#AskJon: Is influencer marketing still relevant? [VIDEO]

Influencer marketing is sort of the cool shiny object these days. We liken it to traditional media relations. The only difference is, in a lot of cases instead of pitching it to a traditional media outlet, you’re pitching your idea, your product, your thing, to someone who’s developed their own audiences, primarily through social media.

And it’s earned, but it’s also paid. The earned part is you are pitching to them, you’re trying to convince them to represent your product — in most cases however, you’re paying them something to represent that product. The earned part of it also is, once they represent your product, whether it’s right about in a blog post or included in a video, they are sharing it to a bunch of different audiences and those people are sharing it as well. So there’s an organic earned piece of that, too.

It is something that a lot of PR firm, companies, organizations are taking advantage of. It takes a lot of research on the front end, because there aren’t really databases the you can search in a meaningful way for specific people. So, you have to dive into social media and see who are the influencers in your space and then pitch them just like you would a media outlet. But know you need to have some budget in order to convince them to come on board.

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