3 Ways Every Brand Can Use Social Influence to Drive Business

Gina Joseph is the digital engagement manager for Cision’s marketing department, and is an editor and features writer for Cision Blog. She’s a book nerd, Detroit sports enthusiast, lover of cats, lifelong Phil Collins fan and budding snowboarder. Find her on Twitter @Cision.

Even as we get ready to usher in 2015, PR pros and marketers alike continue to struggle with the best ways to use social media in a successful campaign strategy. Social is now (hopefully) considered crucial for any business or brand that wants to be seen — after all, it’s where your audience heads for information, to ask questions and to be heard. But that’s just your own shared media.

So how can you make social work for your brand using influencers outside of your organization?

• Make the Pitch: We’re in PR, right? There’s nothing wrong with reaching out to the influencers you have developed relationships with, and letting them know of the great new products or services your brand has to offer. Tell them why it matters to their audience and give them all the information they’ll need for a write up or an interview.

Pro tip: Consider giving them a couple of pre-written tweets with pertinent information included, which they can easily share. The easier you make it for them to help you, the more likely they are to do so.

• Guest Blog: When done right, guest blogging is a win-win. It’s a great way to drive prospects to your brand by simply expanding your audience. So what better way to get more eyes and chatter around your content than working with influencers who can bring their audience to you?

Pro tip: If you are blogging for another site, make sure to add a call-to-action to your content. Invite their followers to sign-up for a webinar, send them to a tip sheet, or invite them to an event to bring them into your sales funnel. And always make sure to expand on your content even more by sharing it on social channels.

• Measure Results: First, make sure you have established a business objective. Once you know your goal, you can set up ways to measure social results — be it by tracking how much traffic you are driving from influencer sites, Facebook or Twitter through a landing page, or tracking mentions and sentiment during a specific campaign.

There are various ways to track the impact of social and social influencer relations, all depending on what it is you’re trying to achieve; so make sure you start out with a clear goal in mind. It may take a few different campaigns to learn which metrics work for your brand and which do not.

Pro tip: Use Google Analytics’ URL Builder to further understand the stories your analytics are trying to tell you. The results might surprise you… and help you adjust your strategy when you most need it.

No matter how small or large your organization, there’s always a way to make social work for you, and hopefully these tips will help you get started (or move ahead).

What other recommendations would you add to the list?

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