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This piece was written by Belinda Stinson for Jeff Bullas's blog

 

Jan Gordon: My commentary

 

This is one of the suggestions that was mentioned in tis article but I can't stress this enough, it should be #1

 

After you've discovered who the right influencers are, always look for ways you can sincerely contribute to them that is meaningful, then find ways to leverage the relationship and make it a win/win for both of you. 

 

Intro:

 

 "if you want to grow your business, you need to know who the influencers are in your field, learn from their expertise and build a productive professional relationship with them".

 

Why leverage influencers?:

 

"Influencers are hubs of information, they have many followers who respect their recommendations and opionions and being featured by them sends a powerful amount of targeted traffic your way - It's good old fashioned word of mouth recommendations on steriods"

Here are a few ways to discover influencers that I personally do myself:

**Twitter Lists - Twitter is a great untapped resource for finding influencers and keep track of what they are posting

**Groups and Forums - These are valuable sources of information.

**Podcasts and webinars - This is a great way to find key influencers - whether it's through interviews, presentations, information products of their own or curated information by others

Here are a few ways to build relationships that I've found very effective in finding influencers in my industry:

 

**Connect through the social media platforms they use

 

**Share the posts that are of value to your audience, retweet & quote their content, share, comment and like their Facebook posts

 

**Help promote what they are involved with, including charity causes, seminars, conferences, publiations and promotions

 

Selected by Jan Gordon covering, "Curation, Social Business and Beyond"

 

See full articles here: [bit.ly/Nw9xqY]

Via janlgordon

There's a lot to be learned from how the big brands handle their customers on social media channels. These 9 examples should be part of your customer service playbook.

Via David Blundell

I selected this piece by Steve Olenski  for Forbes because it's good for B2C marketers to see the results of their social media campaigns.

 

This article is specifically aimed at B2C marketers where their consumers want instant gratification - promotions, giveaways, etc. Having said that, part of the purchasing cycle can include content in some cases depending on what you're selling and who your audience is.

 

Here are findings of a survey recently conducted by Market Force - a worldwide leader in customer intelligence solutions.

 

12,000 consumers in the US and UK were asked how they engaged with varying industries via social media: Facebook, Twitter, Linkedin and Google+

 

Here's what caught my attention:

 

**81% of US respondents indicated posts from their friends directly influenced their purchase decision

 

**80% of respondents “tried new things based on friends’ suggestions.”

 

**78% of respondents said the posts by companies they follow on social media impact their purchases.

 

**consumers are not all that interested in content but rather want something i.e. a promotion, giveaway, etc. when it comes to social media and their favorite brands.

 

Are Brands finally "getting it" when it comes to social media?

 

**They are getting more and more cognizant of the fact that what they post, share and so on can and will impact what the end user does – in this case, make a purchase decision.

 

**out of the 12,000 who participated 75% were women. This is incredibly significant given the fact that women account for 85% of all consumer purchases

 

Selected by Jan Gordon covering,  "Content Curation. Social Business and Beyond"

 

See full article here: [http://onforb.es/KQTqAR]

Via janlgordon

Weekday or Weekend? Midday or afternoon? Argyle Social's infographic on the art of good social timimg . . .

Via David Blundell