 2009, more than $8 trillion of lost wealth has been recouped.
The S&P 500 has returned about 9% a year over the long run, but few years see returns even close to that. Since 1871, the index has risen or fallen more than 20% in one out of every three years. Less than one out of every five years sees a gain of between 1% and 9%.
Renaissance Technologies, a hedge fund run by James Simons, has allegedly produced average returns of 80% a year since 1988 (before fees), according to Bloomberg. That would turn $1,000 into $2.4 billion in 25 years.
Public filings show that Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke has owned stock in just one individual company over the last decade: Altria Group (which he sold in 2004).
According to BetterInvesting, the number of investment clubs has declined by 90% since 1998 from 400,000 to 39,000.
According to CNBC wealth reporter Robert Frank, the population of millionaires in America is now at or above its 2007 high.
The International Energy Agency predicts that the U.S. will become the world’s largest oil-producer by 2020, overtaking Saudi Arabia.