Good Influence
How to Engage Influencers for Purpose and Profit
Good Influence is an effective, informative guide for engaging influencers in ways that benefit businesses and nonprofits.
Paul M. Katz’s Good Influence is an informative guidebook that discusses the ways in which businesses and nonprofits can engage influencers with their marketing strategies.
Good Influence examines the “Influencer Effect,” or the ways in which engaging influencers affect target audiences and boost business success. Its analyses of methods for utilizing influencers are deep, covering both business and nonprofit models step-by-step. And each topical chapter is divided into detailed subcategories that are bolstered by credible research, real-life examples, and personal anecdotes that illustrate their points—as with the D.R.E.A.M. method, which is broken down into campaign, engagement, and commitment goals. Summarized, bite-sized “pro tips” and “top tools” appear throughout to clarify the book’s denser information. This varied organization allows for engagement at different levels of specificity.
Katz’s long-standing expertise on influencer engagement is clear from the start; indeed, the book begins with an intriguing story about him being backstage with his wife during a Live Aid concert—a spot that he secured after being tapped “to help build up the then‐fledgling Jive Records and Zomba Music Publishing companies in the United States.” And throughout, the book’s delivery is furthered by its authoritative references and in-text citations and footnotes. Indeed, A Good Influence approaches its sources critically, admitting when they are not unbiased, as with its nuanced, transparent use of the Tomoson study on influencer marketing and emails. Further, in addition to examples portraying celebrities and worldwide conglomerates, the successes of small businesses and nonprofits are highlighted, making the goals discussed seem more tangible for a wide range of readers.
The book furthers its reach by examining influencer engagement from other sides, as when it analyzes how its recommendations will affect influencers themselves. Still, though the examples of influencer engagement success are among the book’s strongest points, the profusion of them is overwhelming. And in the end, the book does overemphasize those examples that include celebrities, conglomerates, and entities whose funding reaches into the billions. It is at its most compelling when it sticks to emotive and relatable accounts, as with that of a man who grew up low-income in England and later became a prominent influence on his community, raising awareness around the resources needed to address food insecurity.
Good Influence is an effective, informative guide for engaging influencers in ways that benefit businesses and nonprofits.
Reviewed by
Kiriana McAffee
Disclosure: This article is not an endorsement, but a review. The publisher of this book provided free copies of the book and paid a small fee to have their book reviewed by a professional reviewer. Foreword Reviews and Clarion Reviews make no guarantee that the publisher will receive a positive review. Foreword Magazine, Inc. is disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255.
