By now, you’ve probably read Crowdly CEO Dan Sullivan’s piece on Advocate Marketing’s Dirty Little Secret. His thoughts on the topic have been featured on company blogs, demonstrated on podcasts (episode 55), and discussed in marketing boardrooms. Inspired by Dan’s piece, we bring you an important guide to the sketchy characters you may encounter on the path to building an authentic influencer and advocate marketing program.
The Sweepstakes Hunter
In the jungle of brand marketing, the Sweepstakes Hunter is the parrot. Willing to regurgitate any marketing message necessary to be entered into brand sweepstakes, receive free schwag, or get “loyalty” points towards a reward program, the SH can clip the wings of your brand’s attempt to drive Word of Mouth before you even have a chance to say, “tweet.”
The Fickle Fan
The FF has money, gifts, or notoriety on their mind, and all that incentive amounts to a lack of brand affinity needed to make them a trustworthy ambassador for your brand. Think of the Fickle Fan as the significant other that goes after your best friend — while you’re still dating.
The Irrelevant Tastemaker
Sure, the Irrelevant Tastemaker has a big following about yacht building within the yacht building community, but does that really help your budding brand of laundry detergent? Likely, no.
The Mercurial Maven
Introducing, the one-upper. This person only listens to bands that aren’t on Spotify, drinks beer they had to wait in line for, and wears clothes with labels they can hardly pronounce. They aren’t shepherding their network along the path to discovery, they’re racing them. They want your product as long as it’s new, but then it’s on to the next one. Considering that even H.O.V.A. has his preferred brands, don’t settle for those unwilling to settle down.
The Pontificating Poser
This advocate aligns politically with a recent stand the brand has taken, but the buck stops there. They might emphatically retweet, share, and like your content thanks to your recent support of staying closed on Sundays, but when they’re in a rush to put dinner on the table during the SEC Championship, you better believe they’re getting their bucket of chicken from somewhere else.