Influencer Apocalypse? No, But There Is a Community Opportunity
To say current conversations about influencer marketing are heated would be an understatement. With estimates of influencer marketing industry size ranging well into the billions of dollars, "influencers" certainly seem to be on the minds (and in the budgets) of marketers.
Let’s be honest - influencer marketing currently seems to be a bit of a mess. Issues with performance, lack of disclosure, authenticity, analytics, ethics, and even debate on what constitutes an "influencer".
I'll admit I've personally struggled with the concept of influencer marketing programs. I've focused on developing customer communities throughout my career, and it was always galling to see budgets dedicated to what I perceived as shallow and short term investments with influencers and opinion leaders competing for budget with community programs.
Now I see an opportunity to align influencer marketing programs with community development - or, said another way, I see an opportunity to identify and develop an evolved form of "influencer" from your community ecosystem. Specifically, I see an opportunity for many brands to see "influencer" development through the lens of community ecosystem development, and to align influencer investment with community-based champion and mvp programs.
To take advantage of this opportunity, three key transformations are needed:
Community Ecosystem Development: A shift from community development, slio'd by business function and digital touchpoint, to a comprehensive approach that includes all customer-facing programs, (on and offline) brand-hosted communities, social media touchpoints and partner / industry communities.
Community Advocacy Programs: Evolving community advocacy (MVP) programs (rooted in the dated Microsoft MVP model) to a model that identifies, celebrates and enables exceptional community stakeholders of all types (customers, prospects, fans, experts, employees and partners). This evolution would also involve an equitable value exchange between the community hosts and advocates.
Community Leadership Models: Evolve community leadership models to: 1) involve (enlist) more brand-side participants, 2) account for a broader range of community & ecosystem leadership activities (on and offline), and 3) ground community activity in purposeful transformation for all community members (a.k.a. ongoing personal improvement)
In short: most current "influencer" strategies are essentially paid media masquerading as social media. Grow influence through, and for, your customer community.
