Are you trying to get a handle on influencer marketing for your company? The first step in developing an effective B2B influencer marketing strategy is being able to wrap your arms around all the content that’s being generated about your company on social media platforms like Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter. Whether you know it or not, people are talking about you and your products.
For most companies, the first step is coming up with a social media dashboard that will enable them to track all the comments, likes and updates in real-time. For example, by using the real-time social media monitoring dashboard from NUVI, companies would have a way to track everything in one place. Best of all, they could create dedicated dashboards for each different social channel, and generate all kinds of custom reports based on factors related to frequency and influence. You can even get mobile alerts. In other words, you’ll be able to slice-and-dice your results according to your specific business needs using NUVI.
With the real-time social media dashboard as a starting point, you’ll be able to create an inventory of influencers that you’d like to target, based on what you already know about your prospects’ social networks. This can take some time, but you’ll soon start to see network effects emerge, since the friends-of-friends approach is such a powerful way of understanding and mapping influence.
The next step is to engage those influencers online. Maybe it’s asking them to write a guest blog. Maybe it’s asking them to contribute to your LinkedIn or Instagram presence. Maybe you can feature them in a live event or invite them to a company event.
The point is – you need to give these influencers an active, visible platform to get their ideas out. When your prospects see the link between them and your business, that’s when you have the real opportunity. These social influencers are essentially placing a “mark of approval” on your business.
But remember – there’s not a one-size-fits-all approach when it comes to reaching out to these influencers. When you craft an email outreach strategy, for example, it’s best to send out a customized letter that lets them know how and why you’re contacting them. It’s all part of being authentic – something that all online influencers respect.
That’s the core of influencer marketing – getting all those connected, engaged individuals to “influence” others to make a purchase. It’s not done overtly, of course. But you’re essentially getting a seal of approval from a trusted colleague who knows and respects your product offerings. In today’s social media landscape, the most trusted recommendations are those that come from people already in one’s social media networks – not from a third-party party expert.
Understanding the relative advantages of all the different social media platforms could make your B2B marketing efforts really come alive. There’s a different approach for Facebook than for Twitter, for example. And bloggers are a completely different breed than Instagrammers.
But over time, as you engage online, you’ll be supported by a growing number of social media influencers who can make it much easier to sell people on your company’s products and services.
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Dane
Dane Cobain is a published author, freelance writer, book blogger, poet and (occasional) musician from High Wycombe, UK. Before going freelance, he worked as a social media marker, now specialising in writing about publishing, technology and marketing.