It’s time for another installment of our popular “Day in the Life” series, where we let you peek into the inner workings of Zen Media. Our innovative working arrangement allows most of our team to work remotely – which means that even though we’re based in Dallas, we have team members spread across the country. We’re in constant contact in spite of the distance, however, using various online collaboration tools such as Slack, Basecamp, and Google Hangouts to get some face time.
Hey, Laura! How’s that project coming?
Nowhere is our commitment to close collaboration more evident than in our influencer marketing department. Influencer Marketing and Outreach are so completely intertwined with Search Marketing and Social Media Marketing that our Influencer Marketing Strategists are experienced experts in both, and even have their feet in both departments. We work so closely, in fact, that we even go to each other’s weddings – here’s our VP of Search Marketing, Idan, posing with the happy couple – VP of Social Media and Influencer Marketing Imran and Areej Kidwai – at their wedding last weekend! (Congrats, guys!!)
Influencer marketing entails reaching out to influential figures online who have substantial followings, and working with them to promote our clients to their audiences. It’s a vital part of modern SEO, because when a brand is talked about and linked to by authoritative figures, it gets a boost in Google’s search rankings. And it also takes some serious social media marketing chops, since so much of influencer marketing involves finding and reaching out to the right influencers on social media, and then working together to make Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram posts go viral during the actual campaigns.
So with all those complexities to keep in mind, what does an average day in the life of an MZ Influencer Marketing Strategist look like?
It’s all about relationships.
First, our relationship with our clients. We work closely with each of our clients to determine what it is they want to gain from influencer marketing. Is it more traffic to their site? More Instagram followers? More email newsletter sign-ups? More sales from their Amazon store? Then we craft our strategy based on that goal.
Next, the relationships within and between MZ departments. Frequent online, and whenever possible, in-person, meetings to brainstorm strategies and work out details within the department…larger meetings to coordinate the big picture with other departments….and finally, biweekly full team meetings to make sure everyone’s on the same page.
Finally, the relationship with the influencers. Our team does extensive research to find the best influencers to approach for each client – active influencers with sizeable followings whose interests line up with our client’s industry. We insert specific demographic and keyword information into GroupHigh and similar apps to find these influencers, as well as searching through the social media platforms themselves. Then we come up with a campaign to suggest to them – maybe a giveaway on social media…
or for outreach, maybe a guest blog post on their site.
We reach out to them via email or PM to propose the collaboration, and if they agree, we get to work writing the post or providing them with images, information, or sample products for a social media campaign. We start the whole process about a month and a half in advance of the date the campaign is set to start, in order to make sure we have everything in place. And of course, we keep a close eye on the success of the campaign, so we can tweak on the fly as needed, make changes the next time, or do more of whatever is working! We strive to make every influencer connection one that lasts, so we can work together again and again.
And all that, so that we can forge a relationship between our clients and the influencers’ audiences.
The influencer marketing and outreach process is a complex one, so on any given day, you might find members of our team chatting with influencers, writing articles, working with other departments to coordinate campaigns, compiling lists of influencers to contact, or any number of other things. There’s so much to do, and so many different kinds of tasks and things to keep track of, that we use apps like GroupHigh, and plenty of spreadsheets, to help us stay organized.
Every day the world of influencer marketing is evolving, so we try to ride the leading edge and make the most of the connections we forge.
We’re lucky to work in an industry where our goal is to connect people and create relationships. Click To Tweet… and make sure everyone has a good time in the process. We know we’re having a good time – and we’d love to have you join us, too! So if you’d like help doing some influencer marketing of your own, give MZ a call today. We’d love to help your company start harnessing the power of influencers – and have a ball doing so!
