How Advocates and Influencers Create Growth Using Social

Media

Presented by: Mick Twomey, Co-founder of PointBurst

What’s the difference and why do you care?

Brands now have to pay to reach their fans

Influencers and advocates are powerful because of what they

inherently offer

Exponential Reach The average employee has over 500 connections on social media The average influencer has far more

Unrivaled Trust 81% of U.S. online consumers’ purchase decisions are influenced

by their friends’ social media posts (Market Force) 84% of people trust recommendations from people they know,

while only 15% trust recommendations from brands (Gartner). A word-of-mouth recommendation is the primary factor behind

20% - 50% of all purchase decisions (Modern Comment)

How do you build a stable of influencers?

Identify your influencer goals

Find the appropriate influencers Services like Brander (www.branderapp.com) will find and vet

them for you Install a plugin on Chrome to add Klout to Twitter

Give to receive Add them to lists on Twitter and begin to track their posts to find

things you can retweet or comment on to build a genuine connection

Find commonalities and identify ways to reach out with a more personal connection

Consider the power of an army of advocates

Your best advocates will exist in the field

They have the power to increase the reach for your social media content exponentially

Mobilize to delivery a flurry of positive information during a time of negative press

Deploy the right content at the right time to drive messaging around a new product release or announcement

A peek at the Facebook fans for major direct selling brands

Ambit Energy Mannatech Rodan + Fields WorldVentures -

20,000

40,000

60,000

80,000

100,000

120,000

140,000

24,000

65,000 71,000

119,000

But how many are they actually reaching?

Ambit Energy Mannatech Rodan + Fields WorldVentures -

20,000

40,000

60,000

80,000

100,000

120,000

140,000

24,000

65,000 71,000

119,000

1,680 4,550 4,970 8,330

Facebook Fans Likely Organic Reach

But YOU are in a good spot!

Direct Selling is the perfect industry for social advocates

Army of volunteer sales people who WANT to get the word out about you

Gary Vaynerchuk refers to each of the reps as their own media company

Advocates DRIVE brand awareness

Large direct selling organizations may only be reaching less than 10% of their fans organically. Corporate posts from… Ambit, Mannatech or Rodan + Fields could reach less than 5,000 fans WorldVentures could reach less than 10,000 fans

Imagine the impact of a trusted and brand pure message coming from your field to their 300 friends on Facebook alone 100 reps would yield a potential reach of 30,000 1,000 reps would yield a potential reach of 300,000 10,000 reps would yield a potential reach of 3,000,000

Where would you want to focus your efforts?

Tips for a successful social advocate program

Dedicated Resources – great content is critical for success and that takes time, effort and expertise

Advocacy Champion – identify someone to own this process

Process Support – pilot first, employ technology or proven process to enable the field from the beginning

Analyze and Improve – track results, provide incentives, gamification

In Summary

Building and nurturing your influencers and advocates can be a tremendous boost to your brand’s growth

“But whether our social media platforms reach thousands with our brand message or a single person who needs our assistance, social media is relevant for direct sellers, so we need to manage it well. After all, social media, like direct selling, is all about relationships.” – Direct Selling News

Mick Twomeywww.pointburst.com

Mick.twomey@pointburst.com469.556.8443

@mick_twomey