“The Age of Influence” by Neal Schaffer [Book Review]

I have spent the last several years with a very rudimentary understanding of influence and influencers. I only wish that I could be perceived as being as influential as the Kardashians or that kid on YouTube that unboxes toys and makes a gazillion dollars a year doing it. However, I’m not a celebrity. I’m a salesperson. What about me?

Still, we are all influencers in our own way. As salespeople, we influence customers to purchase our products. We encourage folks to recommend us to others. We want referrals. That being said, I have always looked at influence as being a marketing, vs. selling, function. Salespeople today are a bit of both.

I was first introduced to this idea by the author of this book, Neal Schaffer. Years ago Neal was kind enough to take me under his wing and give me a voice as a writer for Maximize Social Business (now NealSchaffer.com). As stupid as I was, I was quick to realize that aligning with Neal’s brand would provide me with a certain cachet.

I was right. Other opportunities and collaborations presented themselves as a result of our association. Neal also introduced our core of writers to a tool called GaggleAMP where we could collectively promote each other’s writing and services. Influencers using their voice for the benefit of the group members via amplification.

As I open the book, I am anticipating that this will not be “Influencer 101 for Dummies” and I’m right again. Let me say this, if you are a marketer looking to substantially up your game, this is the book for you! For me, it is a welcome foray into largely uncharted territory.

Neal’s premise is a solid one. Influencer marketing is not about paying influencers to promote your brand. It is not about conventional advertising but rather about engaging with users. It is about encouraging (leveraging) influencers to talk about your services while engaging and building real-life relationships.

Word of mouth. If this sounds “old school”, it is. Social media introduces new challenges as well as new opportunities. The goal of social media has always been to engage and build relationships, but this has gotten lost in the shuffle not to mention the noise. “Old rules, new tools”.

I could write a book about this book but then you wouldn’t buy it, would you? This is pretty high level stuff but, as per usual, Neal’s writing style is not one of lofty proclamations but rather down-to-earth and real-life examples backed by his meticulous research and attention to detail.

The focus of the book is the power of influencers to elevate your brand. There are four main parts …

Why Influencer Marketing?

Understanding Influencers and the Ways You Can Engage with Them

How to Work with Influencers to Generate Massive Results

Becoming an Influencer Yourself

Chapters include …

The Origins of Influence in the Modern World – We’ve been leveraging celebrities since the 1700’s and this includes having Mark Twain lending his name to cigars. Of course, the internet has become the consummate game changer.

The Emergence of Digital and Social – And the Importance of Content – I’ve never heard of the top 5 non-celebrity influencers but together they command 20,000,000 followers and make upwards of $150k per Instagram post. They engage with people and build communities. They are viewed as being authorities in their field.

Social Media was Made for People – You need to be able to understand social media algorithms and it begins with this … social media was built for people, not brands, Furthermore, content from people (including influencers) will always be favored.

How Visual Social Presents New Challenges to Businesses and New Opportunities to Influencers – People are attracted by visual images. They also like and tell stories. Witness Facebook, Instagram, and Snapchat. This is a highly competitive landscape and what do you do if your brand does not lend itself well to visual presentation?

Your Community is Always a Subset – With influencer marketing, the focus is placed on building your community rather than executing your campaign. You likely already have a community of faithful followers, but influencers have the potential to expand the size of your community exponentially due to social’s awesome reach.

Understanding the Influencer Landscape – Working with the right influencer is a marriage and not a one-night-stand. Celebrity does not necessarily translate to social influence. While size matters, it is not the only important criteria. You need the right influencers and you will need to be able to provide them with what they need in return.

The Employee as Influencer – While HR considerations may have to be addressed, a great employee advocacy program can really elevate your brand. Often employees play the role of internal influencers who already have a following and an affinity for your company and it’s services.

The 16 Different Ways to Collaborate with Influencers – 16 different ways!? Well. that should keep you busy and give you a variety of options from which to choose in order to collaborate most effectively with your targeted influencers.

To Buy or to Build – Social media is free, right? If so, why would you pay? Maybe because you want to get to your goal faster than you can by building your brand organically alone. Speaking of alone … DIY or use an agency?.

Developing the Foundations of an Influencer Marketing Strategy – Planning, planning, and … more planning. Social media is constantly evolving, and you must evolve with it, but it all starts with setting your goals with your end in mind. Moreover, goals without steps and desired results aren’t goals … they are wishes.

The Art and Science of Influencer Identification – First you have to find the right influencer and then you need to determine how best to build a mutually beneficial relationship and … this all takes time. You can add water to Kool Aid, but not to relationships. Take shortcuts here at your own peril.

Creating and Managing Influencer Relationships – Just like in selling, finding and creating influencer relationships has its own pipeline, or funnel, that is based on the process. This process outlines a series of progressive engagements. From there you will want to monitor agreed to activities without stifling the influencer’s creativity.

The Tools of the Influencer Marketing Trade – While tools, like social media itself, are constantly evolving, they can be broken down into four main categories … analysis, marketplace, agencies, and search engines. Tools are an integral part of scaling … People => Process => Tools.

Measuring Your Influencer Marketing ROI – Regardless of whether you are paying influencers or gifting them in some fashion, you will be making an investment and you should expect to see a return. How do you measure that? What KPIs are important? Finally, since you previously established goals and objectives, have they been reached?

Why and How Every Business Should Become More Influential – 1% of users, on average, will create 90% of the content on any social network. Moreover, 90% of the users on these networks do nothing but consume content. The math is fairly simple and it clearly points to why your business needs to become more influential.

How to Become a Social Media Influencer Yourself – You become an influencer by positioning yourself as an expert in your field and by becoming socially visible as that person. I’m going to finish this with a true story …

Years ago a service offered a free “branding assessment”. This tool would go out to your social networks and evaluate your presence based on a variety of factors including what you shared on the networks. It then compared it’s findings against what you considered to be your area of expertise. Mine happens to be selling.

A report card was then generated and I think that I got 3 F’s, 1 D, and 1 C. Not very promising. It turned out that I had been positioning myself as a jack of all trades … and as a master of none. When I hire a plumber, I’m hoping that sewing is not his true passion. Thankfully, I was able to pivot to focus on selling and the difference was dramatic.

Although this book does an excellent job of laying out concepts in terms that even I can grasp (mostly), I feel it is best designed for accomplished marketers who wish to take their brand to the next level. Please follow this link to order this book on Amazon!

While in very small circles I may be considered to be an influencer … no, I’m not getting paid for this. I even bought the book with my own money. What is up with that!? 🙂

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Craig M. Jamieson

Managing Member at Adaptive Business Services

Craig M. Jamieson is a lifelong B2B salesperson, manager, owner, and a networking enthusiast. Adaptive Business Services provides solutions related to the sales professional. We are a Nimble CRM Solution Partner. Craig also conducts training and workshops primarily in social selling and communication skills. Craig is also the author of "The Small Business' Guide to Social CRM", now available on Amazon!