Influencer Marketing: Go Global Or Stay Local?

Globalization and social media have changed the way influencer marketing operates on a global and local level. Although every influencer typically has more influence in their local region it is now possible to measure which influencers have an influence in other countries and therefore should be treated as a global influencer.

So how can brands capitalise on this knowledge and put together a coherent global influencer marketing strategy especially when they are often structured in silos and there are so many cultural differences across the various continents?

Building local and global influencer programs: two real life examples

First of all it is important to find the right influencers. Influencer identification can be complex especially with a global strategy (a case study that outlines two effective techniques to finding the right global influencers is available on our blog).

Once the key influencers are identified, building a global influencer network allows brands to better understand who has true global influence as opposed to local market influence. The network of connections also shows whether there is a mature online community (dense network) or whether there is a disparate or fragmented community (small number of isolated connections). Often this is where rich local sub communities of influencers can also be surfaced that can be vital to localised marketing efforts.

Let’s take 2 real life examples in education and B2B Marketing as the influencer networks both look very different and therefore require different influencer engagement strategies.

Global Education Influencer Program

With this network map we can make the following observations:

1) There is a mature online dialogue and community as there are many interactions across markets such as USA, Canada, Brazil, Turkey, Croatia and Costa Rica. Cross border influencing is definitely in evidence here.

2) Shelly (@ShellTerrel) for example is one of the key global connectors among the education influencers. She is a US-based top influencer and is interacting with 50% US based influencers and 50% influencers based in Europe and South America.

Imagine a brand wants to run an Education influencer marketing campaign in North America, Europe and Latin America. Should the brand’s US Marketing team engage with Shelley or it is better for a global marketing team to manage any engagement with such an important influencer?

B2B Marketing Influencer Program

Read more:

• Are Influencers Tired Of Influencer Marketing?