For several years, The Motherhood has partnered with the University of Pittsburgh to conduct influencer marketing research, putting the young medium of social media under the microscope to uncover valuable business insights. Marketing Professor Vanitha Swaminathan, PhD, who is the director of the Katz Center for Branding in the Joseph M. Katz Graduate School of Business, has guided our work together since 2013.
The Katz Center for Branding has filmed and shared a new video that explains the work they do and briefly outlines some of our research efforts (beginning at 1:30):
As noted by PhD student Christian Hughes in the video, we’ve most recently explored the factors that make a blogger most successful – specifically, examining the type of content posted and the makeup of influencers’ follower networks.
Out of our previous influencer marketing research, in 2014, we shared the most effective ways to engage moms online on behalf of brands. We followed up in 2015 with research-based practical tips on how to reach influential moms online.
A few interesting findings from our current research include:
- Staying on topic matters. A blog post with higher relevancy can increase engagement on a blog post by 20 percent.
- Engagement rate and posting frequency are correlated. Bloggers with high Facebook engagement generally post eight percent more often than bloggers with low Facebook engagement. Bloggers with high blog post engagement generally post 35 percent more than bloggers with low blog post engagement.
- Readers love visuals. Blog posts that receive high engagement are 12 percent more likely to include a photo than blog posts with low engagement.
- A new product release presents a strategic opportunity for a blog campaign. Campaigns featuring new versus existing products are 38 percent more likely to receive high Facebook and blog engagement.
Many thanks to Vanitha Swaminathan, Christian Hughes and Bob Stein at the Joseph M. Katz Graduate School of Business for their work and partnership over the years!
