An Interview With Candice Georgiadis
Sponsored Posts: The biggest monetization tool influencers have is brand partnerships, which is where I spend most of my personal time. Brands are so hungry to work with influential voices who resonate with their consumers, so having a proactive approach to working with those brands serves influencers well. More specifically, this means signing up for influencer platforms that can match profiles with brands, creating toolkits that demonstrate value and highlight the audiences, and being prescriptive about personal experiences and passions to align with brands with similar DNA.
As part of our series about “How Influencers Can Monetize Their Brand”, we had the pleasure of interviewing Keith Bendes On Five Ways For Influencers To Monetize Their Brand.
Labeled a leading voice in the intersection of marketing and technology by Forbes, Keith has led sales and marketing strategy for some of the world’s largest and most innovative brands, including Ben & Jerry’s, Bud Light, Dove, Axe, Pepsi, Nissan, and Microsoft. Keith has spoken on many of the biggest marketing stages with the brightest brand thinkers, from CPG global leaders to tech icons. Check out Keith’s Forbes page and blog for industry analysis on all things marketing and technology.
Thank you so much for doing this with us! Before we dig in, our readers would love to get to know you a bit more. What is your “backstory”? What brought you to this point in your career?
The psychology of influence always captivated me. Growing up, I was very much an entrepreneur in training, concocting new businesses as early as the age of 10 and selling inventions around my neighborhood. I discovered that if I recruited friends to help me sell, they would perform better at some houses than I could — and their performance was a product of their ability to relate and connect to each individual household. I learned that the voice delivering the message was a key determinant of the impact on the listener, which today, helps me explain the meteoric rise of influencers and creators in marketing.
Fast forward many years, and I had the ability to see how that lesson translated on the brand side during my tenure at Unilever, the agency side during my time at Float, and ultimately, on the influencer platform side now at Linqia. Influencers are quickly becoming the predominant way the everyday person gets information — from product recommendations to the news, influencers deliver. Users want information from trusted, authentic, relatable sources on their own terms, and in my role, I get to spend each day helping brands find the right influencer partners who will effectively translate their brand messages.
Can you share the funniest or most interesting story that happened to you in the course of your career?
When I was in the very beginning stages of my career, I interned at a sports marketing firm and helped identify optimal athlete and brand partnerships. In those days, it was all about celebrity sponsorships; the idea of a micro-influencer or an influencer did not exist.
I was very young and, therefore, was assigned a lot of the grunt work, but since I was a major sports fan, I loved the job and being around athletes and sports personalities. I remember one day, I was in the apartment of one of the biggest baseball stars in the world, and as a star-struck kid, I didn’t say or do much other than place the equipment in front of him so he could sign his autograph.
He made an effort to engage me, which he absolutely didn’t have to, and we proceeded to have a conversation that I will never forget. The two lessons I learned during that conversation were the following:
1. You belong in every room and have the expertise to offer that no one else does, so share it proudly.
2. Don’t be afraid to ask for what you want because it will never be handed to you.
I held onto those lessons throughout my career.
How have you used your success to bring goodness to the world?
One of the most rewarding aspects of influencer marketing is working with brands to partner with influencers in support of social causes. I had the honor of working with some of the most inspiring brands in the world on activations that drive positive change in society. From our work with Chevrolet on the “Authentic Voices of Pride” campaign to Midol on our “No Apologies. Period.” campaign, both addressed somewhat “taboo” topics and, in turn, made significant contributions to the LGBTQ+ and women-focused communities worldwide.
Not only are these activations fulfilling for the people involved in bringing them to life, but they delivered better results for the brands, which proves that doing good is also good business. I hope to do much more social impact work in the coming years as brands increasingly prioritize these initiatives.
You have been blessed with great success in a career path that many have attempted, but eventually gave up on. Do you have any words of advice for others who may want to embark on this career path but know that their dreams might be dashed?
Unfortunately, we have a society that over-celebrates and romanticizes quick success. For most people, success does not happen overnight; it takes many years of riding the waves of progress and setbacks. My advice for anyone, in this industry or otherwise, is to find something you love doing because you will have a much better chance of succeeding. Success is not just about titles and money — loving the work needs to be a critical part of the calculation.
Every line of business has a natural tendency to weed out the people who don’t really want to be doing the work long-term. Those who do become part of the community, and the community props everyone up. So, part of success is unquestionably patience and time.
I would also say that I spent a short stint working in finance at an investment bank, and while many people around me were financially successful beyond anything I could have imagined at the time, that monetary success did not translate to happiness. So, I encourage all to find work that creates happiness, and financial success will follow.
None of us can achieve success without a bit of help along the way. Is there a particular person who made a profound difference in your life to whom you are grateful? Can you share a story?
My parents and family deserve most of the credit for my success in life. I was raised by two highly intelligent, loving people who were very successful in their own rights. Most of my business acumen comes directly from my father, and my never-ending thirst for learning and curiosity comes from my mother. I will never take for granted my upbringing and the fact that many don’t have the same benefit.
I was also very lucky to have incredibly talented bosses and colleagues along the way. I credit my team at Unilever for giving me a Masters-like education in business, my team at Float for teaching me what hustle really means, and my team at Linqia for teaching me how humanity and business can and must intersect. There are great people in every company; it’s beholden on each of us to find those people and absorb everything we can in their presence.
So, what are the most exciting projects you are working on now? How do you think that might help people?
There are many campaigns for which we have immense pride — three of which we won Influencer, Social Media, and PR awards for in the last month, which is a testament to the impact these campaigns have on communities. One campaign is a multi-year project to garner attention for important topics that impact the LGBTQ+ community (such as justice reform and raising LGBTQ+ kids). Another campaign focused on encouraging women to stop apologizing for their period symptoms, especially since data shows that 62 percent of menstruators under the age of 40 apologize for their period. We have also worked with an allergy brand for a multi-year initiative to inspire children to spend more time outside, which can be challenging given how much time is currently spent indoors using technology. All of these campaigns have social impact goals, and brands are stepping up to play a more active role in solving big societal challenges in collaboration with influential voices can make a difference in their communities. I’m proud of the brands that are taking action and everyone who contributes to bringing these campaigns to life.
What are your “Top Five Ways That Influencers Can Monetize Their Brand?” (Please share a story or example for each.)
- Sponsored Posts: The biggest monetization tool influencers have is brand partnerships, which is where I spend most of my personal time. Brands are so hungry to work with influential voices who resonate with their consumers, so having a proactive approach to working with those brands serves influencers well. More specifically, this means signing up for influencer platforms that can match profiles with brands, creating toolkits that demonstrate value and highlight the audiences, and being prescriptive about personal experiences and passions to align with brands with similar DNA.
- Content Creation: Many brands need content for their own social media (and other digital properties). They may not be interested in an influencer’s social reach, but they just want high-quality content. These are great partnership opportunities that allow influencers to become content creators and for brands to power their brand-owned channels.
- Products: Influencers have many tools at their disposal to create and sell products. Some companies make this very easy and integrate with social platforms (such as Spring), so influencers don’t need to have their own manufacturing and distribution systems. In many cases, it’s less about the merchandise itself and more about giving communities a way to financially support influencers in exchange for something tangible. Influencers such as Mr. Beast are the extreme versions of this process — he can sell millions of products with immediate impact — but all influencers can have their own product strategy to generate income.
- Subscriptions: Communities value influencer content and they will pay for special access. Enabling subscriptions on various social channels or websites is a way for viewers to contribute to the influencers’ art, and ideally, the influencer can provide extra access such as behind-the-scenes content, exclusive streams, and more, which provides a VIP status-type feeling alongside their subscription.
- Events/Activations: Brands invest significantly in experiential activations for their audiences. These can include music festivals, sporting events, conferences, and other similar experiences. Having influencer partners represent those brands can deliver significant value and become a new revenue stream for the influencer. Don’t underestimate how much the physical world can provide to influencers who made their name in the digital world.
You are a person of great influence. If you could inspire a movement that would bring the most amount of good to the most amount of people, what would that be? You never know what your idea can trigger.
Two words: online positivity. There is a very large social networking company with positivity ambassadors all over the country who commit to posting a certain number of positive messages each week. They do this because data shows that positivity is contagious, and one positive message leads to many more. In a world where social media can be highly negative, which can have a significant impact on people’s mental health, movements that promote positivity and aid in creating a healthier, more constructive social media landscape is something I am very passionate about.
We are very blessed that some of the biggest names in Business, VC funding, Sports, and Entertainment read this column. Is there a person in the world, or in the US whom you would love to have a private breakfast or lunch with, and why? He or she might just see this. 🙂
I’ve always been very inspired by Simon Sinek ever since his original, “How Great Leaders Inspire Action” Ted talk went viral. One of the most difficult skills in the world is being able to take complex topics and distill them down to a core, easy-to-understand truth. Simon is the best example of doing just that, and he can break through to business professionals with messaging that is typically perceived as too fluffy for corporate environments. I have an incredible amount of respect for Simon and would love to spend a meal listening to his widow.
What is the best way our readers can follow your work online?
I am an avid LinkedIn user, so I post a lot on that platform. It’s the best way to follow my real-time interpretation of industry events. I also write a lot of content for Linqia given my day job, so following Linqia on LinkedIn, Twitter, Instagram, TikTok, and Facebook means you are following me. My team produces a fantastic LinkedIn newsletter called “Influencer Marketing Roundup,” which covers the top stories in influencer marketing and social media, so I consider that a must-read. You may also see me on a podcast in the near future…but more on that coming soon!
Thank you for these fantastic insights. We greatly appreciate the time you spent on this.
Keith Bendes On Five Ways Influencers Can Monetize Their Brand was originally published in Authority Magazine on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.