Spinfluencers

I'm directed by The Leading Edge to the Spinfluencer blog. "Spinfluencer" is a great name (wish I'd thought of it, damn you!), and it got me thinking about how the marketing industry (and PR in particular) is struggling to incorporate influencer strategies into their traditional kitbag of activities.

I think marketing has got an image problem. Sales people find marketing pointless or irrelevant most of the time. Customers are suspicious and mistrust what they're being told. And proving RoI on marketing spend remains, for most, a "one day, maybe" aspiration.

I trust the irony of marketing's dilemma is not lost...

So putting together our thoughts for the book, Nick and I wanted to distance ourselves from traditonal marketing. Influencer Marketing is all about making messages more believed (because they're communicated by influencers, not by you). It's about aligning marketing with sales. And it's about demonstrating RoI, tangibly. Holistically, Influencer Marketing is about changing the way that organisations think about marketing.

One thing that holds this all together is the understanding that influencers are different. You can't "pitch" to them - they're way too smart for that. You can't train them to say nice things about you - they're not amenable. And you can't pay them - because that undermines their influence and is thus counter-productive.

While the term "spinfluencer" is memorable it has, for me, all the wrong connotations. It implies traditional marketing, spin and fluff, and it reinforces the negative image of the industry. Any marketing or PR agency that wants to understand influencers should be moving away from this approach.

When I browsed the Spinfluencer blog I found it to be interesting, well-written and insightful. I recommend it. I just hope they don't regret choosing the name.