Influencing for Cause Can Build Your Own Brand Equity

This past week I attended BarkWorld Expo in Atlanta, Georgia.  I've been attending BarkWorld for several years and always enjoy meeting fellow social media pet professionals. I was at BarkWorld with one of my clients, Lucy Pet Products, and their spokes-dog, Surfin Jack. Surfin' Jack was a huge hit and made lots of new friends and fans- two legged and four legged-furry friends especially!

Influencing for Cause Can Build Your Own Brand Equity
On Saturday I participated in one of the educational sessions as a speaker, co-presenting on the topic of 'Using Your Influence for a Cause'. The session focused on how bloggers can promote causes they are passionate about by leveraging their followers and readers. Here are a few highlights and advice I gave to the attendees of our session:

• Choose causes that are near & dear to you.
• Learn about the cause…volunteer, get involved.
• Use your social presence to help share the message across all platforms, and be consistent with the message.
• Be authentic & genuine. (Authentic conversations have more of an impact on Millennials in particular.)
• Focus on true stories, and leverage other people's content or media, with permission.
• Consider forming strategic partnerships to help magnify your voice.
• Existing followers will be more loyal from your passion.
• New followers will find you more easily.

My closing advice to the attendees was that if you are working for or passionate about helping a cause be sure to get out there at least once and volunteer, help or work with the organization so you can speak first-hand, from the heart. This will help your authenticity and more importantly will enrich your life along the way.