Whenever I blog, my topic is driven by the work I'm doing at the moment.
This month I'm blogging about influencer marketing, the art and science of getting important people talking about your brand in online in a way that advances your business goals - awareness, reach, engagement or conversion. It requires an investigation of the highest order. It's quite a mystery to solve - who's out there talking about our space but not talking about our brand? Sounds like "Anatomy of an Influencer Campaign" to me...let's unpack the journey....
We're working on a 6 step process to wage an influencer marketing campaign for some key SAP solutions. The 6 key questions to answer:
- 1. Who are the influencers in our target space? (e.g. keyword #cloudcomputing)
- 2. What's our level of interaction with them today? (e.g. keyword #SAPCloud)
- 3. Who is talking about our space BUT NOT talking about our brand? (e.g. gap analysis)
- 4. Who are the A-List influencers we should really go after? (rank order them to manage this high-touch process)
- 5. Who are the best company experts we should put out there, given the conversations in the space? (think: product experts, not marketing types)
- 6. How do we "bang the drum" of constant connections between internal experts and the influencers? (the hardest part!)
Want to see our answers so far? (Remember, this IS only Part 1). The maps are for illustrative purposes only, so you are not meant to see the detail.
- 1. Q: Who are the influencers in our target space? (e.g. keyword #cloudcomputing)
A: These are the 50 A-List Influencers in this space and their key connections.
Source: Influencer Network Analysis map, Traackr
- 2. Q: What's our level of interaction with them today? (e.g. keyword #SAPCloud)
A: These are the 50 A-Listers talking about SAP in this space.
Source: Influencer Network Analysis map, Traackr
- 3. Q: Who is talking about our space BUT NOT talking about our brand? (e.g. gap analysis)
A: Only 10% of the 50 A-List influencers in our space were also talking about our brand. 5 - count 'em - 5. So 90% of the top influencers in the space are not mentioning us. Maybe they have not heard our message yet?
- 4. Q: Who are the A-List influencers we should really go after? (rank order them to manage this high-touch process)
A: We will take the list of Influencers in #1 and see who we should meet. We will ALSO take the list of Influencers in #2 to see what relationships we have that we want to shore up.
- 5. Q: Who are the best company experts to put out there, given the conversations in the space? (think: product experts, not marketing types)
A: We have to look at the content (blogs, tweets, articles) that the space's A-Listers are talking about - what themes are hot? Who are the best people in our organization to interact with them in a way that is informed, authoritative and authentic?
- 6. Q: How do we "bang the drum" of constant connections between internal experts and the influencers? (the hardest part!)
A: So, that's why this is Part 1! There is no magic bullet for how to operationalize this. It's where the slow, steady engagement begins. We've identified the key influencers, we know where to engage with them and the internal experts we need are poised to jump in. That is the hope. The reality is much messier. Stay tuned for Part 2 and I'll tell you how its working....
My question to you, my fellow marketeers: Have any of you built a similar process? How did you solve the hardest part?
> Note on our source for the influencer analysis: Our Influencer Network Analysis maps were generated by Traackr, an enterprise-grade contextual influence measurement solution that identifies and scores influencers around specific keyword searches. Learn more about them at the link above (love the product, willful endorsement!)
