by Herman Manson (@marklives) Brands have been struggling to figure out the rules of engagement between themselves and what their PR agency calls ‘social influencers.’ These are the people behind the blogs and social media accounts who have emerged as influential in communities of interest by virtue of the popularity of their online musings.
Some set editorial standards on par with those considered standard in the world of traditional news journalism; others will gush your virtues in exchange for a free lunch. Now South African start-up Webfluential hopes to standardise business practices and offer transparent and accurate data on online influencers whom brand communicators can access, with a fair degree of certainty.
Maintain the trust relationship
Obviously, it also wants to maintain the trust relationship built up between many influencers and their readerships by setting decent standards in terms of the editorial/advertorial divide.
It’s an online communications agency that has spotted the gap in the market.
Retroviral is known for its work with Converse, SAB and Nando’s, among others, for whom it creates word-of-mouth campaigns through engagement with bloggers and their social networks. It has teamed up with investment firm Stratos Capital and developer David Philip from Silver Apple Studios to build the Webfluential platform, developed from scratch.
‘Grey’ space
Retroviral had been working with social influencers for the past three years, and its MD, Mike Sharman (@mikesharman), admits that, broadly speaking, in South Africa at least, it remains a ‘grey’ spacein which brands and readers find themselves. There are few rules or standards while, at the same time, the stakes — for both influencers and brands — have increased dramatically.
Marketers and PR agencies will in future be able to access contact details, influence scores and rates on a host of influencers via the Webfluential platform. An algorithm developed by Webfluential ensures social followers are legitimate and takes into account reach, relevance and resonance in its scoring of influencers.
For PR agencies, Webfluential offers a digital-era ‘media list.’
Added benefit
Traditionally, PR agencies bought lists of regularly updated contact details of media professionals; now they can buy access to contact details of influencers, with the added benefit that the data is owner-managed.
At the time of writing, 29 PR agencies had signed up for a trial account with Webfluential — eventually, an annual subscription charge of R5000 will be implemented.
Marketers, meanwhile, will be able to spec who they are interested in reaching (target market, age group, location, area of interest etc), and Webfluential will push them data on relevant influencers to target and the creative they require, in return for a cut of the influencers’ fee. Advertisers can then tailor the campaign to their budget.
Undergoing testing
As it stands, on average, advertisers can expect to pay 15-18c per impression on Twitter and 25-28c per impression on Instagram. The system is still undergoing testing but campaigns should be able to go live soon.
Webfluential is already attracting interest from abroad and the team hopes to launch in a number of key international markets. It is in the process of planning launches in New York, London and Nairobi.
“We can’t confirm exact dates on those launches yet, but we have already received an influx of influencers/brands keen on signing up,” says Sharman.
The service has already launched in major SA cities. For more information, go to https://webfluenti.al/, Facebook, @webfluenti_al and Google+.