Aug 2, 2021
What Is Influencer Marketing? Why You Should Care and Embrace It with Gordon Glenister
An influencer is somebody that can affect change in the behavior of others through trusted opinion, knowledge, and competence. So it's very simple in those terms, anybody can actually become an influencer. We've now seen is a growth in what we call micro and nano influence. These are individuals that have gotten much smaller followings on social media.
About Gordon
Gordon Glenister is an influencer marketing strategist, global head of influencer marketing at the Branded Content Marketing Association the CEO of Membership World. Gordon was formally the director-general of the British Promotional Merchandise Association for 11 years then launched his own membership consultancy in September 2018.
From there he went on to launch a new influencer marketing channel at the Branded Content Marketing Association and still remains the global head of influencer marketing. He is also the host of Influence the global podcast shining a spotlight on the influencer marketing industry where he interviews all sorts of brands and influencers.
In March 2021 he has his first book released on influencer marketing strategy with global publishers Kogan Page. Within the membership community, he launched Membership World in July 2020, a podcast and community site for membership professionals supported by regular CEO roundtable discussions. Gordon is also the author of the Covid19 impact study which explored the challenges faced by professional bodies, trade associations, and charities in the Pandemic.
Gordon runs successful strategy workshops for membership bodies, mystery member audits, and general advice on running successful organizations. He has launched exhibitions, magazines, conferences online education programs and has written for many magazines.
Gordon is also the co-founder of the top 100 most influential people index which is a product promoting eminent people in specific industries. He is also a well-known speaker on membership and influencer marketing. Gordon is a keen traveler and badminton player and is looking forward to resuming both post-pandemic.
www.thebusinessofbusinesspodcast.com
Full Transcript Below
What Is Influencer Marketing Why You Should Care and Embrace It with Gordon Glenister
Sun, 8/1 1:07PM • 50:09
SUMMARY KEYWORDS
influencer, people, audience, work, brand, influences, product, influencer marketing, create, promoted, followers, individual, talk, content, industry, Gordon, social media, instagram, post, put
SPEAKERS
Gordon, Roy Barker
Roy Barker 00:00
Roy, of course we do bring you a wide variety of guests and talk about a lot of diverse topics and today is no different. I'm very excited to have Gordon Glenister with us. We're going to have a very robust conversation. I know going forward. I've been looking forward to this for the last couple of weeks. He is an influence, influencer marketing strategist. He's the Global Head of influencer marketing at branded content marketing Association. He's the CEO of membership world. Gordon was formerly the director-general of the British promotional merchandise Association for 11 years, then lost his own membership consultancy in September 2018. Gordon is also the co-founder of the top 100 Most Influential People index, which is a product promoting eminent people in specific industries. He is also a well-known speaker on membership and influencer marketing. He is a keen traveler. He's a badminton player, and looking forward to resuming both post-pandemic, Gordon, thanks so much for taking time out of the day, your day to be with us. Oh, it's a pleasure to see you. Yeah. Now, you know, this is such an exciting topic, because it's, you know, with the advent of social media, I think it's blown up. And we think of it I'll say, I think of it in a little different terms, but I'm gonna let you explain. First off, just tell us what is influencer marketing, you know, kind of why it's important how we can use it. And then also, it's not necessarily new. And I'll let you tie that up for us.
Gordon 01:37
What was what was saying, Roy, and thanks for the introduction. And I can just tell you a little bit about my background as to where I came from to actually be in this sort of space. Because I think it has some context. And you mentioned, you mentioned that I'd been involved in the British promotional merchandise Association, and I set up my own consultancy in that 2018. But I, I'm still relatively new to the sector, actually, myself only less than two years about my background has come from the sort of association world. And I've I really believed that there was nobody representing sort of influencer marketing industry, you know, it's, it has had a mixed media profile, should I say, some people's vision of what an influencer is very different. And so what I wanted to do was to launch an association in the UK that represented the industry. And that's what I did in 2019. Subsequently went on to write a book, and also podcast. And so because of that, I, I did quite a lot of research into what influence marketing was, was all about, you know, what, it's nothing new. You know, it's just got a nice shiny new name it because fundamentally, it's, it's still work, word of mouth marketing, you know, and we were just talking before this about a Marlboro Man, what we and our demise, you know, these were individual folks that we might have followed, even Coca Cola using sort of Santa Claus. So, you know, we trust the opinions of our friends, our families, or people in authority, much more now than than traditional advertising. In fact, there was a piece of research, I think, from Business Insider, or one of the big research organizations that said amongst Gen Z's that very young audience, they trust traditional advertising to the extent of just 1% which is remarkably low. So I mean, basically, I mean, influencer marketing is basic happens when individual is involved in promoting a product or service. And that that's it. For me, I would determine an influencer is somebody that can affect change in behavior of others through trusted opinion, knowledge and competence. So it's very simple in those terms, anybody can actually become an influencer. And you know when you look at some of the big names are Kylie Jenner and confessions and all these these these well known celebrities, of course, that was who we would have looked up to some time ago, but of course, what we've now seen is a growth in what we call micro and nano influence. And these are individuals that have gotten much smaller followings on social media. And what they have got is a passion and a cause for their for their product or service or their their genre. And, and I mean, even a fly fishing expert that has 1000 followers on Instagram could be an influencer. Because all of the people that are following that individual are, are absolutely interested in the content of that that fishermen is creating. And that's what I think is really exciting, is how the range of different diversities and niches have populated for influencer marketing. And for brands, it's an amazing opportunity for them to tap in to those individual voices that can therefore amplify their brand message.
Roy Barker 05:41
Yeah, that's it. And just as you were talking, I was thinking that, and I'll let you answer this, but more of a question is, so back in the day, it seems like you know, when we talk about the Marlboro Man, he was one guy that represented one product, one brand, where it seemed like in influencer marketing of today through social media, typically, what I think about them is that they are people that have their own audience, for some reason for whatever content they're putting out there. We just happened to put our product out there for them to represent, you know, maybe they they represent multiple products, instead of just being totally aligned with just one brand nowadays.
Gordon 06:25
Yeah, I mean, what we're doing is if you want to work with an influencer, you're buying into their audience, right. And let's not forget that those and by the way, a lot of them tend to prefer the word content creator, as a sort of term, but but they will have taken time to develop that audience. And, and if it's engaged, in other words, they're very responsive, they're commenting and liking, they're being consistent with when they put out their content. It's not just, you know, one post every now and again, it's it's, you know, two or three times a week, at a set time. You know, they are like any community, they want their audience to grow, they want them to be happy and engaged. Yeah. So that is, so when they get when they try and create the brand collaboration, as they call it, they want to make chocolate aligned with their values. That's super important, because sometimes, brands that connect with influencers don't always get a response. And the reason they don't get a response is because for some reason, or a they might have communicated in the wrong way, or be it just is not, it's not what the influencer wants to do with the promoted. Interesting enough, something like two thirds of them now will reject brand opportunities based upon their ethics. If they don't feel that they have strong ethics, yeah. Like they look after their people, they are doing the right thing to the planet, or whatever. And then they will reject them.
Roy Barker 08:08
That's, that's actually a pretty cool thing. I applaud them for that for, you know, kind of doing the screening, because as we were talking through that I was just thinking about the other part of this is that, you know, as a person that wants to eat well, before we even jump into that, I want to say there are two kinds of influencers. There's that person that maybe they've built their own audience doing different things, you know, we could say like the Kardashians are people that I think about, you know, they're all over the place, but they're all over the place, because of themself because of things they've done to generate that. Now we can put our product with them for them to represent it or placement or however, that's one form. But the other form I think, that we want to hit on a little bit two is that I could become an influencer with the content that I create maybe for a lot smaller universe than somebody like the Kardashians, but still, you know, for my industry, for my association for my charity that I represent or for my friends and family. Is that correct?
Gordon 09:15
Absolutely. Absolutely. I was talking to somebody about this the other day, that is a locksmith someone that just goes and fixes locks and he was talking about marketing and he was going to create some some really cool videos about you know, the what, what he does in his day? Yeah. So what ultimately you want to be is that you want to be at him once you've got to be the go to person, right? And being the go to person that thinks about you and what you do for a reason. You have to have have to have a purpose that that people I would say a brand is what somebody says You when you're not in the room, correct. And it's very, very true. And we you know, we need to we were talking earlier about Tick Tock and tick tock is largely a younger platform up to the age of 30, or 40, per se for us, older guys, maybe not on that hill. But I've seen one or two lawyers on there, that have really tried to create a different story that is non stuffy, that is fun and quirky, but super engaging. And they've got great audiences, because what they're doing, they're breaking down stereotypes. And they're actually they're educating a younger audience around the law, but doing it in a in a fun and engaging way.
Roy Barker 10:50
Yeah, for full disclosure, before I brought Gordon on, I made him sign a release that he was not going to make me create a tic Tock video on me up here dance. The audience will be safe from that. So let's talk about that, you know, the so the influencers, screening products and brands that they're taking on, which I think that is so awesome, I really, I mean, I'm glad to hear that, that they're being particular about how they treat employees and their business processes. That's awesome. But let's talk about the other side of that coin. As a professional services, I need to be very careful who I select, to represent me in that space as well. And then the other thing about everything is always great today. But let's just say they have a come apart or something goes bad for this influencer, you know, three, six months from now. How does that wash back on me as somebody that's put my brand with them?
Gordon 11:54
Yeah. Well, that's that's a that's an issue, of course. But this in any shape when you're using you're dealing with, you're not dealing with a product, you didn't really need a human being Oh, no. And they are prone to I mean, look at Tiger Woods, for example. Yeah, Tiger Woods, phenomenally successful individual, but he went through a really bad patch. And he and of course, lots of brands had to pull away from from from what was going on. I mean, all I would say, though, is you must do your due diligence, before you work with an influencer, you need to make sure that their follower base is authentic. There are lots of tools out there, by the way, now that you can influence the platforms that you can determine whether or not they bought any followers, because the last thing you want is you don't want you don't want an inauthentic audience, right. And also, if you're let's just say, your audience is very much so American based, you know, and you thought, Oh, this is a great guy I want to work with, but actually little Do you know that 80% of his follower base is based in the UK? Yeah. And if you particularly wanted to work with, with guide men more than you would women, then you need to make sure that the individual you're working with his follower base is equally so that's what you're effectively buying into. Yeah. Is that audience? Yeah. And that could be part of the compensation that you have with them at the early stage, just want to have an understanding as to why sometimes they will share their insights with you, as you can, of course, see on Instagram, or, or whatever, any other platform. But also, there's lots of social media metrics, yeah, platforms that will allow you to do this. The other thing you need to make sure that ROI is that somebody, they haven't worked for a competitor. Okay, because what you want them to do is like, for example, it would seem somewhat inauthentic that somebody wanted to be promoting coat, and then Pepsi, you know, a little later down the line, you know, it mean that they're, you know, that the ideal scenario is for you to find an influencer, where you can create strong relationship that is just necessarily one off campaign. But ideally, you can look for, you know, like, a long term, almost like ambassador program. Yeah. You know, that's that. That's the growth at the moment. A lot of organizations are now looking to recruit influences initially for campaigns, but then some of the best ones that really do resonate and deliver amazing results, to recruit them for longer term ambassadors. And that's also good for the audience, by the way, because if they see if they see a brand being promoted by their favorite influencer once Yes. They're going to let you know they kind of react to it, but they're going to react to it a lot more, if they see that post and video content consistently. Yeah. So for example, brands are boom, which is a big clothing brand. They will have boohoo ambassadors, you know, pretty little thing. And bass, lots of big clothing companies and fashion brands. Now, use this product.
Roy Barker 15:27
So yeah, and I just want to make a note about the followers. And I will say that this is something I'm luckily very luckily learned years ago is that, you know, I had a guy told me, he could help me generate some, you know, some traffic on some social media. And I said, Great, and then all of a sudden, he was correct, he generated a ton of social media traffic. It just happened to be from a different continent, on where I live, and then, you know, it's like, I told him, okay, these people are not my clients, they're never going to be my clients. So it's like, you know, totally, it was totally a vanity metric at that point. And, anyway, it's a good lesson to learn. But going back to what you said is, you know, if we do want to hire somebody else to do this, you need to check them out any way you possibly can to make sure that because, you know, I could have had a million of these followers, but they would not have been anybody that was going to buy a product based here out of the US. So very important.
Gordon 16:27
Yeah. It's better that you have a smaller audience. That's a relevant, yes. And authentic. Because No, it's not. And that's why a lot of the big organizations now or hire influences based on their engagement level, not necessarily. I mean, it's not that they don't decide that they don't disregard the follow up based engagement rate is where it's at. Yeah.
Roy Barker 16:52
So with social media, it's, it's so worldwide, in this space, are there will you find local influencers versus the big national one? So I mean, I'm just thinking of a strategy that, well, if I've got a local product may be fine in that local, but then also another strategy, instead of finding that one huge influencer, maybe you find, you know, four or five strategically placed local geographic, is that even a thing or a possibility?
Gordon 17:25
Yeah, definitely. I mean, sometimes, when you're running a campaign, it's it's worth considering and mix of influence. Yeah, maybe a larger one with with a mid tier group, and then a number of micro Nanos. Yeah. So I mean, what's really exciting about having a range of influences is they are and also involving these individuals, not just in the amplification stage, but in the course of the content creation, so that you are, you know, what could happen, all this trying to create a bit of an open brief, that is not so specific and tied down. So you are really allowing these individuals are very creative, by the way to use their creativity and potentially come back to you with all sorts of exciting ways in which your brand story can be told and promoted. We've got 10 of them, as opposed to just one, you've got 10 different, but also, I mean, I was talking to Pernod Ricard, actually, just just last week about it. And they did some did some work with some of their influences. And because of what two of them that were outside their slight niche, they found a whole new audience of drinkers or their whiskey brands, as a result of some some of the work they've done with influencers. So that was really exciting. But yes, definitely using local ones. And, again, another conversation I had with Oxfam, big charity, Oxfam. They use influencers really smartly. Particularly in London, if you have you have charity shops in the States. I can't remember do you have? We have charity shops here where people can provide donated goods? Oh, yes, yes, yes. Yes. Yes, we do. Yes. You didn't find. Okay. So, so that's the so that's very specific, were a local, they used local influences that go into stores, and perhaps put on some of these, these, you know, sort of historic avant garde type clothing. And it was really is really good. And of course, they were able to promote that on their the charity's local Facebook group. And it got it got a really great retention because of that particular item, but only be available in that local store, right. See how working with something locally can be Very successful.
Roy Barker 20:01
Yeah. Yeah. And it's funny, I was just I just wrote down the question, as you were speaking about that is about the, you know, the content creation. And so, you know, the question was going to be, these guys are creative, and I'm sure that they can help. But is this I guess, in this world? Is this something that we put in their hands and say, here's my brand? And here's what I want to convey, you create the message? Or do we take them a message to them and say, here's kind of what I want you to do, or I guess it's probably a mix. But generally, how does that work?
Gordon 20:35
It is, it is best when it's a mix, as long as you've got a set of brand guidelines, and perhaps your sort of target audience, and some ideas of what you'd like to do, but not not overly prescriptive, and allow them to just do their thing. And I mean, some of the video content I've seen some of these fashion influences just blows my mind. Yeah, the creativity, the tricks, you know, it's bringing clothing and fashion to life. The other thing, of course, you can do is think about using links, that the attribute the influencer to a specific code. So maybe you want to give 10% off a your product or service or something where you can then work with the influencer so that they got something that they can give to their followers. And of course, what that does is it allows you to repeat so you've got an AR 15 influencers, and they've all got their own tracking link. You can then determine how successful each one has been about driving sales back to your website. Okay. Interesting. So again, very, very effective method of doing that. I mean, we shouldn't forget these individuals, you know, are often the average age of an influencer is 28. And they are digital, digital native. Yeah. So there, but you know, they're the videographers, photographers, their community builders, their editors, their script, right? They're bloggers, you know, these are, if you think about the traditional way that you're going to create television ads, and how much money it would involve, you'd have to have all these various people to put that together. about potentially you've got that one person. Yeah, if you find the right individual. And that's what I think is so amazing, is finding these. And what I love is the authenticity of it. Yeah. And there are some some great examples. And if you're into yachts, and superyachts, there's a there's a guy actually called at the yacht guy. And he's got hundreds of 1000s of followers. He always just loved super yachts. So he started many years ago, just going to very effective vision goes just videoing using his little iPhone and just videoing content. And then of course, he would start to build an audience because what he's doing with his content is bringing the audience into the wonderful world of the superyacht. Right? Yeah. And of course, he's made, he's made these fantastic videos now and superyacht. manufacturers are realizing this is a this is an audience that we should be tapping into. Yeah. So yeah. And they've and then, of course, that's retail brands, want to get involved with him and all sorts of other product. Brand opportunities can come his way.
Roy Barker 23:44
Yeah. Yeah, there's a guy. I think he's in Kansas. It's not not too far from here, but I kind of started watching him because what he would do is he would go out and find an old car or an old truck, and bring it back in and kind of walk you through what he was doing to refurbish it. And in all the time, it wasn't always putting it back stock, sometimes he would kind of, you know, fix them up to be muscle cars, or mud trucks or whatever. But, you know, I got kind of hooked because it was interesting, watching this process. So there are a lot out there, which kind of brings me to the next question I had was the channels. You know, I think, as we've progressed through social media, my channel of choice, it depends, but typically just for browsing social media is Instagram. I mean, I just like the pictures. You know, pictures are 1000 words. I don't have to read a lot and that so that's where I have gravitated. Now I say that unless it's a how to now if I'm trying to figure out how to do something different or figure out a better way then it's usually YouTube is where I go for that but is there a is there one channel that stands out Where influencers reside? Are they just different ones all? Then I guess, are there different ones for each channel are there some people transcend where they're on all channels?
Gordon 25:11
Well, it's interesting influencer marketing is on is on all of them in some way, even on Snapchat. But the goal of influencer marketing has to be Instagram for the reasons that it is very visually striking for products in particular. And of course, with the with the, the shopping links, and the way in which you can translate to a return on investment through through activation is very good. But it does also depend on your product or service. You know, if you were a financier or financier or banker that was, you know, had a particular nature or whatever, you might find that LinkedIn or Twitter is more your sphere? Yeah. I mean, I've got a far bigger audience on LinkedIn than I do, perhaps on Instagram, right? Is because I've been there for I've been there right at the start, of course, it's seen as the professional bytes. So it's all about where are your likely audience going to be, wherever you think they are. And whatever platform you think is relevant, that's where you should be. Okay. And also making sure that your profile is consistent amongst all of the time, if you go and have a look at my Instagram, my LinkedIn, my Twitter, by my image and profile is exactly the same, you know, so that people understand because as I said earlier, you know, a brand is what people say about you when you're not in the room. And what we've got to do is create a reference point that people can remember you it's very, very cluttered online now. Creating cut through and stand out is is ever harder. We shouldn't forget YouTube. Of course, YouTube is a phenomenal platform for influencer marketing. I mean, do you ever remember a video? I don't know if you've called Charlie Bit My Finger. Does that ring a bell for you? It doesn't. Okay. Which Charlie Bit My Finger is an amazing videos created 13 years ago now. And it was it was just very, very funny. very endearing. Yeah. And it was just literally about a baby and a slightly older brother biting in a very gentle way. Anyway, but the reason I mentioned it is it is now got 179 million views. Wow. So the reason I say that is because sometimes people forget the content on video online, keeps generating ROI. Yes. Whereas you put a flier through a letterbox, it thrown in the bin, you put an advert on a magazine, and you might well see it if you're lucky. And you see a TV clip, and it's over. The great thing about about blogs, or video content is it's evergreen, evergreen, and therefore, you know, if you make it not date specific, but you make it something that's relevant to your audience, is looking at this. Why don't we follow people, human creativity and trust as the three big words, we either want to be entertained. We want to see something creative and different. But we also want to know that we can trust that person. Yeah. So always be mindful when you're creating content. That's,
Roy Barker 28:59
yeah. No, I think you're right. And what you will see is, you know, maybe I'm not searching for whatever topic you have, I may not be searching for it today. And so we forget about, well, it's the instantaneous, instant gratification society, if I will post the same content today, if I don't have you know, a million hits this afternoon or tomorrow on my Earth, I was a total failure. Well, we have to look as the longevity of that it lives forever. And if we continue to release content out there, it just, it's compounding effect. It just builds and builds because what I think happens a lot of times is maybe tomorrow, you're searching for something I posted six months ago, you read it, but then it leads you to what I just posted in the last week or two. So definitely. And that was a that was another question I was gonna have. is to ask is, so tell us why is this important to me as a business man, small businesses, why is influencer marketing marketing import our Why should it be? Why should we look at it more importantly?
Gordon 30:06
Because simply we trust the opinions of others more than we do traditional avatar, you know, how do you get your brand to stand out more when in other forms of marketing media I've just not delivering really open rates on emails are getting less and less? Well, they are to, to prospect, yes, if you're looking at your existing audience, maybe higher, but certainly with PR, people's attention spans are getting less and less. You know, what, what, what we like to do is, you know, we like to listen to, to the opinions of people that we like, and trust, and, and therefore, if you can have your voice tone through others, you know, our you should work with Roy, he's a great guy, he's effectively what you're doing is you're getting loads of referrals or reference points from other people. Because if you said you were great. But if I say You're great, that is different.
Roy Barker 31:09
Yeah. Or if my mother says, I'm great, and probably people expect that. Now, and that's, I think it's good that, you know, that is a great reason. But I think we also need to look at the cost. As you were saying earlier, if if we went to traditional, let's just say a TV spot, there's all the people that you just suggested the script writers, the production equipment, all of this, then the biggest part is we have to buy that time on the TV, you know, then you have to pick that slot. Do I want it to run at the morning news? Is it not? Is it overnight, you know, how in the cost varies, you know, from the different slots, but I don't know what it is for local commercials anymore. But I can guarantee you it's a lot of money, where we think about and it's not that this is free, and this is something I want to be sure and stress is that, you know, these content marketers are the influencers, they have spent a lot of time in their own money and energy building up these audiences. And so they are going to be do some kind of compensation, you know, if they help us out, this is not, you know, we don't, I don't want anybody to think what we're saying is that these people are going to, you know, we just reach out and they're going to pick us up for free, you know, there's going to be a cost. But I think, if we look at the cost of this versus the cost of the traditional media, probably fraction, and then that second part that you just mentioned, is that if it goes up on Instagram, Facebook, you know, YouTube anywhere really, it's gonna live there forever. Huh?
Gordon 32:47
Yeah, I mean, actually, there are some studies that talk about 11 times greater ROI return on investment and other forms of marketing media. And that's why this industry is closed, it's going to be close to $15 billion in 2022. Rob just 1.6 billion in 2016. So it is it is and you know, that is massive, yeah, massive growth in that period. And it's only going to get bigger. pandemic actually, has only lifted the industry the walk is more of a ritual line, more of us have been exposed. Who watching content creators, think talk and Instagram and others and we've discovered influencers? And and that I think is barely exciting. Yeah.
Roy Barker 33:37
Well, yeah. And it, you know, the recent, the one that we just discussed for a minute before we got on here, I think is the it's a great story, but it was the guy that was his car broke down. So he's like, Hey, I'm gonna get my skateboard out. He's singing a song drinking, I think it was a Ocean Spray juice. And so they did an awesome thing by picking him up. And then, you know, it really just blew up even more for them. So, you know, I think we have to also look for those opportunities where, you know, we can make a big splash as well.
Gordon 34:10
Yeah, I mean, just on that one, I think what, what makes those videos work really, really well? is when it's not so in your face advertising is seen as almost like product placement.
Roy Barker 34:22
Yes.
Gordon 34:23
I mean, I've actually seen butter brands where they've, they've done almost butter sculpture. Yeah. You know, there have been other things where there's been chefs. And the the product that's being promoted is just on the table there. It's it's not just held up like, it's amazing. You know, actually, these little these guys have been super smart. Now, they don't want to do that because it doesn't really work. And they know that because their audience will tell him so. Yeah, let's not let's not forget that the influences have a vested interest in making a collaboration work. Yeah. Yeah.
Roy Barker 35:05
Yeah. And, you know, product placement is nothing, that it's not something that hasn't been around forever. I think about, you know, TV programs and movies. That's something that they figured out a long time ago was, instead of me coming out and telling you that, hey, I want you to drink my Cola, because it's the very best out there a drink my beer. You know, if james bond is shown in a movie, drinking my beer, my Cola, people resonate, like, Oh my gosh, if it's good enough for James Bond be drinking it, then definitely, I'm gonna go out and get some of that. So I think you're right there has a huge impact with more of just not being in your face and more of, Hey, I use this product. And you know, if people think that, I'm cool, and I'm that influencer, if I'm using that product, and other people are going to probably gravitate to that as well. So. So, um, let's talk about if I wanted to start this today, I'm, you know, gonna jump out there find me an influencer? Where would we even start? I know, our message needs, you know, we need to find the channel, I guess we're but let's just go with business. You know, maybe I want to look through LinkedIn, find somebody on there. And then also, I want to tie that into your index. I think that's awesome that you have this index that do you publish that as well, ever so often?
Gordon 36:30
Well, what we do with the index is top 100, the top 50 by index isn't, isn't new to the society, you know, publishers and magazine publishers have often done this. I think what's particularly different about mine is I'm taking this product offering to trade associations and professional membership communities and saying, Well, why don't you how you're in authority position? Why don't we help create this top 100 Most Influential People in the food industry in the in the bathroom? and tap industry? What whatever? Yeah. And we we work at? Yeah, creating this product offering and we've had some reaction to it. Because when you involving people they like to be recognized. So what do they do? They, they're delighted when they are, and they promote it on social media. So the business, this, there's organizing this index, these their, their revenue, their their brand amplified hugely as a result of what's happening, because if I mean, it comes back to user generated content, yeah, that is one of the biggest growth areas at the moment is when you've got when you almost the same thing as my membership space, what you want to do is, is create the pool create the environment for people to connect with each other. Yeah. So you're not doing all of the work, you are facilitating, you're putting nuggets of content in helping and grow it. Actually, we, although obviously, first of all, it is what we're talking about today, because I've got a strong background in friendship. There is a there's been a massive growth in net communities, immunities, because people want to feel part of something. And they when they can learn from other people that have been attributed to your community. Yeah, then then they will receive their value.
Roy Barker 38:30
Yeah. So I don't want you to give away the secret sauce. But so what are some of the what are some of the metrics that go into that list to determine is it you know, the number of postings that they have that, you know, let's just talk about food industry, it'd be the number of postings somebody had on the food industry kind of coupled with their followers, their engagement, it's just a kind of a take a lot of different indexes and kind of wrap them together.
Gordon 38:59
Absolutely. Yeah. So it's actually that we'll look at what we'll also look at not just social media, we'll look at Google as well. So to see if they've been in the news, we'll work with what we'll also do is create a methodology that one of the problems with some of these top 100 influencer indexes is people can be influential and not have a massive presence on on social media. Yeah, which is what we're trying to change. Of course, we find that a lot of younger people have but a lot of older people haven't. So what we try and do is create a waiting for if they've been in the industry a certain amount of time, it gets so many points if they have bad presence and a level of engagement. So it's all driven by sort of a point score, okay, okay. But what we want to do is we want to shake things up a bit We also welcome we want to work with the association and make sure that we are listing body we've got the right people
Roy Barker 39:56
read, alright, and that you know, I'm sorry, I can't do a bunch of stuff at There, but let's get back to Okay, so I want to start today, you know, can you kind of give me like a couple, two or three steps of things that how I should go about finding somebody on my channel to deliver my message.
Gordon 40:13
So if you were to go on to Instagram, for example, what the most important thing is, is what are the hashtags that would be relevant the services that you provide. So if it's direct marketing, if it's podcast marketing podcasts, we want to do is search those hashtags and see who's talking about those subjects. That's the first thing. The other thing is to look at your direct competitors, and see who is following those people. Because if you can find out and scan some of those people, they may well be interested in your audience, but also have quite a sizable audience. So there's a couple of things. I think the other thing is, is when you are posting content, I guess I had my book launch recently in the UK, I've got the one in America on the 30th of March. But I needed to make sure that I had a lot of engagement on the day of my book, because it would be very embarrassing for me to be promoting influencer marketing, if I didn't have any followers, or we didn't, so I put this on LinkedIn. And I put a personal picture of me with my book to a table. And the most important thing with any form of posting on social media is the first two hours. Okay, so if any of you don't know, that is, you know, sometimes it's worth considering if you've got friends and a very important post, you've got to get out. I occasionally WhatsApp people and say, Look, I'm gonna put a very important post out, do you mind sharing or commenting? And if they do that in the first two hours, then all of a sudden, what the algorithms do is push that out quicker and quicker and quicker. Yeah. That's how viral campaigns happen. Because people react quickly, ie they share and they comment very quickly. That's what creates a viral campaign. That's why traveled, okay? Because if you think about it, lots of times, you know, you put out a tweet or lanius that might go to views or I've got, you know, read people commenting, it feels like this is a waste of time. Because what it's doing is it the algorithm is only sending out that content to a very, very small percentage of your total follower base, as little as five or 10%. So as once those people comment, they're like, oh, it pushes out more. And if those people like and comment on it pushes it out to even more. Okay. Right. So that's the that's that that is that is really the sweet sauce. And to prove this worked, I had 16,000 views on that post 140 comments, and 15 reshares. And that that was the biggest one I've ever had. Actually. LinkedIn. Yeah, but the reason that I said it is because I literally asked three people at the beginning is that would you mind just commenting on that? Yeah. Oh, once they did that, other people. I then actually, it worked quite organically, I have to say, but I, if I'm honest, I gave it a bit of a nudge. Yeah,
Roy Barker 43:56
no, that's a good strategy. And there's
Gordon 43:59
nothing wrong with that. I've also noticed that other people that were I'm part of a lobbying group for small businesses, and they had a what we call a Twitter bomb. You heard of that? with a bow? Yeah. So basically, within the community, they say, right, we're going to, we're going to try and get noticed and even trained. So they tell everybody to put a tweet out or share and like everybody else's tweet at eight o'clock. Pacific time on a specific day. Okay, because this was evolving and trying to get the attention of the the, like confederation of British industry or was somebody within business or government, they needed to rattle the cage? Yeah. And yeah, it was really it was, it was amazing. I mean, I was I was part of it, to see how much how much traffic was going through, because it was tough. It was timed.
Roy Barker 45:00
Yeah. Interesting. All right. That's that's a good point. Yeah. And I did want to mention, you know, not only, I'm gonna give you a chance to, you know, tell people how they can get a hold of you, but wanted to mention your book influencer marketing strategy. And you said it's going to be available here in the States. March 30. couple more days, I guess. Probably like, I guess that'd be like on Tuesday. So, yeah,
Gordon 45:24
yeah, that is Tuesday. Yeah, yeah. And actually, if I don't know if your podcasts gonna be out, but we could, we could prove that we could show if anybody wants to, I am gonna do a post on Tuesday. So if any of you are listening and want to go over to my LinkedIn, LinkedIn account, and with comments on it, then we can hopefully it will do the same thing. I'll definitely I will, I will like back all of your listeners, responses. Okay.
Roy Barker 45:55
All right. Great. Well, one question we ask isn't Well, before we go, is there anything else that you want to put out where I've taken a lot of your time? I know that, but just want to see, is there anything, any final words that you'd like to talk about influencer marketing?
Gordon 46:13
And I think my final words are it give it a try, you know, and if any of your listeners want to drop me a line, through my website, or on any of my social media, and just want to ask me a question as to what I'm thinking about this, or I'm in a particular type of business? I'm not sure, you know, asked me asked me, I mean, I've put so much in the book, making the 18 months to write. So it's not just, it's really almost like a compendium, compendium of knowledge, and lots of links to other good sites, and influence a platform that offers all sorts of glossary of terms, lots of case studies in there, when that that I think does help is when you know that somebody else has done it, and what results they've had. But, you know, auto Rome wasn't built in a day. It's going to take some time. But, you know, if if you do it properly, and you do it through the right process, you're gonna find some amazing results. Yeah.
Roy Barker 47:16
All right. Well, Gordon, thanks so much for being here. One wrap up question that we always ask is, so what is a tool that you use in your daily life? habit? Something, it could be professional, personal, something that you just feel like adds a lot of value to your day?
Gordon 47:34
Oh, right. What do I do? I do loads of things. But there's a is it removed background? there's a there's a great little tool called remove? BG, I think it's called called remove dB. Yeah, check it out. And they will. I've used that so many times now. So when you've got a particular products, and you want to remove a certain part of it is great. It's an awesome tool, and it's free. Okay,
Roy Barker 48:07
awesome. We'll check that out. All right, Gordon, again, thanks so much. Tell everybody, of course, where we will be able to find your book number one when it comes out. Number two, if they want to reach out and you know, just find out more information about you? What's a good place to do that as well?
Gordon 48:25
Thank you, Roy. Yes. So you can go to my website, which is www.Gordon Glenister.com.
Roy 50:00
You can find us at www.thebusinessofbusinesspodcast.com, we are on all the major podcast platforms, iTunes, Stitcher, Google, and Spotify as well as all the major social media platforms, we probably hand out on Instagram more than others, please feel free to connect. We would love to hear from you. A video of this interview will also go up on our youtube channel. Thanks for listening and take care of yourself, and take care of your business.