Before the influencer era, earned media typically bound up with the editorial and mentions of brands in newspapers and magazines. But nowadays, all this changed, everyone can count as influencers on social media. Imagine one tweet or one post from an ordinary user on social media can make a Mexican wave and it can affect positively or negatively the brand’s online presence. That is why every single post on social media counts as a form of earned media. It increases the importance of Earned Media Value(EMV). Analysis and understanding of Earned Media Value are now becoming a clearer way for brands to evaluate the value of their investment in social media. In this blog, we will define EMV and demonstrate the usability of this metric in influencer marketing.

What is Earned Media Value (EMV)?

Earned media value is a more advanced metric about a brand that refers to the sum of any type of mention gained through social media, websites, blogs, forums, reviews, and so on. That mentions not from advertising (paid media) and didn’t come from brand’s media channels(owned media).  Take a look at our previous blog to learn more details on the differences between each type of media. In General, this form of media includes word-of-mouth, recommendations, or conversations about the brand.

Marketers used to measure EMV entirely on user-generated content (UGC) and were not invested in it as it was not considered very valuable to brands. Nowadays, sponsored ads, influencers, and many such factors have increased the value of EMV and motivate brands to invest in it.

EMV helps brands understand how their marketing path and online presence affects their potential customers. If the earned media value is low, it is usually an indication of mistakes in marketing strategy. If EMV is high, it shows that this brand is on the right track or builds meaningful connections with its target audience.

The connection between IMV and EMV

The earned media value (EMV) is the method of calculating the value from every type of media. However, influencer media value (IMV) is more specific than EMV, focusing solely on influencer marketing.

Influencer marketing is a relatively new strategy for marketers who are willing to build strong relationships with their target audience. It is obvious that influencer marketing is the best of the effective marketing strategies. For this reason, the EMV model was adopted as an influencer media value (IMV) and applied to the influencer field with minor changes. It is proved that influencer posts lead to better quality impressions than traditional PPC(Pay-per-click) ads. That is why marketers shift EMV to influencer marketing.

Why Earned Media Value is Important to Influencer Marketing

Both earned media value and influencer media value assist brands to predict which influencers are likely to have the highest ROI.  Of course, after knowing this possibility, brands can easily choose the right path and strategy to increase awareness and sales.

But do not forget that, firstly, you should identify a well-grounded perspective to calculating EMV and IMV, which could help you make better influencer marketing decisions. 

Gaining a solid understanding of your EMV and IMV can help you save paid media costs by showing you which influencers also possess high EMV.

How to Calculate Influencer Earned Media Value

Since earned media is so valuable, you will want to calculate it to identify how it contributes to your brand’s sales. The problem with this is that there is no agreed formula for calculating earned media value.  Here are a few different methodologies for calculating EMV.

1. Based on Non-Paid Impressions

Calculation: Impressions(Non-paid) x CPM

2.  Based on Organic and Viral Impressions

Calculate: Impression(Organic Impressions Over Last 30 Days) x CPM x Average CLV(Customer Lifetime Value)

3. Based on Reach and Conversion:

Calculate: Reached Users X CPM by Vertical x Conversion Factor 

These aren’t even all of the methods people have used to calculate EMV.  For influencer campaigns, calculating EMV can help brands figure out how effective influencer activities have been.  In influencer marketing, there are two methods to calculate EMV according  to marketing KPI (impression or engagement)

• Emv based on Impressions 

If your target is to drive brand awareness, then you should track and calculate an EMV based on Impression. For that, you need to determine CPM (cost per impression). For instance, it can be based on the brand’s previous paid influencer campaigns or known digital media rates.

You can then calculate the Impressions EMV by multiplying the Impression CPM by the free impressions delivered / 1,000.

(Impressions) * (Cost per 1,000 or CPM) 

• EMV based on engagement

If engagement is more significant than an impression for your marketing strategy, you can also track an EMV based on engagement. In the calculation process, the same way is followed as above.

Figure out Engagement CPM, then multiply the Engagement CPM by the free engagements delivered (likes + comments) / 1,000.

Of course, calculating these formulas is not easy. With Keepface, brands can track engagement, along with influencer EMV. Brands can use EMV metrics to identify where they will get maximum ROI.  Keepface uses proprietary technology to quantify the value of Influencer media value, making IMV the standard for measuring social media buzz and engagement.

Keepface is a SaaS tool for brands to run influencer marketing, employee & customer advocacy campaigns through a single platform for maximizing marketing ROI since 2016. From 2016 till now we assist brands in their influencer marketing campaigns. Brands use our platform to identify, recruit, and negotiate with influencers by spending less time. 

Now we are proud to announce our new project, Influencer store under the slogan ‘Social Proof Creates Trust and Trust Sells’.

In our Influencer Store project, we create online stores for influencers to turn them into e-commerce owners. Influencers only need to create authentic content and promote products on social channels. The influencers who will participate in this project will have the opportunity to decorate their e-commerce stores with the products of their favorite brands and share their lifestyles with their audience.

Basically, we create an online store for influencers, they add their favorite items which they tested, loved, and endorsed, and in the online store influencers sell the products without investing in those products. Influencers only need to promote themselves and their products on their social media through engaging content.

This is how the system works in influencer stores: 

1. Influencers create engaging and branded content by their favorite products.
2. encourage their audience to purchase them. 
3. Consumers are directed to the websites of the brands from the influencer stores because of the influencer endorsement.
4. Brands get conversions and quality traffic.

Influencer store’s interface

Influencer stores have a quite simple interface so it facilitates the process of adopting by users. As you know a good User Interface is substantial because it can turn potential visitors into buyers as it makes easier interactions between the user and your website.

There are some important features which I would like to bring to your attention about the interface.

When you enter the influencer store you will see five sections at the top; home page, products, brands, apps, and story. 

• The home page section will direct you to the landing page of the influencer’s store. 
• With the product button, consumers can see the products which the influencer uses and recommend. Consumers can filter the products by their tag as well. 
• In the brand’s section, we can see the influencer’s favorite brands that influencers use.
• In the story part, you can see the products that the influencer shares with his/her daily life pictures and give information about products like where he/she bought a product, etc. You can click the Read more button for finding more information about products.

Why is Keepface Influencer Store beneficial for brands?

In general, influencer store projects are a combination of three concepts; affiliate marketing, influencer marketing, and social selling. It means that when brands join the influencer store, they can take advantage of all three of them together. To be more precise, businesses combine affiliate marketing and influencer marketing to reach social media-driven audiences and sell their products. It is a great strategy to invest in to build long-term relationships with customers.

• First of all, influencer stores can help brands increase brand awareness while it is one of the main reasons why marketers use influencer marketing. As you know, influencer recommendations are noticed and taken into consideration by their followers so easily. By influencer stores, brands stand out and attract new followers for themselves, giving them increased visibility and the opportunity to gain more traction.

•  You can also reach your target audience and sell your products much easier than any marketing strategy.  By the Influencer store, your products are more likely to be seen by your target audience or who might engage with you – which is the ultimate goal of the influencer store.

• Influencer store projects increase your brand credibility and trust by partnering with influencers. Consumers tend to trust recommendations from influencers which is the biggest power of influencers. So when they add items to the influencer store it will be seen as a genuine testimonial and will help you build a trustful connection.

• Influencer stores can also be beneficial to your search engine rankings as it helps to boost your reach. As you know, influencer marketing and affiliate marketing are both good for SEO. This means that you can improve your search engine ranking with influencer stores. Influencer stores  is a great opportunity to create better and the most important natural inbound links for your website.