Social connections have a nice price
We’ve heard the saying that "time is money", but what doesn’t get said enough is that relationships are money. Every business venture I have got into, every investor who has taken the plunge, and a good number of clients, have all sprouted from either friendships or close acquaintances. Maybe the saying "it’s not what you know, but who you know" has more relevance but I don’t fully comply with this statement either, because if all the people I knew simply didn’t trust or respect me then I certainly wouldn’t have been able to form these business relationships. So we could derive that a key element of any business relationship is respect and trust.
We all have some way to categorise those we classify as close friends and those who are acquaintances, but a third category of relationship has started to become valuable in business – our audience. Over the years I have built my social connections to a vast number and for a while I didn’t see much value in this because they are mostly people I don’t know or have a relationship with.
On a few occasions in business meetings and even out and about at the mall, I have had the pleasure of meeting people who I am associated to in this way and one thing that is apparent is that due to their prior understanding of what I do, there is actually considerable respect and appreciation.
Brands have understood the value of social audiences as long as they have existed but the dilemma for brands has always been that audiences are naturally more fascinated with people and personalities than with a corporate image. Celebrity endorsements and brand ambassadorship has been an effective marketing tool for brands to associate themselves with respected personalities but it seems like a strategy only relevant to corporate giants and not SME’s right? Wrong.
Although paying David Beckham US$10m for a single campaign may be out of reach for a small business, endorsement by people with influence surely isn’t. What small businesses and smart brands are learning to harness is the influence the little guy has. While David Beckham may be respected by millions across the world, what the small guy has to offer is a more intimate relationship with their audience as they can engage with them on an individual level.
In recent months I have explored this from both sides, as a small business looking to market via other people’s audiences, as well as offering my network to brands that want to use my audience. I started to reveal parts of my social life that are more interesting to an audience than my usual business activities and as my audience grew, endorsements started to come through the door. I started to focus more attention on my Instagram account (@parisnorriss) as brands are more and more interested in visual content. Every morning I receive a parcel in the post, usually from fashion or lifestyle brands wanting me to endorse them via my social platforms, and good to my word I do this in a creative way to show a snippet of my lifestyle while still making the brand look good.
This taught me the first useful lesson for small businesses that use the influence of the small guy, which is often that payment via free products can be sufficient or at least a good part of the repayment. This is always more beneficial to an SME than paying cash as you are paying cost but offering products of higher retail value.
The second concept I have learnt is that audience size isn’t important but the influence that person has on that audience is paramount. Essentially the price you pay, whether in cash or through gifting products, will be adjusted to the exposure that person can offer. The influence that person has will determine how their audience will take notice and buy those products.
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It’s possible for bloggers and social influencers to make Dh200 per post from audiences of just 1,000 people, while audiences of more than 100,000 can earn Dh7,500 per post. Major bloggers have made this their full-time occupation and become millionaires, often earning more than an average chief executive.
When executed smartly, endorsement plans can get high levels of targeted exposure at a relatively small cost – every marketers dream. The emphasis to any successful campaign though is how smartly you do it.
The final thing I learnt is to choose a personality based on the lifestyle they expose and how this matches with your brand ethos. How well you do this will be the key to success in your campaign.
Paris Norriss?is an entrepreneur and partner in Coba Education (Middle East), and a Business Journalist for The National Newspaper