Social Media Marketing For Dummies, 4th Edition

Chapter 18

Accounting for the Influencers

IN THIS CHAPTER

Nurturing the social influencers

Differentiating between influencers

Discovering best practices for reaching influencers

In Chapter 1, we briefly introduce the social influencers and how they affect purchasing decisions. In this chapter, we discuss social influencers in greater detail and explain why they matter, how you can reach them, and what best practices to deploy in the process of doing so. We focus on the social influencers who reside within your customer’s networks and how you can account for them in all your marketing efforts.

How influencers are defined is a controversial subject among marketers. Some marketers focus on what they consider to be key influencers, whereas others place more emphasis on everyday influencers. Back in Chapter 1, we introduce the three types of social influencers, which we believe accounts for all the types of influence taking place around a customer. Here’s a quick recap:

• Expert influencers are considered authorities in the specific domain or are people whom others depend upon for information advice. They do a lot to build awareness and affect purchasing decisions at the consideration ...