Live blogging from Social Media Marketing World. Founder of Blab, Shaun Puri (https://twitter.com/ShaanVP) presented his philosophy of tribes and influencer marketing plus a huge shout out to Seth Godin’s book, Tribes.
INFLUENCER MARKETING IS DEAD: LONG LIVE INFLUENCER MARKETING
First, Shaun explained the traditional view of influencer marketing: we find a very important person (VIP) and they push this out to their followers, and then these followers raise their hands and say, “Hey, can I find one?” Then, he shared another view: get a bunch of smaller people (early adopters), and then they push it out to their (smaller) group of people. Oh, and by the way, this type of “content marketing” works best with a little sleight of hand: the idea being that the people “being marketed to” don’t know that “they’re being marketed to.” An example of powerful influencer marketing might be ‘Nash Grier’ on Vine, who apparently charges $15,000 a second for endorsements. The problem, he summed up with is that the problem is that everyone has ‘discovered’ influencer marketing, and it doesn’t work any more, or isn’t working any more (as much as it did). Yikes: once everyone has found out about something, then perhaps it doesn’t work as well as it once did, or perhaps it doesn’t work at all.
So, then he gave us some new rules about ‘marketing’ online.
SHAUN’S NEW RULES OF INFLUENCER MARKETING
- Don’t follow the trends.
- Do things that are trend proof.
NEW RULES
- There are no experts.
- By the time you hear about it, it won’t work anymore.
- Corollary: or, it will and can change very dramatically – e.g., Snapchat “changed” from sexting tool to the new new thing
TRIBES: SHOUT OUT TO SETH GODIN
To win the game you have to build a tribe. (Seth Godin).
- Tribes: have a unique voice
- Tribes: have a philosophy / unique world view (do some people disagree with you?)
- Leaders & diehards
- A place to gather (editorial aside – e.g., blab, sounds a lot like a Google hangout).
Better to have 1000 fans who really love you than 1,000,000 people who kinda like you.
The world is getting noisier! This is truer every single day.
Tactics for Success via the New New New New Influencer Marketing or Old Wine, New Bottles
- Go inside. Bring your ‘tribe’ inside, and converse with them.
- Amplify the message using your tribe.
Tribes: these are really your personal brand / personal most devoted fans, etc.
CONCLUSION: New apps like slack (https://slack.com/) and blab (https://blab.im/). “Home” for your tribe.
Oh, and editorial aside: is this just old wine in new bottles?
