Inspiration can come from the strangest of places. I’ve had creative breakthroughs while at the gym, walking down the street, or while sitting on my sofa watching Netflix. Oh, and you can’t forget the thoughts that come to us while in the shower. 

I’m incredibly thankful I work for a company that encourages continued learning. Yes, we have the standard practices of earning certifications, sharing knowledge, and attending conferences and events. But it goes beyond that. Go Fish Digital offers a unique perk that I, as an avid reader, found to be really exciting when I first joined the team a few years back. Each quarter, we’re given a free e-book of our choice (marketing related or not). It’s the simple things in life, amirite? 

When we realized it was almost National Read a Book Day, the Go Fish team wanted to celebrate. And what better way to celebrate than to share our book recommendations? I spoke to several of my colleagues and asked them to share some of their all-time favorites. I’ve already personally added several of these books to my reading list and I’m hoping that you’ll find some to add to yours as well. 

Erica Prush – Content Production Team 

Book: A Tale for the Time Being – Ruth Ozeki 

“This is one of those books that’s hard to talk about because there’s really nothing quite like it. A Tale for the Time Being is a story that crosses generations, cultures, and even dimensions.”

This a book for you “if you’re looking for a fulfilling story that will push you out of your comfort zone, cause you to question many things you take for granted, and present you with characters you’re unlikely to forget.”

LaRhonda Sparrow – Copywriting Team 

Book: The Girl on the Train – Paula Hawkins 

“For National Read a Book Day, I knew I had to recommend The Girl on the Train. It’s dramatic, mysterious, and, above all else, surprising. It’s not often that a novel surprises me, and this one definitely did. I almost put it down because, at first, it seemed like a book about a sad woman who lost everything she valued in her life. And while that’s an unfortunate reality for some people, that doesn’t scream best-seller to me. 

But, as soon as I read the last sentence of a random chapter, the plot immediately revealed itself to be so much more than what I previously thought it was. I honestly stayed up all night finishing the book because I had to know how everything resolved.”

Jordan Eller – Project Management Team 

Book: Shogun – James Clavell 

“I love this book because of how immersive it is. I first read it in high school and was blown away by the historical depictions of 17th century Japan and the clash of Western and Eastern culture.”

Jordan has read Shogun five or six times and his biggest takeaway is “to never become ambivalent about life. Empathy and perspective are everything, and neither should be taken for granted. Remember that the ground beneath your feet can always shift and that it should always be questioned.”

Devon Cameron – Content Production Team 

Book: Lethal White – Robert Galbraith 

“I’ve always loved mystery novels and the Cormoran Strike series has become my favorite because the stories are complex and the characters are people everyone can identify with. I’ve read this book, the fourth in the series, all the way through at least 5 times and finished it within 2 days of buying it. Yes, it is over 600 pages and no, I didn’t sleep much those days.

This series is also home to one of my favorite characters in the literary world – Robin Ellacott. She’s such a rich character because we see her coping with past trauma and struggling with her evolving identity throughout the series. My favorite thing about how she is written is that she is fierce and strong and soft all at once, but at no point is she reduced to a hysterical woman. She is always presented as complicated, passionate, and above all, human.”

Emily Stash – Design Team 

Book: Humans of New York – Brandon Stanton

“I have drifted away from leisurely fiction as I’ve gotten busier in life, but I always enjoy purchasing well-crafted, creative, and beautiful books from my favorite artists! It’s a small way to support the people that I get so much influence and energy from. And I just love having them in my home for me and others to look through. I have books from photographers, illustrators, poets, and even van-dwellers. If anything, these books and the authors/artists behind them have reaffirmed for me that inspiration for anything can come from anywhere.”

Rebecca Agocs – Content Promotion Team 

Book: You Remind Me of You – Eireann Corrigan 

“The poetry and prose of [Corrigan’s] voice are almost intimate enough to make you blush. She makes a subject that’s often hidden from pop culture and literature tangible. It’s an easy read but it’s not light subject matter.” 

Rebecca shares that You Remind Me of You taught her that “there’s strength in vulnerability and your story deserves to be told however you’d like to tell it. It’s your story, after all.” 

Brittnee Bade – Design Team 

Book: Paper Girls – Brian K. Vaughan (Author) & Cliff Chiang (Illustrator) 

“This book really sticks with me because it helped me realize that I want to write and illustrate my own graphic novel. I hesitated with my own story idea for a long time and this book taught me to have fun and just enjoy it, no matter how weird or crazy it may seem.”

“Mackenzie (or Mac) [is my favorite character]. She’s just really feisty and tough even though life is constantly knocking her down.” 

Becky Barker – Content Production Team 

Book: Conversations with Friends – Sally Rooney

Becky learned a life lesson from her favorite book: “It’s an old but powerful one – be sincere with the people you care about.”

She also identified with one of its characters: “Frances, the main character, particularly spoke to me. While I’m around the same age as her character, we lead entirely different lives, yet many of her thought patterns hit home for me in ways I never imagined they would. It’s always fun to find pieces of yourself in characters who seem so wildly different.” 

What have you been reading lately? Share your favorites in the comments below and have a happy National Read a Book Day! 

Expanding Our Knowledge Outside of the Office: Go Fish Digital Book Recommendations is an original blog post first published on Go Fish Digital.

Earlier this year, our Senior Manager of Influencer Marketing, Jessie Butner, spoke about her A to Z approach to influencer campaigns at Triangle Marketing Club. After her presentation, the team at Marshall Video interviewed Jessie to find out more about her personal approach to influencer marketing. Below, you can find a video clip of Jessie’s three principles of influencer marketing.

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3 Principles of Influencer Marketing

“The first principle that I like to follow with influencer marketing is to make sure that authenticity is the backbone of your campaign. A lot of times, a brand will sign up to work with an influencer and they’ll say, “We have this entire script that we’re expecting you to then share with your followers.” That is a big red flag for the audience. They know their personality, their little quirks, if they’re funny, and if it’s a really dry piece of content they’re going to be like, “What is this?” And they won’t trust it and then they won’t follow through and make those buying decisions. You have to have authenticity, and you have to allow creative freedom when working with an influencer.

My second principle is to go in with realistic expectations. A lot of times, people think, “Well, I’m going to start influencer marketing, and I’m automatically going to make all of these really big sales and have all these social followers coming after me.” And those are results that you can get, but you have to have your website and your social channels ready before you launch influencer marketing. If an influencer is tagging you on social media, and their followers are interested enough to go look at your social profiles and it’s just a terrible social profile, they’re going to immediately leave and nothing is going to come of it. So, have those tools set up before you start with influencer marketing.

My third principle would be to think outside of the box in influencer marketing. You don’t have to just assume that because you’re a fashion brand, you only want to go for fashion influencers. I work with a photo printing company where you can print your photos on a blanket. We’ve worked with food bloggers, and they created cutting boards and towels that they put printed photos on, and then they shared that with their audience alongside the recipe, and it was a really successful campaign. So, just thinking creatively and outside of the box is another important aspect of influencer marketing.

What do you think about Jessie’s principles of influencer marketing? Let us know in the comments below!

3 Principles of Influencer Marketing Every Organization Should Follow is an original blog post first published on Go Fish Digital.

Instagram has come a long way since launching in October 2010. A tool that used to be for amateur photographers turned into a stepping stone for countless creators to become “insta-famous” and make a living as an influencer.

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Every once in a while, the beloved social platform announces major changes. Some of those changes catch like wildfire (Instagram Story, for instance) while others are shot down by the users who make the platform what it is.

2019 has seen many changes already that will impact not only the “average Joe” of Instagram but also brands and influencers. There are three major changes creating a buzz in the industry:

1. A new “creator” profile option
2. Shopping tags that allow influencers to directly sell products through posts
3. The testing of hiding like counts

What will these changes mean for influencers? Some updates are exciting and could lead to potential income increases while others are seen as red flags that could hurt the engagement rates of influencers.

Let’s dive into the changes further.

Creator Profiles

Previously, a content creator had two options: making a business profile or a personal profile. Now in 2019, there is an additional profile type available called “creator”.

The creator profile allows a user to get more insight into their audience and the performance of their content. For example, a business profile already provides audience demographic information such as gender, age, and location. With a creator profile, influencers can also see net follower changes. Creator profiles will also get access to the Instagram Creator Studio which provides a further range of audience insights.

Creator profiles are able to filter their DMs to prioritize by contact, date, or relevance. This allows influencers to more easily sort through the numerous messages they receive and know that they are never missing an important note.

For influencers who are wondering whether they should make the switch to a creator profile, Instagram explains the simple process below.

There are some aspects to the creator profiles that cause concern, however. For now, anyone who has elected to set up a creator account will not be able to schedule posts through third-party tools. And, there is the likelihood that anyone with less than 10k followers will not have the option to self-identify as a creator. Creator profiles are still in beta testing and only time will tell if this option is a better fit for all influencers.

Shopping Tags and In-App Checkout

Until recently, there was no direct method for an influencer to sell a product through their Instagram profile. Swipe-up links, profile links, and outside affiliate programs such as LIKEtoKNOW.it allowed creators to more easily track the sales they made for a brand, but all sales took place outside of the Instagram platform.

Now, influencers are able to use the dedicated shopping tag in both stories and feed posts as a way to make their posts more shoppable. With a simple tap of the screen, a user can see the product name and price as well as easily clicking through to the brand’s website.

These tags aren’t the only improvement. Instagram is also introducing in-app checkout. The tool, which was announced in March 2019, was originally only available to a handful of brands. Approximately one month later, though, checkout was available for a small selection of top-tier influencers such as Kim Kardashian West and Gigi Hadid.

In-app checkout allows a user to buy directly from their favorite brands without ever leaving Instagram. This is clearly beneficial for influencers as they’re able to directly track sales and further monetize their accounts.

There have been concerns raised across the globe regarding what type of data is tracked and collected through the checkout system. As this feature was rolled out to a limited quantity of users, it’s up in the air whether in-app checkout will stick.

Hiding Like Counts

The most recent update that influencers and marketers alike are tracking is the new hidden like count feature. This change was implemented in Canada initially and there are no set dates to roll out the change to the rest of the world.

“Hidden likes” means that while a user will be able to see the number of likes received on their own photo, the count of followers who double-tapped their posts will be hidden from view.

Instagram claims that this change was a response to recent social pressures of users receiving high engagement rates on their content. The likes are hidden to allow more creative freedom and reduced emphasis on views and likes.

Currently, an influencer’s engagement rate is one of the top metrics taken into account when setting up a brand collaboration. While it’s likely that third-party tools will still be able to track these metrics, manually identifying influencers with high engagement will be a thing of the past.

Influencers and brands are also worried that users may take the “out of sight, out of mind” approach. If the likes are not displayed, will double-tapping photos become less common? Engagement has already gone down on Instagram and this could lead to even lower rates.

Of course, these concerns could be a moot point if the rollout never makes it beyond Canada. Some are thrilled at the idea of less pressure to be perfect and feel that this change will help in the mental health of our society, but others are hoping that this change will only be a temporary glitch.

Conclusion

Each of these changes will impact the way that marketers and influencers conduct business. Will they help or hurt? There’s no way to fully predict the results. For now, the industry will continue to buzz and keep a close eye on this popular platform.

How are you feeling about Instagram’s recent changes? Share your opinion in the comments below!

Instagram Updates Bring Both Fear and Excitement to the Influencer Industry is an original blog post first published on Go Fish Digital.

1. Preparation (this includes the identification of influencers, competitor research, and setting a budget)
2. Campaign Management (agreement forms, campaign briefs, approval processes, and monitoring content)
3. Reporting (both as an on-going basis and as a wrap at the end of a campaign)
4. Maintaining Relationships

Unfortunately, to my complete shock, I’ve seen too many marketers taking the easy way out and skipping phases three and four entirely.

How can you consider your work complete if you haven’t taken the time to analyze the results? And, if influencer collaborations are most successful when there is an authentic relationship between the brand and the content creator, shouldn’t you keep that door open?

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Sometimes, the answer to these questions boils down to just plain laziness, but recent studies have shown that marketers are reporting that one of their biggest concerns with influencer collaborations is not knowing how to measure influencer marketing. So, perhaps it’s not always that your marketing team is dropping the ball. It could just be that they truly don’t know how to report on these campaigns.

I’m here to tell you that while it is difficult to monitor the success of influencer campaigns from end-to-end (as with any kind of marketing), there are many statistics and numbers that can be used in your reports to guide you in your future influencer endeavors.

The most important key performance indicators (KPIs) to include in your influencer marketing reports are:

• Engagement Rate
• Website Traffic
• Impressions or CPM
• Audience Growth
• Conversions, Sales, and Lead Generation
• Search Volume

Let’s dive further into these six essential KPIs for influencer marketing so that you aren’t making the fatal mistake of quitting after the aforementioned phase two.

Engagement Rate

One of the most important metrics in influencer marketing is the engagement rate. I’m sure that any brand would be disappointed to find that they’ve invested time and money into an influencer whose audience has tuned out. If your content has been successful, the influencer’s audience will engage with the sponsored content and be eager to learn more about the brand.

Measuring the engagement rate on social content is simple. Follow this formula:

Website Traffic

Chances are that you’ve already set up a Google Analytics profile for your business and closely monitor the traffic to your site. The easiest way to ensure you’re able to attribute traffic from an influencer is to provide a trackable link such as a UTM or CID. In addition to looking at the total number of sessions from the campaign and each individual influencer, you should take into consideration other RankBrain signals such as:

• Pages / Session
• Average Session Duration   
• Bounce Rate
• New Users

Impressions or CPM

In addition to the number of users actually engaging with the content, you should be measuring the number of people who have seen the sponsored content. These impressions directly correlate to brand awareness.

To take this metric a step further, you can also calculate the CPM or cost per thousand impressions. This will show you exactly how much your brand is spending to earn 1,000 impressions. The average CPM will vary by platform, but the formula is as follows:

Audience Growth

When you’re targeting the correct audience, some of the influencer’s followers will likely become your followers as well. It’s relatively simple to track audience growth on various social platforms as the data is directly available in the platform when you have a business account. If you want to attribute audience growth to specific influencers, you must be acutely aware of day-to-day changes in followers and correlate those changes with dates of influencer content.

Conversions, Sales, and Lead Gen

Of course, everyone wants to know how a campaign is directly affecting their bottom line. While there are ways to find these numbers, it is important to note that buying decisions are made after multiple points of contact.

Additionally, buying habits change from person to person and while one user may immediately swipe-up from an Instagram Story and purchase an item, another may see an influencer’s suggestion and google the product a week later to purchase. For this reason, not all sales from an influencer collaboration can be directly sourced.

However, you can find transactions and conversions in Google Analytics as long as you’ve set your parameters correctly. One good way to increase sales numbers and the ability to track influencer sales is through unique promo codes or affiliate links.

Search Volume

As mentioned above, some of the traffic and sales your business may earn from influencer campaigns may not be immediately trackable through specialized links. An added bonus of influencer campaigns is that your organic searches may increase. Search volume is the total number of searches for a keyword in a set timeframe. To monitor search volume in correlation to influencer campaigns, you’d need to note any other marketing changes that are occurring at the same time as the influencer content and the dates of each influencer post. SEMRush is a good tool for tracking search volume.

Conclusion

Knowing how to measure influencer marketing efforts is the key to getting the most out of your influencer collaboration efforts. It may not be necessary to report on every one of these KPIs for each influencer campaign, but it is important to at least track the results of your collaboration in some way so you can know if you’re spending time and money as efficiently as you could be. The KPIs you use will depend on the goals you’ve set for your influencer campaigns during the preparation phase.

How do you measure the results of your influencer campaigns? Share with us in the comments below!

How to Measure the Success of Your Influencer Campaigns is an original blog post first published on Go Fish Digital.