5 Keys to Measuring Social Media Influencers

Public relations and communications professionals have always played an important role in shaping public perceptions of corporate brands, driving greater awareness of those brands within key target audiences and ultimately supporting corporate objectives for business development. But in recent years, the lines between traditional “public relations” and “marketing” have become blurred by the rise of digital media.

The rise and importance of social media influencers as a key component of corporate marketing and PR strategies is clear. But strangely, the industry has failed to advance when it comes to measuring the impact of influence and evaluating which specific influencers will move the needle for which specific brands.

Unfortunately, many professionals tend to default to the kinds of measurement tools that are rooted in traditional PR schools of thought: audience; reach; and total impressions. The result of this analysis is often the identification of a person with vast numbers of online followers but an ambiguous impact on the target customer the company is seeking to engage.

The purpose of this eBook is to shine some light on this challenge by going beyond basic metrics such as “Reach” and “Impressions” and explore the use of more sophisticated media monitoring and data analytics that can evaluate potential social influencers more holistically. We will open up our methodology to you here and suggest five keys to measuring influencers, which is a crucial starting point in determining the best way to craft communications that are targeted at those influencers.