brandinfluencebrandinfluence2In any given situation, circumstance or community there are noted influencers who can either spell the doom or make the community grows. Interestingly many brands today do not know how to manage their major influencers if they have properly identified them at all. For personal brands that are married, spouses and children can be a major influencers in the brand’s overall success. For instance, many personal brands do not realize the impacts of a nagging or abusive spouse can have in overall brand’ performance. If in doubt, ask a victim next door.

For a corporate brand, there are several are shareholders, union leaders, community leader, government agency and of recent bloggers that can destroy every effort put in place to build brand equity. There is therefore a need for brand drivers to identify the leading brand influencers as well as those who wield major influence in their niche, manage the relationship well so much that brand can be successful. To identify major brand’s influencers, brands must observe the followings.

1. Depth of knowledge: an individual can not be an influencer except he knows the terrain so much and people can respect his level of knowledge and commitment to the common stake.

2. Depth of authority: find out the depth of authority of the individual as well. How much does he shapes the expectations of the followers around him/her?

3. Depth of influencer’s acceptance: Do carry out a due diligence research on the influencer and be sure you are dealing with the right person. Never make an assumption about the kind of the influence the individual has just by the words of mouths that are not backed with proven results.

4. Depth of links, comments, and associations: For online industry influencers like blogger, brand must identify this set of people by the numbers of links to their websites, traffics, feedbacks, comments and association they have with other online users.

5. Depth of influencers’ action and impacts: find out what kind of impacts can your niche suffer if the action of the influencers are allowed to run unchecked. There are some whose influence can be damaged without much ado.

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  3. Brands: How to fund your social and cultural capital
  4. Persistence: key to social media success
  5. Personal brand success