Today I want to talk about how to reach out to social media influencers, bloggers, and anyone else you want to cover your story. It’s important to remember that these social media influencers are busy people, and you’re asking them to take time to use your product, and maybe even tweet or write about it – time isn’t free! Listen in to learn how to build a connection, what you can and should offer them, and how to make the relationship last by involving them in your content and programs.
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In This Episode:
- We just had our second Social Tools Summit in October in San Francisco
- I published a new ebook all about maximizing your Linkedin for business
- I also wrote the foreword for a new book from Sociabble all about employee advocacy
- Social media gives you the ability to listen and engage with anybody else that’s on social media, whether they’re influencers or average people
- People who are blogging are busy people
- 99% of the time, you’re going to be lumped together with all the other people that are reaching out to those influencers
- Asking people to tweet or write is asking people for their time, and time is not free
- Let’s stop pitching every blogger on any and every product or press release you have
- You have to connect with any influencers on social media; Go to their profiles and follow and like every profile they have on every platform they’re on
- You have to build a rapport, comment, engage
- Look for deeper connections that make it easier for you to engage
- When you reach out, give them something – a free copy of whatever book, a free sample of whatever product – and don’t expect anything in return
- If they wouldn’t use your tool, then they’re not relevant for your brand
- Get their feedback! Any feedback you can get from these people of influence is going to be as valuable if not more so than any tweet they could put out there
- Once they’ve had your tool or product for a little while, do a follow up and see how they like it, or if they need any tips
- If they publish something, you want to promote the heck out of it to your network
- Include this influencer as a brand ambassador and remember it’s a long term relationship: send them your next product, include their content in your own content, maybe even bring them on as a guest blogger, include them in a formalized program
Resources & Links:
- Learn more about my newest ebook, Maximizing Linkedin for Business.
- Listen to my episode about guest blogging and respecting content and the content creators.
- Ready to build an influencer program to reach out to social media influencers? Start with these six strategic steps.
- Build relationships with your social media influencers with these 12 tactics.
- Once you’re working with some great social media influencers, incorporate them into your blogging strategy.
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Minuca says
Hi Neal,
Great strategy. I didn’t know that this is how Buffer started.
Just before listening your podcast I was thinking that people have so many problems because everyone is thinking only at himself. In a way or another, each one of us is trying to sell something, to convince someone else that our product or service is the best fit for him/she.
People like selling things because that means earning money, but they don’t like buying because it ultimately means spending money. So the best thing is to start offering that thing for free and after a while we should ask money.
I probably repeated what you’ve said but, although I read a lot of articles on how to connect with influencers, now I feel like I had a revelation.
Thanks for that,
Minuca
Neal Schaffer says
Hi Minuca!
Indeed, that is how Buffer started in the early days … not sure if it was ever documented elsewhere, but that’s how I remember them!
You are so true about what you say, and I am so happy that you had a revelation! Sometimes a “simple is best” mentality will get you far in business, and if you break influencer relationships down to the level of making friends, my advice hopefully makes even more sense 😉
Thanks for listening – and stay tuned for more podcasts to come!
– Neal
ascendingbutterfly says
As a ‘Blogger/Influencer’ there are several issues with just automatically throwing product samples at someone, particularly UN-SOLICITED:
Bloggers/Influencers are not working for product. If you send them something un-solicited you are setting up an ‘expectation’. I sent you something now I expect something.
By them NOT covering it, it doesn’t mean that they aren’t ‘right for your product’ so you should move on. It means:
They have an editorial calendar.
More insight:
There is a pecking order to an Editorial Calendar, particularly for Digital Influencers, with some exceptions it looks something like this:
(1) Sponsored Posts – our readers understand we need to keep the lights on
(2) Travel – Press Trips, Media Familiarization Visits, Hotel/Resort Stay Reviews etc – Even when the press trip is not ‘paid’ per se, it is costly for the host and of out of courtesy a travel recap often does and in my opinion should take priority.
(3) Events – those tend to be deadline driven on the side of the person who has invited you, the event and your acceptance to that event, means you will make the effort to post about it in as timely a manner as possible.
(4) Op Ed – Influencers get into this to pursue passion, there will posts devoted to those passions – paid for or not
(5) SPONSORED Product Reviews
Last but not least – un-paid product reviews – here is the caveat, it will more than likely be the products they have solicited themselves first.
Just throwing product at someone is like the equivalent of recruiters who bombard HR departments with one hundred resumes – whether the HR Director has anopening or not – just to see if something ‘sticks’. That strategy will NOT work.
You would not walk into supermarket and say ‘Gee, today I feel like Filet Mignon.’ So you grab some and bring it to the register and say ‘I am only going to pay you the amount a chuck steak would be worth and I’m walking off with this Filet Mignon.’ You wouldn’t send obit information to a newspaper and expect that they will post it for free because of the somber occasion. You wouldn’t tell a Gym you are not paying for their membership to be there because you can do push ups at home for free.
I prefer working with less brands for deeper partnerships.
There is a serious catch 22 happening right now. ‘Seasoned Digital Professionals’ are accepting less events, less product and do not feel ‘product’ is sufficient payment for the time it takes to edit and optimize images, stage and take creative imagery, write original content, publish it, market it (those comments don’t appear like ‘magic’), engage with our communities etc. We are Photographers, Editors, Content Producers, Publishers, Marketing and PR pros (which is often why PR Brands get threatened when we want to present our own partnership concepts to a brand directly), and webmasters (24/7). We are entrepreneurs. We are offering multiple services in each and campaign we undertake and are not willing to do it for free or for the cost of a product.
One of my favorite ‘blogging war stories’ is this one:
A ‘revolutionary new concept in women’s underwear’ sends me a pitch. I am a women. I have genitals I like to cover with underwear, so I reply with concept ideas of ways we can partner.
What I get back is pretty much this:
“Look lady I can send you one pair of our underwear. Take them Write about them.”
Obviously a litany of angry cuss words fly out of my mouth as I read the reply. I take a deep breath. Then a walk.
I come back to my computer and I reply:
“Do they pay YOU in underwear?”
And literally nothing more.
The reply I got was refreshing because it was finally honesty:
“I am the webmaster. This is my second week on the job. I told my boss this wasn’t a good idea. I knew this kind of outreach wouldn’t work. And no they do not pay me in underwear. I hung up our email exchange in our cubicle for my boss to read. It may or may not change his approach. But you are everyone’s hero around here, your answer was just spot on to this pitch.”
This has become my response to everyone who thinks the price of their product is sufficient payment for my time.
So there is my two and a half Digital Influencer Cents – For Whatever it is Worth!
Tracy @ Ascending Butterfly
Neal Schaffer says
Thanks for keeping it real Tracy – LOVED reading your input!