The Keys to Making Your Brand Blog More  Influential

One way to monetize your brand blog is through working with brand partners.

This could be anything from sponsored content and affiliate promotions to ongoing ambassadorships or sponsorships. In any case, there are a number of factors I consider when it comes to determining if a blogger is “influential” and can be successful in securing an opportunity with a brand.

As you would expect, metrics tell part of that story, so let’s take a look at them using a framework I thought I came up with, but has also been neatly described by Nielsen as the 3 Rs – Reach, Resonance, Reaction. I actually use at least one more R for Relevance which we’ll cover later.

1. Reach

How many people in the target audience is the blogger reaching?

Potential Reach and Actual Reach are two types of metrics to consider and not all platforms will provide you with both.

Most traditional marketing channels report potential reach, for example, circulation numbers for a newspaper. Your ad or story could potentially be seen by 300,000 people because that’s the number of copies distributed, and may or may not include a multiplier for ‘pass-along readership’ ie the number of people who might read the same copy.

Thankfully digital media gives us a more granular view, with not only potential reach but also the actual reach of our content. Using a few platform examples (not an exhaustive list) below we can see the difference.

Reach Metrics

Google Analytics: Unique Visitors (potential reach), Unique Pageviews (actual reach)
Facebook Insights: Page Likes (potential reach), Lifetime Post Reach (actual reach)
Email analytics: Total Subscribers (potential reach), Total Unique Opens (actual reach)

Above is an overview of Facebook Insights Data. You can get more granular data from the exported insights.

2. Resonance

Do the content and message resonate with the audience so that they engage, remember or, ideally, change their attitudes or behavior because of it?

Resonance is one of the main reasons brands work with influencers – their connection to their audience, their ability to tell a story that resonates with their audience far more than a branded message could, and the effect of their authority or trusted voice on the beliefs and actions of their readers.

The more your content resonates with your audience the more likely they will be to engage with it, and those metrics are easily tracked as dwell time, likes, comments, shares, and click-throughs.

Resonance/Engagement Metrics

A bit about link clicks – if your content has resonated to the extent that your audience follows a link to the brand or branded content, this is a great result. Make sure you capture it either by using a tracking link provided by the brand or one you can track yourself like Bitly. You can use these links in your blog post and social posts to show click-throughs and also to work out the click-through rate ie the number of people who clicked the link divided by the number of people who viewed the content.

Google Analytics: Time on Page (dwell time), % of return visitors (the higher the better), comments, social shares (to Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, etc), some blog platforms have ‘likes’ which you can also include.
Facebook: Likes, Comments, Shares, Link Clicks
Twitter: Likes, Replies (comments), Retweets (shares)
Pinterest: Likes, Comments, Pins/Saves (shares)
Instagram: Likes, Comments, Tag in comments (shares)

3. Reaction

Is there a measurable outcome in the change of attitude or behavior of the audience?

All influencer campaigns are done to achieve some kind of reaction, whether it is awareness, acquisition (ie leads), or sales. It is at this point that you as a blogger/influencer are less able to measure the outcomes. It is here where the rubber meets the road and the brand can determine if they got a return on their investment. However, you should still have an understanding of what actions you can drive that they will ultimately measure at their end.

Reaction Metrics

Awareness – obviously the more people who see the message, the more likely they will be aware of it. However, reach or impression numbers alone do not prove this outcome. A brand could look at things like increases in branded search terms, mentions of their brand on social media, unprompted recall, and how they heard about the brand.

One way you can help is to survey your own readers and ask if they were aware of the brand before you mentioned it, and or have bought since you mentioned it.

Acquisition – this could be driving your audience to register their email with the brand, either via a competition, to download a bonus, or to sign up for their newsletter. The brand needs to track where these sign-ups are coming from to attribute the activity to your campaign and work out the cost per lead.

Sales – did your audience buy something? This can be tracked with a promo code for online purchases, an affiliate link, a printed voucher for in-store purchases, or a simple ‘how did you hear about us’ at the point of purchase.

4. Relevance – the Most Important R

I mentioned earlier that I use more than just the 3Rs above. Before you look at any of those Rs, the first lesson is to understand that the same blogger will not be influential in all situations. So your first job is always to show a brand how relevant you are to the opportunity on the table.

Relevance will depend on the opportunity itself. Two main indicators of relevance will be:

1. Audience Demographics, Psychographics and Sociographics

Who is the brand targeting? The more specific you can get the more chance you can show how relevant you are to the next blogger. We’re not just talking about women aged 24-45 – that’s pretty much most blog readers! What kind of women, what life stage are they at specifically, and what problems is the brand trying to solve for them? Then look at your own data for your audience and see how many similarities you can draw between the target audience and your audience. Some places you can look without getting too technical are:

Google Analytics Country and or even City data:

Facebook Insights “People” will give you a demographic overview for gender, age, and location:

Laughing.
Honestly …

So, if the brief is to attract women in Melbourne to a local event, you can give them specific data on your blog and Facebook reach specifically for Melbourne.
Another way to get a more specific profile of your most loyal readers is to survey them annually. This is a great way to get basic demographic data (like education, income, and family size/makeup) as well as the psychographics and specific sociographic profiles of your blog readers (their attitudes, interests, and lifestyle choices). For example, your survey may tell you your typical blog reader is 25, single, cashed up, and loves coming to you for fashion advice because she’s too busy to try and figure out what to buy herself (Ka-ching! by the way!).

You can then use a combination of the above data to show how relevant your audience is to the brand’s target audience.

2. What Outcome is the Brand Trying to Achieve?

The second factor that determines how relevant you are is the overall objective for the brand. What kind of position are you in to drive the specific outcome they’re after? As mentioned earlier, brands work with influencers, bloggers, and media sites for awareness, acquisition, and sales. Some more specific examples are as follows.

a) Awareness Objective:
The brand is running a general awareness campaign and wants a major reach for an emotive piece written from your perspective. They need blog post views.

What bloggers usually rely on:
Monthly Unique Visitors

What you need to show:
How many Unique Visitors (relevant to the audience profile) you can deliver to a single blog post – not just your blog?  Work out your average unique views per post based on a range of other sponsored posts, and show them some examples and results of similar posts you’ve written.

They need you to know you can drive a direct response to the blog post, perhaps in conjunction with a social network like Facebook or your email list. Show them where your traffic is coming from and that your ‘big numbers’ do not just search traffic to one well-ranking post.

For extra brownie points:
Show how engaged they are with your posts using your averages for the Resonance metrics such as time spent on a page, comments, and shares.

b) Acquisition Objective:
The brand is trying to establish itself on Instagram and an increase in the brand’s followers will be a key performance indicator of the campaign.

What bloggers usually rely on:
Media kit vanity metrics ie number of Instagram followers

What you need to show:
Anyone can buy or ‘game’ Instagram followers. Your first task is to differentiate yourself from these types of accounts. Whilst the number of followers you have on Instagram will be important, the outcome here isn’t how many people might see your post – it’s how many people will click over to the brand’s account and follow them. Show the brand how engaged your audience is with your content with average likes and comments for your posts. Even better, show them the metrics for other sponsored posts you’ve done.

For extra brownie points:
Show them examples of when you’ve done shoutouts for other accounts/brands on Instagram. Use screenshots and ask for testimonials. We’re straying outside of just quantitative metrics here and into qualitative data to support how relevant you are to their campaign.

Your Most Important Objective

All of the above should give you a solid basis to create a pitch to a brand that goes way beyond what a standard media kit can do. In fact, I’m not actually much of an advocate for media kits for influencers. Remember, when you’re pitching for an opportunity for a brand, your biggest challenge is to differentiate yourself from other bloggers and all a standard media kit does is show one blogger’s audience is bigger or smaller than another’s.

Get smarter and use the metrics and evidence you have at hand to show how you are more relevant than all the others. At the very least, by giving them access to a deeper level of data, you may educate them to start asking the same of other bloggers and that could very well be in your favor!

How to Measure Social Media Marketing Performance

To measure social media has become an essential tool for businesses of all sizes to reach out to new and potential customers.

It is essential to understand how to measure online community marketing performance. Various metrics are used to gauge the success of a social media campaign, but some of the most important include engagement, reach, and conversion rates.



1. Reach

As the marketing world continues to evolve, so does social media’s role. Once seen as a purely social platform, social media plays a major as one of the performance marketing channels. As a result, businesses need to measure their social media performance to ensure they get the most from their investment.

Reach measures the number of people who see your content, which indicates how well your content performs. There are several ways to increase reach, such as using hashtags and tagging other users.

Measure Social Media

2. Mentions

Social media marketing can be an excellent way to keep in touch with customers and boost your business. One way to measure social media marketing performance is by looking at the number of mentions your business receives.

Mentions are any time your brand is mentioned on social media, whether in a post, comment, or even a hashtag, on Twitter, Instagram, YouTube, Facebook, and other social media platforms. Keeping track of the mentions will give you a good idea of how often your brand is being talked about online. But more importantly, it will help you identify negative sentiment around your brand. If you’re receiving a lot of negative mentions, that’s a sign that your social media management and marketing efforts need to be improved. On the other hand, if you’re receiving mostly positive mentions, that’s a good sign that you’re on the right track.

3. Impressions

Any marketer worth their salt knows that social media is a powerful tool – but what good is power if you can’t measure its effects? Impressions are one of the most basic metrics in social media marketing and refer to the number of times your content is viewed.

This metric can be useful in gauging the reach of your content, but it’s essential to remember that not all impressions are created equal. A person who scrolls past your content on their feed will have a very different impact than someone who takes the time to stop and read (or watch, or listen to) it.

That’s why, when looking at your impressions, it’s important to look at engagement rates – the number of people taking specific actions on your content, such as liking, sharing, or commenting. Together, these two metrics will give you a complete picture of your content’s performance.

4. Promote Viral Sharing With Motivation

The first step to take when trying to promote viral sharing is to offer encouragement. It could be a discount, sweepstakes entry, or simply recognition on social media platforms. The second step is to make it easy for customers or followers to share your content.

It means using social media buttons on your website or blog and including share links in your email marketing campaigns. Finally, it would help if you kept an eye on your analytics to see how your content performs. It will help you determine which content types are most popular and how much reach your campaigns get.

By taking these steps, you can ensure that your social media marketing campaigns are driving real results.

5. Establish Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) and Evaluate Them Against Them

What are KPIs? In the business world–and in marketing specifically–a KPI is a metric used to measure progress against a specific goal. For social media marketing, some common KPIs might be website traffic, generated leads, or even sales. But the KPIs you choose to track should be specific to your goals for social media marketing.

Once you have defined your KPIs, you need to start tracking them. Several tools can help with this, from simple Excel spreadsheets to more sophisticated marketing software. Whichever route you choose, make sure you set up a system that makes it easy to track your KPIs on an ongoing basis.

Finally, once you have started tracking your KPIs, it’s important to regularly review the data and adjust your social media marketing strategy as needed. Test and try new things–the only way to find out what performs best for your business is to put it to the test. Regularly measuring and adjusting your social media marketing performance can ensure you get the most out of your efforts.

The bottom line

Any business that wants to succeed in the modern world must have a strong online community presence. It provides an easy and affordable way to reach a large audience, and it is used to build brand awareness, generate leads, and drive sales. However, simply having a social media account is not enough.

Businesses need to take a strategic and data-driven approach to social media marketing. It starts with setting clear objectives, such as increasing website traffic or improving customer engagement.

Once objectives have been identified, businesses can start to measure performance by tracking key metrics, such as reach, impressions, clicks, and conversions. By regularly monitoring these metrics, businesses can stay on track and adjust as needed to ensure that their social media marketing efforts achieve desired results.