Social Media Marketing: Engaging Influencers

Tactics for social media marketing engagement need to vary based on the situation. A conversation with an openly hostile influencer demands a different approach than an engagement with someone who’s never heard of your company. Use common sense and good public relations practices. Never lose your cool. Most people will welcome your outreach if you have something useful to offer.

Social Media Marketing: Tips for Engaging Those with Influence

Social media marketing to any influencer demands a personal approach. This tactic is particularly important in the social media domain, where traditional marketing is regarded with much suspicion. Some tips for social media marketers to successfully engage key influencers:

Know the Influencer

In the age of search, there’s simply no excuse for not knowing something about the person you’re reaching out to. A simple Google search will turn up examples of their past activity, and you can complement your knowledge by searching on sites like LinkedIn to learn more. Social media enthusiasts tend to be active in a lot of places, so it’s usually not a challenge to find them. Read a couple of their recent posts and be ready to compliment them on something they’ve said. You don’t need to be effusive, but show that you’ve done your homework. This is the quickest way to make a friend or to disarm a wary or negative person.

Give Value

Influencers like to feel important, so have something that’s just for them. This can be as simple as a link to an interesting article, an invitation to listen in on a webcast or a free trial of a new service. The offer doesn’t have to be expensive, but it should be special.

In fact, a lavish offer can backfire. That’s what happened when Microsoft sent some top bloggers high-end laptops pre-loaded with its Windows Vista operating system. The thinly veiled bribe from a company whose wealth was already a source of some resentment created such a negative reaction that Microsoft was forced to backpedal and recommend that the bloggers return the laptops or give them to charity. Negative sentiment about Microsoft’s market power didn’t help the matter.

Creativity will get you farther than cash. When software maker Altiris rolled out its SVS product, its PR agency sent specially labeled packages of apple juice to about 400 bloggers. Journalists ignore such gimmicks, which arrive all the time in the mail. But bloggers weren’t used to such attention and the back-and-forth between them actually helped build anticipation for the product.

Offer Help

Make it clear that you are available as a resource to help influencers better understand your products and market, as well as to serve as an entry point to the company. Make the offer meaningful by adding a cell phone number and/or instant messaging address and invite them to contact you whenever they need your help. Be sincere with social media marketing, though. If you provide contact information and then fail to respond to inquiries, you’ll undermine the outreach effort.

Use Exclusives

Its typically not advised to use exclusives or “leaks” to communicate news to mainstream media, but the rules are different in the community of bloggers. The reason is that reporters are competitive and often egotistical people who don’t understand or agree with the distinctions that marketers make between media outle­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­ts. Give an exclusive to one reporter you make a lot of enemies.

That culture just doesn’t exist in the blogosphere. With the exception of a few very prominent sites, bloggers know that they aren’t TechCrunch, and they don’t expect to be treated equally. In fact, rumors posted on those sites can kick off blog buzz that creates anticipation for the real announcement. Apple benefited spectacularly from this kind of speculation prior to the launch of its first iPhone. More than 1,000 bloggers were buzzing about tidbits posted on Engadget and Gizmodo, creating anticipation that spread to mainstream media. Apple never acknowledged planting these rumors, but the effect was dramatic. The iPhone not only became the fastest-selling phone in history, but it spawned an ecosystem of third-party enhancement products and created a cult following.

Invite Feedback

People like to be asked for their opinion, so take the opportunity to solicit feedback about your company, market position, product features or another topic with which they’re familiar. If possible, arrange to connect bloggers with a technical resource or executive in order to re-emphasize their “insider” status. This tactic is particularly effective with negative influencers. Once you invite them into the product development process, they take ownership of the outcome. It’s difficult for people to criticize something they helped create. You need to have buy-in across your organization to make this strategy work because if influencers believe their suggestions are being ignored or patronized, they’ll strike back angrily.

Follow Up with Social Media Marketing Campaigns

One of the most common mistakes that social media marketing people make is initiating a conversation in the name of establishing a relationship and then disappearing once the message has been delivered. This tactic makes marketers look shallow and insincere. Avoid it. Once you start a dialogue, make it a point to check in weekly, even if you don’t have any news to share. The fact that you post without an agenda actually reflects favorably upon you. Social networks make this easy. Creating “friend” relationships with social media influencers enables you to stay in touch easily and efficiently.