Influencer and followers in B2C: a study on the profession, results, measurements.

WARNING Original content of Marilde Motta – ?ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. No part of this text can be utilized, reproduced, transmitted, shared by any means without my prior written permission. Constructive comments are welcome.

AVVERTENZA Soggetto originale di Marilde Motta – ?RIPRODUZIONE RISERVATA. Nessuna parte di questo testo può essere utilizzata, riprodotta, trasmessa, condivisa con qualsiasi mezzo senza la mia preventiva autorizzazione scritta. Commenti costruttivi sono benvenuti.

Foreword

The “influence marketing” is a solution companies can rely on when they want to reach an audience, online, for some reasons (introducing a new product, make a brand more known, push consumers to buy, inspire a behavior and so on). It is a consequence of the ICT evolution of the last twenty years. Browsing online is for free, easy and it arrives at home, “on the go”, in any moment. People prefer to explore opportunities and search for information, entertainment, gaming, shopping in many different online platforms. Demand and offer are moving online and also the relationship between brands and customers is finding online a new dimension. A solution that enables people to share opinions, images, mentions, comments and receive the most coveted “like. It is a new way of building relationships, furthermore the dynamics inside the relationship online have some specific characteristics that it is important to know:

-“one-to-one”: between the influencer and one affected follower

-“one-to-many”: between the influencer and the mass of followers

-“many-to-many”: among the followers communicating each other. The influencer phenomenon is really very complex and is controversial too due to the lack of well-defined analytical tools to measure the performances and results, besides there is not a code of conduct (including ethics and standards) commonly shared and accepted. Our aim is to give an overview of this phenomenon and then go more in depth in order to understand the “profession” of influencer. In this study, we try to suggest some viable solutions to investigate (and when possible to measure): the influencer, his\her action, the results.

Influencer as a profession

The attempt of influencing someone has always existed. A man or a woman with personal characteristics of pleasantness, at ease with all, reliable, with a recognized expertise in a field, is a natural-born influencer, is eligible to become a kind of spontaneous mentor, a source of inspiration. Anyway, his\her influence is of short range and can affect the nearest friends, relatives and colleagues. When we speak of “professional” influencer we enter in a specific branch of marketing communications. These professionals are tasked by companies to carry out some activities in order to achieve well-defined goals in B2C marketing communications.

They are paid (in money or in products\services) in order to:

§-reach an audience:

each professional influencer has his\her specific audience and should offer to companies an analytical study of the members of the audience (not only the total number). In fact, when a company wants to advertise on a magazine, the study of the target-audience of the magazine is just the first step. The rules of media planning apply also to influencers. When a company wants to hire the services of a professional influencer, it should study the influencer and his\her audience, verifying whether both match with the target-audience of the brand. The influencer’s audience has to comply with all the psychographic and socio-demographic characteristics of the brand target-audience (and not only in terms of generic data as Millennials, GenX-Y-Z). It is necessary to have strong and valid insights about socio-demographic and lifestyle features of the influencer’s audience. The dimension (the total number of follower) is not significant when it is not certified, as well as it is not useful to a company when the big crowd of followers is not in target with the brand or when they stay silent, passive and inactive, that is when they do not act as a community

§-act according to a brief:

the brief sets the goals and the types of qualitative\quantitative results the professional influencer is requested to achieve in a defined period of time, in a geographic region and so on. The job carried out by a professional influencer for a brand needs to be developed and accomplished according to well-defined guidelines in order to avoid mistakes (and put at stake the brand). The brief is a document of strategic importance (as well as in traditional advertising). The content (the topics, the development of themes, the tone of voice, etc..), the images (photos, video clip, etc.) need to be arranged and agreed between the company (or its communication agency) and the influencer. It is necessary to have in mind the identity and the values of the brand, the features of the target-audience, as well as the aims of the influence marketing campaign. A calendar of topics is useful in order to plan the activities and develop a program aimed to well-defined results. It is not advisable to leave the influencer alone, he\she cannot know enough the brand and the products\services, the consequence could be an unintentional damage to the brand

§-engage the audience:

gaining the attention, passion and other positive feelings of the audience is a part of the job, then the professional influencer must transfer the positive mood and sentiments to the client’s brand. According to the client’s business aims, the further steps are about to keep the audience’s goodwill and willingness for a long time and make the audience do some actions in favor of the brand. The engagement includes some phases, all tightly linked each other: to arouse interest is only the first one. What is much more difficult is to keep the attention for a long period and, most of all, urge on to do something (according to the brief given by the client). The influencer is requested to post new topics, images and manage conversations with followers (when needed he\she must tone down impolite conversations). In the reality, an influencer has some clients, each with its own communications and business program, so the influencer needs to drive the attention of his\her followers towards some brands, simultaneously. In the influencer’s blog, or website, we can find a number of brands, sometimes of the same category (if otherwise there is not a specific proviso in the contract or a restrictive covenant agreement). We have to be aware that it is always a shared engagement, a shared attention, a shared interest. When the influencer is asked for posting photos and stories on social platforms and he\she works at the same time for some brands, there is an inevitable overlap. Almost all the influencers entertain the followers presenting a variety of topics. They full up their blogs and websites with plenty of photos and video. The true activity of engagement is diluted or it is not at all carried out. Let’s consider the meaning of engagement, in a dictionary it is possible to find different definitions: from the “act of promising a marriage” to the “act of starting a battle with enemies”, but there is also the “fact of being involved with something or someone”. Involvement means a deep emotional feeling, a close relationship, a mutual empathy and confidence. To be effective, engagement requires an intimate relationship, a two-ways exchange. Very rare to find an effective activity of engagement, as said the influencers spend their time in entertaining and amusing the mass of followers, not in engaging. The attention, interest, even love of followers represent a “treasure” any influencer drives on himself\herself and seldom on client’s brand. When analyzing the engagement, this point must be studied in depth to detect the real features of the engagement an influencer promises and offers to a brand

§-give rise to a reaction:

it means make the audience perform an action: as give a “like”, purchase a product, attend an event, share an image, test a product and so on according to the client’s brief. The reaction is a sudden response. It represents what actually arrives in the influencer’s website (or in a social platform). The reaction of the audience takes place immediately after an action of the influencer (a post, a comment, a photo, etc..) and it is linked to this specific action. In general, influencers post lots of topics during the day (in different social platforms), it is rare followers can focus the attention for a long period on one specific influencer’s action (and related brand). The consequence is that we see actions and reactions follow one another in a very short period of time. From the principles of the “attention economics”, we know that attention is a limited resource as well as the capability to remember. For this reason, it is necessary to make a clear distinction between reaction (now) and conversion (afterwards). A reaction manifests itself in three ways:

-positive: for instance immediate nice comments, re-share of the post. When a coupon can be downloaded from the influencer’s website (for instance after a tutorial) and presented by a follower in a shop, in a specific period of time, we can track and verify a consequence on sales. When a crowd attends an event with the invitation downloaded from the influencer’s website, in a defined day of the week, this is another way to track down a positive reaction

-neutral: it means followers stay inactive, indifferent, silent (it is a sign that the engagement does not work, perhaps there are too many topics and the follower is not able to focus the attention, or it could be a signal that the followers simply do not exist)

-hostile and antagonistic: with reactions from impolite to dislike, to hate. In this case the negative reaction, as well as any form of reaction, should be investigated and it is of great importance to understand when the reaction is towards the influencer (approving, praising, thanking, or on the contrary blaming and rebuking him\her), or the reaction is directly connected to a brand. Any reaction is expressed by an emotional (positive or negative) feeling, it is immediate and almost directly linked to a “stimulus”, it lasts for a very short period of time, rarely leaving an impression in the memory

§-convert:

conversion is a continuous process. It is a mental work ending up in some results that it is possible to measure in the long run (as for instance a change in opinion). As said, if reaction is “now”, conversion is “afterwards”. It is a dynamic process of forming opinions, sentiments, beliefs, attitudes, preferences, sense of belonging. It is a process in which feelings and emotions, as well as rational and logic thoughts, match and clash until the opinion is formed. It is a precarious balance, the result changes from time to time. For instance the interest, or preference for a brand can grow and then decrease according to the stimulations from different sources (advice of a relative, suggestions of a shop assistant, advertising on paper and television, direct experience, etc..). It is really hard, if not almost impossible, to make a distinction among the different sources and measure which is more effective in forming an opinion in the long period. Whilst reaction is immediate, often directly linked to a well-defined stimulation and can be tracked, when we speak of conversion we refer to the formation of “something intangible” in the mind of a person. We refer to a slow process that is impacted by simultaneous impulses from different sources, so what we can measure is the content of the thought, at a precise moment (for instance what a consumer thinks of a brand, monitored year after year). Reaction is the precise term for understanding what followers and fans of the influencer do, whilst I suggest to use the term conversion when we want to assess intangible thoughts (as opinion, preference, interest, positive and negative judgment, etc..) in the long run. The activity of an influencer is supposed to have an impact on conversion too when the influencer can go on working for months or years for a brand, but we have to bear in mind that conversion is referred to forming and shaping thoughts, sentiments, feelings, so conversion requires a specific methodology and tools to be measured.

What does it mean to influence?

To influence means to try to cause a change in someone. To influence is always an operation that impacts (slightly or heavily) on the mind, will, preference, opinion of a person. It is an action calculatedly and deliberately planned and accomplished with specific tools. The influencer plays out a seductive behavior, he\she leverages on emotions and aspirations, he\she boosts the desire of followers’ self-realization so that they find in the influencer a source of inspiration, even a leader (frequently, the consequence is an uncritical imitation of the influencer in the hope to improve oneself and become as well as popular). This psychological side of influence is not enough investigated yet, we need to understand the mental process, the way the followers are affected. When we speak of influence, the ethical implications must be taken into considerations always. If the influencer try to condition a behavior, if there is a derisive attitude towards the ones that do not comply with the suggested style, if there is not the possibility to reply, if the influencer denies the content is paid, if the influencer declares a certain number of followers without certified data, all these actions are dangerous and unfair. In many countries, associations of consumers and regulatory institutions have defined some rules, anyway the whole influence marketing system has not yet a well-defined code of conduct. An ethical and transparent behavior should drive the activity of the many different types of professionals when playing the role of influencers. One of the many aspects that should be analyzed is just about the way the influence is carried on, there is a deep difference among persuasion, manipulation, suggestion, inspiration, advice. The consequences can go from zero interest to an ephemeral attention but without reaction, from a more incisive impact with reaction, up to a form of addiction (when the influencer exerts a form of strong control pushing followers to act in a certain way). For instance, it is the case of the waves of hatred and hate against a brand launched by an influencer. In the “classic” advertising sector on paper or on other media, there are well-defined guidelines, an ethical code of conduct and many countries have appointed a third-party independent institution to exert a control over the contents. Self-regulation codes and ethical principles used in advertising sector are a model that the influencers should consider.

As we have seen, reach, act, engage, prompt a reaction, convert in the long term are the main actions companies ask influencers for. In few years, for some categories of products, professional influences have replaced advertising on magazines and have started a new form of promotion. Professional influencers act using their owned website, blog, social media accounts, so they work mostly online. The contents they deal with are rather wide in B2C area. There is a mix of entertainment, lifestyle suggestions, tutorials, gaming, inspiration, gossip and of course promotion of brands and products. Rarely influencers are involved in social issues and provide support to charity, on the contrary they try to show life (their personal life) as a dream (sometimes in an unbelievable and excessive style that is part of their “strategy of allurement”). They use a mix of videos, texts, photos, but it is above all with images that they entice attention and give impulse to imitation, acceptance, bonding. They offer themselves as a model followers are requested to imitate. Many, if not all, the influencers’ websites in fashion and cosmetic sectors try to look like the most famous and glamorous paper magazines (as this is still the timeless model). Influencers try to encourage imitation of their style, this is empathized using videos where the influencer is the protagonist of the story. Influencers attitude is self-referential, egocentric. To have an “attention-seeking behaviour” seem to be their cachet, a kind of emblem. The profession of influencer is attracting many newcomers as the entry barriers are very low, so for companies it is even more difficult to assess an influencer and take the decision to employ him\her. Even if, in some countries, this profession begins to be regulated by law (for instance: the influencer must disclose the agreement he\she has with a company and declare the income), it is still largely without boundaries and regulations.

Kinds of professional influencers

Generally speaking, consumers show full confidence in people that are recognized as experts and have specific skills. For instance, a sommelier is a trustworthy person when he suggests a wine, but in a specific context, as in a restaurant, he could act also as endorser of a specific brand of wine. In everyday life, under many different circumstances, we meet persons giving their suggestions freely, whilst there are other situations in which the piece of advice comes from a person paid by a brand, more or less openly.

In brand strategies, companies make an extensive use of people with specific characteristics (popular in a country, award-winner, expert in a topic, etc..) and with some personal features (charisma, empathy, leadership, knowledge) according to the product, the circumstances, the target, the market and so on. Their role is considered crucial for the success of a brand and they can act in many different ways, for instance: speaking in a formal occasion as in a medical congress, or simply showing the product in their lifestyle, or in many other manners. In B2C markets, these persons play an important role, but with differences that is important to know (and the provisos of their contracts as well as their remuneration are different).

As said, the profession of influencer presents many peculiar and different sides. I started to prepare a taxonomy 1992, when the influence marketing activity was at the beginning and it was only offline, and I completed it in 2014 and, later on, I added the new types born in the online ambient. Just to have the full landscape, listed below there are the main types of influencers with the features of each of them. Each profession represents a specific way to exert the influence:

§-testimonial:

perhaps it is the first and oldest way to play the role of influencer. The choice of the person, for the role of testimonial, depends on many elements that must match with the characteristic of the product/brand. Anyway, most of all, the person must be well-known (ideally in different countries so to maximize the advertising campaign and other promotional activities), for this reason the choice often is among sport, music, or cinema stars and similar celebrities. He\she must be reliable (to avoid to jeopardize huge investments and the reputation of the brand) and he/she must be able to express empathy so to catch the attention of media and consumers. The role of testimonial is often “passive”, he/she simply shows himself/herself with the product in events, videos, advertising campaigns, according to a program set by a company

§-endorser:

is a person of great knowledge that can recommend a product/brand with competence because he/she is a recognized expert in the topic/field. The role is active and proactive with personal engagement, leveraging on his/her own professional skills and experiences. The endorser promotes a product/brand transferring on it his/her personal credibility. Sometimes an endorser works also in B2B sector because the most important quality he\she must show is knowledge (whilst a testimonial must be simply famous). Even if the target-audience is informed he\she is paid by a company, his\her reputation (based on knowledge) is so strong that deserves to be trusted. When the endorser is used in some fields (as for instance health) the behavior of the company must be very transparent and the endorser must use scientific evidences that can be verified

§-ambassador:

the role of brand ambassador is recent, it is mainly used for luxury products (but not exclusively) in fashion, automotive and jewelry. The person is coupled with a product or service and he/she shows it as part of his/her lifestyle. An ambassador embodies all the characteristics of the ideal consumer of a specific brand. He\she takes part in events, in special occasions of high visibility where he\she can make the voice of the brands heard (or the logo seen). A special kind of ambassador is the one working for ngo and charity organizations, in this case he\she is a goodwill ambassador related to a cause (they promote fund raising, suggest correct behaviors, sustainable habits, etc..)

§-owner:

a member of the family owner of a company can acts as promoter of his\her products\services. He\she has competence on the topic and passion, he\she can speak in a context of full identification with the brand and the company. Anyway, not all the owners have the personal characteristic of empathy and are familiar with their audience, or are at ease when speaking in public

§-evangelist:

this term refers to persons fond of a product/service and also very expert of it. Years ago the term was related only to experts in digital technologies, today the word is used in many fields. What is specific is the personal involvement, an evangelist is really convinced of the quality, or benefits, or advantages offered by the product. He\she sustains the brand because believes in it. Sometimes, instead of a specific brand, they promote a category (for instance sugar-free products). When they spontaneously promote a brand are not paid. It is an atypical form of influence

§-expert:

in case of crisis, companies need to rely on independent, trustworthy experts of a topic. So, according to the risk management strategy, it is advisable to have an up-dated list of great experts of topics related to the potential critical areas of the company (critical areas should be detected in advance using risk management assessment). They will be contacted only in case of dangerous crisis and only for the specific topic. It is advisable to prefer well-known experts, because general public has to acknowledged him/her before trusting him/her. The aim, in using this kind of experts, is to cool down the reactions (sometimes irrational) of people and set a situation where a serene debate is viable. In fact, a “testimonial” (or similar) is the worst solution, people know he\she is paid to support a brand, besides his\her knowledge and competence about the solution of a crisis are not believable. On the contrary, an “owner” has all the needed competence, but he/she is too much involved in the company. Beware of “evangelists”, they are often the first to give cold shoulders to the company when there is a problem, they feel betrayed and sometimes are looking for revenge. This very common behavior must be attentively managed to avoid further damages. Neutral experts are hired for a temporary period and for a specific case of crisis

§-referral:

this term is mainly used in the sense of “someone recommending personally another individual”. It refers to the support given by a professional to another professional. It is very common in small business or professional firms where personal relationship and networking is fundamental. Recommendations have a deep value and are not seen as paid promotions. Sometimes the mutual exchange of recommendations is a form of compensation

§-booster:

he\she is a person firmly convinced about the benefit related to a certain behavior, or diet, or product\service (branded or not branded). The booster is not necessarily an expert (as the endorser or the evangelist), but a person that is simply persuaded that when something is good for himself\herself it can be good also for the others. So, he\she spreads the word about a certain topic in his\her network (in real life and in online social networks). They are not paid to promote a content, they are spontaneous, they are motivated by the idea to make other people enjoy or share something good. These people are very active on social platforms and represent the liveliest side of followers of a brand, lifestyle trend, or specific category of products, sharing and relaunching contents. Unfortunately, many of the boosters promote contents without checking the quality and the truth

§-supporter:

this term refers mainly to fans in sport and music and it is used also in politics. The enthusiasm of supporters is often directed and well-organized in clubs and in networks in order to be more efficient in encouraging and promoting a sport team or a music band. In politics, the organization of supporters is planned according to well-defined schemes and finalized to specific aims (political elections, long-term support to the party, fund raising, etc..)

§-influencer:

the word influencer was used first in the fashion system and then became popular in cosmetics, interior design, gastronomy, music, tourism and so on. Today, the term “influencer” describes the mission of people promoting brands online, leveraging on their peculiar features. Influencers try to make other people do something according to the client’s plans.

As we have seen, there are many different terms to name the professionals of influence because the content of their activity is different as well as the aim. There is not only the taxonomy we have illustrated (finalized to specify the different types of influencers, the role they play and the content of their activities), there is also another way of classifying them. It is based on the dimension of the followers:

-\-micro influencers with no more than 25,000 followers

-\-macro influencers with about 100,000 followers

-\-mega influencers with a reach of 500,000 followers

-\-celebrities within 5 million followers

-\-stars with more than 5 million followers.

The problem of this classification, based only on the number of followers, is due to the lack of certified data, besides nothing is said about the psychographic and socio-demographic characteristics of the audience, nor how followers interact with the influencer, etc.. This way of coding refers only to the influencers working online, whilst there are influencers (as testimonials, brand ambassadors, endorsers, etc..) that are active mainly offline.

Until a recent past there were two terms (opinion maker and opinion leader) that were in use. It is necessary to clear the field to avoid misconceptions. The role of opinion maker or opinion leader has very little to do with influencers. Besides, these opinions (dòxa) were about politics or macro social, scientific, economic themes. The focus is on the term “opinion” (a construct, a way of thinking, a belief, a wide movement) linked to the term “public” (a generic mass of individuals, a population of a nation). An opinion maker is a person with charisma and knowledge who can form and spread ideas (in politics, as well as in a scientific field or in other situations). Sometimes, the role of building opinions is played by an administrative institution, especially when they want to teach correct behaviors in the public interest. So, they form the opinion supporting it with researches and certified insights. We suggest to put aside both terms (opinion maker, or opinion former and opinion leader) as we are not dealing with opinions but with marketing aims, with well-defined commercial purposes of brands. Anyway, an influencer, working for brands and products, can leverage on the activity of an opinion maker in order to show that the brand complies with the established public opinion (for instance on heath topics, or on sustainability, on social inclusion, civil rights, etc..).

What and how to measure

In the B2C area and considering only online influencers, we suggest to study and, when possible, measure (with quantitative and qualitative methods): the influencer, his\her activity, results. In the below list of aspects that can be evaluated, we take into consideration only a physical person acting as professional influencer. We do not contemplate cartoon character, robot, AI, avatar and so on, but it is necessary to be aware that some companies are employing them. We want to show the extension of the researches today it is necessary to display before choosing an influencer and investing on him\her.

§-influencer

-person

it is advisable to start with the exam of simple data describing him\her (age, studies, training, working experience, specific skills, town\region where he\she lives, family and other descriptive elements)

-personality

the psychological aspect of the personality, the motivation to be a professional influencer, personal aims, sense of responsibility and ethics and other elements about the strength of personality that can help to know him\her better

-reputation

reputation is a highly dynamic process made by (positive or negative) judgments expressed by people, online as well as offline, on the influencer (as a person and as a professional). The judgment can be both individual (for instance, is the result of a personal experienced interaction with the influencer) and collective (for instance, generated by the exchange of feelings and thoughts among followers). Reputation is composed of many different items that people put on trial. In the case of an influencer, people could scrutinize: skills, competence, creativity, ethical behavior, as well as pleasantness, empathy, dependability, etc.. The way he\she behaves, both in real life and in his\her website or blog, has an impact on reputation. Discrepancies can be detected and reveal potentially dangerous incongruences. It is important to assess transparency in showing paid activities and in giving qualitative\quantitative data about followers. It is possible to measure on\offline reputation from time to time in order to verify changes (and what caused changes). Confidence, reliability and other constructs stem from a good and solid reputation

-image

image is the global perception without a judgement, is a kind of “conceptual map” bringing together the characteristics of the influencer and his\her working activity. It is the map of the visual and symbolic elements, the contents, the style featuring the influencer (what people remember of him\her, as well as it arrives for a brand or a company name). Image is a process (in some extent) driven by the influencer that defines how he\she wants to be perceived and remembered There are specific indicators that help to evaluate the image (almost the same used for brands) and can open the path to other researches. In fact, the image is linked to the study of recognition (when the name of the influencer is spontaneously quoted and correctly coupled with his\her field of activity). Notoriety points out how much an influencer is known (the research can show the three kinds of notoriety: spontaneous, helped, top of mind). Notoriety is positive but easily, for adverse circumstances, could become a notorious negative fame. Image can be studied also from the awareness point of view (e.g. the consciousness a person has about the influencer), awareness comes from a deep and direct knowledge of him\her

-ascendancy

it is about the style of leadership, how he\she uses guidance, how he\she exerts a soft power or he\she prefers to be dominant, put pressure on followers. As said, there is a big difference among persuasion, manipulation, suggestion, inspiration, advice, so it is useful also to ascertain the verbal expressions, the use of language and jargon (for instance turning to Klaus Krippendorff’s content analysis, or semantical analysis, etc..). The consequences of ascendancy are revealed (not exclusively) by some types of reaction (positive, neutral, negative) of followers

-connections

it is advisable to measure his\her personal connections using social network analysis research or social networking potential analysis. It must be clear that a connection is simply a “bridge” with someone, a connections is not a relationship (that is a two-ways exchange). It is useful to study how wide is the personal network of the influencer (including all his\her on\offline connections and not only online followers) and then study the strength of ties. The strength reveals the emotional intensity when exchanges take place among the connections. The next step is to focus the study on the structural cohesion of the network (in this case considering only followers). The study on structural cohesion is fundamental because influencers are requested to manage and lead a true community opening the path to an effective two-ways transference (influencer receives the approval of followers and transfer it to a brand, on the other hand he\she endorses a brand when transferring to followers the brand identity and values). It is possible to outline a sociogram, that is a graphic representation of the links in order to have clear insights about connections. This is just to give an idea how important is accuracy in assessing the many aspects of the connections

§-activity

-field

specialization is today almost compulsory, it is related to competence and expertise. Followers are willing to give their approval, interest and even loyalty when the influencer is a reliable expert in a field (or in few tightly coherent areas)

-media

an influencer can work through some online media. His\her website or blog is the starting point, besides influencers use their accounts on many social networks platforms (Instagram, Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, Pinterest and many others). It is also possible the influencer uses the client’s website and its online preferred platforms. It is advisable to have the full landscape of the media used by the influencer, just to have the opportunity to analyze the performance and the return provided by each. Among the assessments there is viewability (related impressions) and opportunity to see of the media used by the influencer, both important when considering quantitative data

-content

an influencer starts his\her activity creating contents (a show schedule, or editorial schedule) that are the substantial part of his\her website. Contents (expressed through texts, images, audio, etc..) and style (the way contents are shaped and communicated) are the tools to appeal to an audience. To arouse the interest of an audience in order to “catch” followers among the audience, the influencer has to work hard to fill the needs (entertainment, amusement, tutoring, etc..) of followers and potential followers. Most of all, each influencer must make his\her website different from any other dealing with similar topics, recognizable, preferred. To captive an audience the contents need to be interesting, useful, adjourned, exclusive, surprising, reliable. Anyway, the content needs to be strong enough to characterize the influencer, make him\her really unique and recognizable

-relationship

it is a primary value and a strategic asset an influencer can rely on when he\she wants to offer business opportunities to a client. In the theory of relationship, there are two main types: a conditional relationship contingent upon some rules and based on the exchange of perfectly equal benefits, or an unconditioned relationship. This last is the model all influencers have adopted. An unconditional relationship is built on an asymmetric reciprocity. The influencer “gifts contents” to followers and followers are free to accept the gifted contents, or refuse, because there is not the obligation to reciprocate (for instance with a supporting comment). It is important to study the mechanism of reciprocity in this specific kind of relationship because also benefits are asymmetric. The “generosity” of the influencer in producing and releasing contents could receive appreciation and enthusiastic liking even when the content is of no use for the follower, simply because the follower feels himself\herself committed to return the “favor”. Furthermore, a “like” could be a self-centered signal, the follower simply does not want to give a judgement of appreciation, but he\she gives a signal of his\her presence among the followers (as to say “look at me”). Another point to be carefully studied is the trend of using a re-share of a post as a kind of selfie (“here I am with the celebrity of the web”). So, behind a “like” or any other reactions there is always a behavior that it is necessary to examine in depth (for instance with qualitative researches). A relationship should be open to mutual influence, this means that the influencer should accept the feedback from followers and build a constructive two-ways dialog. In the area of relationship, it is advisable to study the dimension of engagement (e.g. how many actions have a coherent and consistent reaction). It is necessary to study also the activity aimed to retain the followers and the solutions chosen to regain the followers when they leave. We have also to be aware that successful influencers (with a large audience) cannot manage all the activities alone. They need the help of a (frequently anonymous) staff, so a follower has the illusion to interact with the influencer, instead the actions and reactions take place among followers and members of the staff. This is a facet to be studied to detect a negative sentiment of frustration in the followers

-message

the studies about the strength, density, cohesion of connections are important because are linked to the lifecycle of a message (according to the line of studies opened by Armand Morgenzstern). High cohesion is linked to how far a message can arrive as well as to the amount of attention and interest followers are willing to provide. There are also other items to be analyzed: the memorial penetration value of the message, the measure of emotional involvement (related to liking, interest, identification, belonging)

-entertainment

as we have seen, entertainment is the main activity of an influencer. It is not only about leisure activity and amusement, it is possible to arouse the interest of followers also dealing with useful problem-solving topics. To entertain is the art of satisfying people’ curiosity, of surprising, providing help, advice and a moment of joy. The influencer builds his\her website or blog with the goal to attract and retain followers. There is a continuous fitting and fine tuning of contents to make followers really satisfied because they find, in the influencer’s website, a hub full of all they need. Monitoring the variety of contents and style is essential to find potential affinity (or discrepancies) with a brand and take the consistent decision about investing

-engagement

we have defined engagement as a personal involvement and this implies positive or negative emotions (primary simple emotions as happiness, sadness, anger, fear, disgust, etc..). It is a mental and physical status as emotions are revealed by physical signs as studies in neuroscience had discovered (for instance: facial expressions, changes in the heart and breathing, blushing or becoming pale, sweating, mouthwatering, goosebumps, etc..). It is interesting to study a panel of followers, when they look their preferred influencer’s website or blog, when they react and take part in a conversation, in a two-ways exchange. The mental and physical signs are fundamental to understand what provokes a reaction and the intensity of it. Involvement is a measure of engagement and, when positive, opens the path to loyalty, to a long lasting relationship

§-results

-audience as a community

after having suggested the types of exams and researches about the influencer (his\her identity and characteristics) and his\her activity, it is time to study the influencer’s audience. The socio-demographic, psychographic data and segmentation, besides the expectations and needs of the audience are simply basic elements. The attention on the audience should drive to understand its transformation in community, hence we need to assess its density, cohesion, mutual influence because in a real community followers interact each other and not only with the influencer. The transformation of a generic audience of followers in a community is a great achievement and reveals the successful activity of the influencer. We suggest to take into consideration also another set of analysis dedicated to understand the rate of growth: how many new followers per year become members of the community, how many leave and how many come back. Besides it is necessary to know why there are these changes. Among the members of a community the tie strength analysis makes clear the combination of time spent together online, emotional intensity in participation, reciprocity and other aspect

-followers as authors

we have already seen the kinds of reactions (or conversions in the long run) provoked by followers and the possibility to measure return on participation. There are new analysis headed to study a follower as an author, because there are not only synthetic expressions as a “like”, but followers are sometimes authors of well-structured and articulated comments (to be studied using natural language processing). There are occasions in which a follower brings, into the conversation flow, even new topics or he\she explores them from an original angle. The monitoring the conversations should not be limited to detect negative or positive comments, but the research should be pushed further on to understand the new contents offered by followers in their participation activity. When a follower becomes an author is often ready to become an active advocate and, not so rarely, a future competitor of the influencer, starting his\her own influence activity

-loyalty and transference

loyalty in followers is generated by some items, just to quote some: satisfaction in seeing needs and wishes fulfilled, pleasure for the entertainment offered by the influencer, gratification to be part of a community, trust in the influencer (in his\her integrity, skills and competence), personal gratification in interacting with the influencer and receiving attention. Each item can be assessed using, for instance, panel research. Anyway the choice of the methodology of research depends on some factors and today the range of tools is really very wide. Loyalty is a sentiment on which companies can rely on when they want to build a long term relationship between customers and brands. Loyalty of the followers is the fundamental asset an influencer has to offer to brands, but it is nothing if it is not coupled with transference. As we have seen, transference or transitivity is the capability of the influencer to redeploy his\her tangible and intangible features on a brand and make followers to appreciate it as well as they appreciate the influencer. The focus of researches should be also on transference (how the influencer performs this activity and how the followers respond).

Why to measure

There are three steps in measuring:

-before

one reason to conduct researches is when a company is about to decide the use of an influencer and wants to know opportunities and benefits an influencer might provide. Another reason is when the operation of assessment is not only among some influencers, but is headed to compare influencers to other solutions (for instance traditional advertising in magazines, sponsored content on online media, events, etc..). The decision to invest on an influencer (or many in different countries) needs to be carefully considered, hence researches and studies should consider viable alternatives (in some markets or for some products or services, influence marketing is not always the suitable choice). The decision of the company should be independent from the mainstream and aimed to find an effective and economically efficient solution according to the marketing purposes

-during

a continuous monitoring is necessary on the activity of the chosen influencer. As said, he\she should stay in steady contact with the client and actions should be planned together. Client and influencer should agree on a quantitative and qualitative list of results, as well as on a list of researches the client will employ to assess the results. Collaboration is always suitable in order to adjust and modify the plans in order to achieve the defined results

-after

once the influence marketing campaign arrives to the end, it is time to launch researches to assess the final balance. It means not only to look at negative outcomes that do not match the defined and agreed results or the positive ones that are consistent with the agreement. It will be useful to think in terms of improvements and revise the full decision before going on, restarting from the comparison between the use of influence marketing and other solutions as the situations evolve in few months.