5 tips to get started with your influencers

We’ve been talking about democratised digital communication and how social media has opened up great opportunities for modern communicators. Today, it is not only journalists and other traditional opinion shapers who have the power to influence. 

A strong voice in your industry could exist on social media, they may already be having a big impact on your industry and have the potential to impact your brand. Maybe even become your most important influencer.

As we’re on this journey, we thought to share five tips on how to get started with your influencer relationship work that helped us out:

1. Remember to measure their contribution

Start with your objectives and goals. Would you like to work with influencers to collaborate to produce content? Maybe you’d like them to spread a message which you might measure by an increase in newsletter sign-ups.

Ok, so it’s no secret that actually attributing this type of activity to the achievement of an end goal is not quite as easy as those fun automation tools promise (we all suffer on our quest for the marketing holy grail). But, looking for the correlation between the influencer activity and objective is often a matter of common sense. And showing this contribution is a start.

2. Walk before you run

Success is most likely to come with focus.

Try to keep your efforts around a specific topic or objective. For example, the core of our influencer relations work last year was with people who champion the brand newsroom approach and our objective was increase our brand awareness in this space. This focus allowed us to assemble a lean, focused crew of influencers in our main markets and actually find time to nurture them.

3. Collaborate to create credibility

Vanity stats have been the safety net of marketing for too long. This definitely doesn’t play in influencer relations, it’s all about relationships which will run deeper than this.

Brand fit is a success factor. Working with someone who would normally be speaking to your desired audience will naturally have more integrity and authenticity, just check out some of the brands who’ve had success working with Mumsnet - the parenting site whose slogan is ‘By parents for parents’ - has had.

Coca Cola (yes, that brand again) wanted to find a way to build brand love and corporate reputation in a way that would provide value to mums. So they partnered

Making the most of mum bloggers (Mumsnet Mumstock Conference 2014) - Coca-Cola / Zone / Tara Cain from Zone

4. Invite your influencers to invent

Influencers can bring creativity as well as credibility to your efforts.

It’s necessary to have an open mind when approaching an individual as encouraging them to inject some of their ideas and energy into the overall concept can provide freshness and drive momentum.

Plus, ownership is a motivating factor when propelling an idea or movement. Just ask Brewdog, whose ‘ Equity for Punks’ equity crowdfunding campaign saw them turn to their social media fan base for a cash injection, rather than venture capitalists, transforming their advocates into their success story.

And of course, which craft beer fan wouldn’t want to own their own piece of independent brewery?

5. Transparency triggers trust

Just like bad advertising or fake links, if you’re a company working with vloggers who review your lipsticks, make it clear. And allow them to give their honest opinion.

Your influencers relations can take your brand to the next level, increasing your credibility, awareness, loyalty and sales.

Got some tips for successful influencer relations to share? Come across an influencer marketing epic fail story? Feel free to share that too!

Want to start building some new relationships with like-minded people? Book your early bird ticket to FutureComms15 today.