088: Building an Influencer Marketing Campaign – Paid vs. Organic Influence

Organic influence is rarely addressed on this whole influencer relations spectrum. Most of the relationships brands have with influencers is all about the paid opportunity. You know, when a fairly large brand hires influencers to stump for that brand and the influencer gets paid to do so? There has to be a disclaimer for that or else the FTC will breathe down the necks of brands and influencers, too. That said, P&G launched a huge influencer campaign with mommy bloggers. The brand was touting its new diaper and moms were all over it. Turns out the diaper wasn't working and babies behinds were getting painful rashes. Ouch. P&G turned it up a notch and enlisted support from an entire cadre of mommy bloggers to listen and turn it all around. That's a good paid influencer story. What's a good organic influencer story? In this episode of The Heart of Marketing, Jayme Soulati shares her story about becoming an influencer in public relations via development of her personal brand as a blogger. You'll hear about how that happened and the result. This influencer thing? It's all the rage right now, and in Episode 86, we share some good thoughts about the topic, too. In this episode, we give a shout out to Mark W. Schaefer and his cohost Tom Webster on The Marketing Companion podcast who just realized the fun of audio emojis. John Gregory Olson is the KING of audio emojis and has been doing them for exactly 87 episodes! When you listen, think of what we say as this: 1. Does my business need a boost with an outside influencer to help share stories about my brand to their customers who may become mine? 2. Do I have a budget to spend on a paid influencer campaign? 3. Can I do organic influence based on my ability to parlay my personal brand throughout a wider net? If you're stuck with this whole influencer thing, give us a shout. We can help you on the show with some thoughts because 3 heads are better than 1!