or 7 ways you can add scale to an influencer program
Previously, I have covered theresearch and activation of influencers in a Social IRM stratgey. Overall, this is an approach to managing influencers with the same discipline that we try to manage customers - without any of the abuse. By that I mean, the approach to CRM that tries to stimulate customers right to the brink of annoyance but hopefully not over. Like how many emails you send to them with offers before those emails convert to spam. The industry I would most like to see have a CRM overhaul is the magazine business. I am a 15-year or more loyal reader and subscriber to Metropolis Magazine. Do I get any love or acknowledgment? Do they still send me subscription renewals 6 months before they are due hoping that I will think the sub is up and send a check?
Anyhow, the principal of Social IRM is far more benign. It is ultimately built on the premise of 'Value Exchange' covered in a previous post. You cannot 'game' influencers nor can you push them where they don't want to go. The discipline of Social IRM is about serving them better and creating a protocol inside the brand marketer for constantly delivering value that is talkworthy.
Once you have engaged influencers in an experience they care about and they find it worthwhile to post, comment, tweet, video post or otherwise share word of mouth (WOM), how can you add scale to have a bigger impact?
Scale or Amplification
There are 7 key ways to add reach to a influencer program. If there are others, I would love to hear about them. One of the key tenants of Social IRM is that you are engaging relevant influencers on behalf of the brand. This means outdoors experts on behalf of REI or enterprise IT managers for SaS services targeting....enterprise. These folks are not always going to have the largest reach. Certainly they may not have what the professional alpha bloggers have. So the question remains, how can you have their WOM reach more people - without spoiling the WOM?
7 Ways to Scale
Aggregate the voices: If we collect all of what people are saying about the brand or relevant topic and pull it altogether via a content aggregator we can potentially increase the reach. I say potentially because either you will be integrating that aggreagation in a high-traffic site or driving awareness via an ad campaign to the aggregator. Just creating one doesn't do it. Good examples include:
- The Ford Story
- Lenovo Voices of the Summer Games (not active)
Content-driven advertising: A modest ad buy that features the content of the conversation - what people are saying in tweets, comments or posts - can drive new people into the conversation and can also celebrate and reward those who are participating by featuring their conetnt in the ads. If you send the traffic to the aggregator, you can raise the spotlight quickly on what you are doing and create a virtuous circle by making it worthwhile for influencers to contribute to earn visibility for their efforts.
Extended influencer outreach: For every 20 influencers in a particular niches that you engage, there may be 20-200 more who would find it relevant to know about what you are talking about and who may want to participate. Extended outreach - done carefully and thoughtfully - can extend awareness via their combined reach.
Traditional media relations: Some of the things we do online are media-worthy.Traditional press may find it interesting that we are co-creating a new product with customers or whatever we are doing.
Partnerships for reach: Finding a great partner who has a relevant constituency is a fundamental PR and marketing tactic that is equally relevant to the social space. Perhaps the online community around the Appalachian Mountain Club would work with REI on its "Stories of the Appalachian Trail" project (I made this up) and notify their members.
SEO & SEM: Making our content as visible and findable as possible via both organic and a "strategic" SEM buy can ensure that we earn as much search engine traffic for our WOM program as possible. Again, the aggregator is key as a hub that we can build some decent Google Juice around.
An Enthusiast Network: If you maintain long-term relationships with a group of enthusiasts - enthusiasts for the brand or the topic of interest (overnight hiking?) gives you a network of relevant folks to invite into an activity. This can also reduce your cost of "influencer acquisition." We are launching a software platform with several clients now that enables us to grow this type of network and deliver valuable content and offers directly to them for sharing (i.e. this is our value exchange).
Generally no one tactic is the answer. Think of this more as a checklist and all may apply. If you want to go beyond scoring a handful of posts from influencers and stimulate an environment where sharing on a topic is productive for all and reaches as many relevant folks as possible, consider an amplification strategy with these tactics.
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