Do Influentials Matter

1

• Do Influentials Matter?
• John Hingley
• Founder CEO
• Andiamo Systems, Inc.

2
A little background

• Andiamo Systems is
• A SaaS provider of social media WoM measurement
  
• We find, analyze and tell you
• WHO is talking about you
• WHERE it is happening
• IF people like or dislike your brand
• So you can make better marketing business
  decisions.
• Launched Q4 2007, based in SF
• www.andiamosystems.com
• john_at_andiamosystems.com

3
Do Influentials Matter?

• The power of the people
• Malcolm vs. Duncan
• And the verdict is in!
• Finding and empowering Influentials for your
  brand
• A couple success stories

4
A Recommendation-Driven Economy

• "59 of consumers consider customer
• reviews to be more valuable than 'expert'
  reviews. BizRate
• There are over 75,000 new blogs created every
  day, updated to the tune of over 1.2 million
  posts per day, or over 18 updates a second.
• Technorati
• 3/4 of consumers rate Word of Mouth as the 1
  influencer of purchase intent. Nielsen
• Facebook has 35MM unique visitors/month
• Twitter has 1MM users
• More than 35MM US adults share their opinions
  online about products services

5
Do Influentials Play a Role in Marketing?
Any attempt to engineer success through
Influentials, Duncan argues, is almost certainly
doomed to failure. It just doesn't work," Watts
says. "A rare bunch of cool people just don't
have that power. And when you test the way
marketers say the world works, it falls apart.
There's no there there."
Duncan Watts
OR
"The best way to understand the dramatic
transformation of unknown books into bestsellers,
or the rise of teenage smoking, or the phenomena
of word of mouth or any number of the other
mysterious changes that mark everyday life,"
writes Malcolm Gladwell. Social epidemics are
driven by the actions of a tiny minority of
special individuals who are unusually informed,
persuasive and well-connected.
Malcolm Gladwell
More than 1 billion is spent a year on
word-of-mouth campaigns targeting Influentials,
an amount growing at 36 a year, faster than any
other part of marketing and advertising. That's
on top of billions more in PR and ads leveled at
the cognoscenti.
6
They Do!

• Think of Influentials as a conduit to connect
  with your target market
• B2C Influentials are also buyers
• B2B Influentials are often not the ultimate
  purchaser
• Audience and authority are key
• It comes down to smart target marketing
• Each industry niche has its own set of
  Influentials
• Fashion Daily CandySplendoraUrban Daddy
• Wine VinographyFermentationsVinDivine.
• And its not always the top tier

Carey Bradshaw makes Christian Louboutin!
7
The Influential Three Step

• Step 1 - Identify Influentials by market
  segment
• Key attributes of influencers
• Active influencers get involved, with their
  communities, business industry, political
  movements, charities and so on.
• Connected influencers have strong social
  networks
• Impact Influencers are looked up to and are
  trusted by others
• Trendsetters influencers tend to be early
  adopters (or leavers) in markets

One of the first Apple iPhone Customers!
8
The Influential Three Step

• Step 2 Identify Influentials by Popularity
• Target Market Reach the number of people an
  individual has the ability to connect with.
• Quality of Impact the esteem in which an
  individuals view and opinions are held.
• Frequency of Impact the number of opportunities
  an individual has to influence buying decisions
• Closeness to Decision how near an individual is
  to the decision-maker.

9
The Influential Three Step

• Step 3 - What to do once youve identified them
• Rank them - in order of importance.
• Contact them - increase awareness by email,
  phone, PR
• Outreach- give them early access, invite to user
  groups, send samples, ask them to help spread the
  word, etc.

10
B2B Success - VerticalResponse

• Challenge
• How to break through the clutter and get noticed
  by a busy channel sales force.
• Needed a way to get noticed by ever-growing
  number of Salesforce employees
• Demographic skews young
• Solution
• Created Rap Music Videos
• VR for AppEx Baby (6000 views)
• Nuthin But an App Thang (5000 views)
• Sent the video to the top dogs in Product and
  Partner departments at Salesforce.com
• Outcome
• Within 30 minutes it had made its way around a
  great portion of the company
• Played for thousands of Salesforce employees the
  day before the user conference, then played at
  the user conference.
• Tons of PR Most recently featured in Fortune
  Small Business
• VR is a top 5 AppExchange download

11
B2C Success the Little Penguin wines

• Challenge
• How to launch a new low-price wine in a crowded
  market? Oh yeahwith no marketing budget!
• Solution
• Identify young, hip wine bloggers to help spread
  the word
• Outreach, samples, interactive quizzes
• Outcome
• 75,000 opt-in database of brand advocates
• 1,000,000 cases sold in 8 months
• Impact Hot Brand Award
• All with no traditional advertising or marketing