Member Since March 2021
Skills
About
I am Co-Founder of CLEVER, the first full-service influencer marketing agency, and thrilled to be founding Chair & Executive Director of the Influencer Marketing Association. * Over the last decade, work with such clients as Ford, Disney, Amazon, LEGO, Unilever, and Delta Airlines helped establish CLEVER as one of the Top 50 Fastest Growing Companies (Silicon Valley Business Journal) twice. We've also won several agency awards including "Best Small Agency" (Shorties) and Outstanding Digital Innovation (Marketers That Matter). We were also rated #37 in Entrepreneur Magazine's top 500 small companies in 2017. * In my role as Chair & ED of the IMA, I’m supported by an amazing Board of Advisors and Directors laying the groundwork for this critically important, industry-changing organization. Our goal is to set and protect ethical, procedural, and measurement standards for the influencer marketing industry. * I've been awarded Forbes' Top 40 Over 40 and FOLIO: Magazine's Top Women In Media; featured in The New York Times, CNN, AdAge, Adweek, INC, and Business Insider; and authored Influencer Marketing For Dummies (featured on Good Morning America). My speaking highlights include Martha Stewart's "American Made" conference; National Retail Federation’s “Big Show" (keynote); TEDx (#Batkid story, Social Media & Global Participation). Specialties: Social media marketing, strategy, entrepreneurism, content marketing, influencer marketing, female entrepreneurism, female leadership, social media marketing, and, you know, humor.
Kristy Sammis
Published content
expert panel
Even if you're self-funded, you can still find meaningful and cost-effective ways to recognize and reward your team's hard work. Every leader wants to recognize their team members for their excellent work. But for a startup—especially one that’s bootstrapped—financial rewards may not be possible (for now). Still, when your startup team is putting in long hours and hard work to help you get your dream off the ground, you want to ensure they know that you see their efforts and just how much you appreciate them. Fortunately, showing your team your thanks doesn’t have to be expensive—you just have to be creative and thoughtful. Below, 16 Fast Company Executive Board members offer their advice for entrepreneurs who want to recognize outstanding work from their team even when the budget’s tight.
expert panel
Most organizations have specific rules and protocols workers are expected to follow, as well as carefully developed missions and visions that are intended to guide the entire team's actions. However, employees won't just blindly follow these rules if the leaders who established them aren't modeling that behavior themselves. And it's not just about hard-and-fast policies and procedures either—teams are influenced by everything from a leader's speech patterns to their attitudes. Consciously or unconsciously, employees often pick up habits, mannerisms, and mindsets from their managers and other higher-ups—an instinct that often trumps paying close attention to "the rules." That's why leaders must stop and think about the messages they may be unconsciously sending to their teams. It can be difficult to know how you may be setting a bad example if you aren't aware of some of the more common missteps leaders make. To help, a panel of Fast Company Executive Board members shared 15 ways leaders might be unknowingly setting a bad example for their teams and how they can turn things around.
expert panel
Success in the modern business world depends on developing an authentic, genuine brand that makes customers feel understood and appreciated. Today there are so many established and new businesses—together offering a staggering array of products and services and easy to access online—that a company can no longer simply lean on their service offerings as their main point of attraction. Consumers want to support brands that they see as authentic and that share and practice their values. That’s why business leaders need to focus on creating a brand that encourages genuine connections and loyalty. Developing a brand is both a creative venture and a journey of discovery. Below, 15 members of Fast Company Executive Board share their top secrets to help you build an authentic brand that truly connects with your customers and audience.
Company details
CLEVER
Company bio
The future of advertising isn’t advertising; it’s real people telling brand stories. Tech-driven and human where it counts, we offer flawlessly managed services supported by CLEVER’s advanced platform, Gen4 DASH. We match brands with hand-selected influencers and fully manage authentic and brand-safe influencer marketing programs. Drawing from nearly a decade of successful program data, we guarantee that brands reach millions of the right consumers and exceed their goals. Every time. Everywhere. This is “Real. At Scale.” Founded in 2009, we’ve delivered more influencer programs for the world’s best companies than any other agency. We authored the go-to guide, "Influencer Marketing for Dummies." We’re most well-known for our work on the extraordinary #Batkid story. CLEVER received the esteemed Shorty Award for Best Small Agency, WOMMA’s Gold Award for Marketing, PR News’ award for Best Viral Campaign, and Digiday’s Content Marketing award for Best Agency/Client Collaboration. We pride ourselves on our strong female leadership and rapid growth, reflected in our recognition by the San Francisco Times’ Top 100 Women-Owned Business. For two consecutive years, Inc. 5000 has recognized CLEVER as one of America’s Fastest Growing Companies, 2016 & 2017. In 2017, CLEVER was named a Great Place to Work—the global authority on high-trust, high-performance workplace cultures—an achievement earned based on extensive ratings provided by CLEVER employees.