THE PRACTITIONER

Recently, Forrester released a study that showed 80 percent of impressions and posts about products and services come from a mere 16 percent of individuals. This is a media pain-point that marketing and public relations professionals know all too well. From a strategy standpoint, targeting the right social media influencers is much more critical than playing a numbers game. That’s the good news!

To activate word of mouth, you need to understand the mass influencers who have the biggest voices and can most effectively spread the word. Once the habits of these social media mavens are identified, appropriate action can be taken to engage and understand their techniques and audience. This creates an opportunity for organic, authentic public relations. According to Forrester, these mass influencers were responsible for more than 500 billion consumer-generated brand impressions in 2009. If that doesn’t perk up a marketers ears, nothing will.

In the new report “Peer Influence Analysis,” Forrester identifies two types of social media influence:

Influence Impressions, led by “Mass Influencers — the army of social influencers who generate the majority of impressions and opinions about a company’s products and services.” This group represents the 16 percent of people who are responsible for 80 percent of the brand impressions in online social settings. In other words, these are the big fish, the main attraction, insert the obnoxious expression of your choice, but these are without a doubt the people you want on your team.

“Second, there is influence created by posts: blog posts, blog comments, discussion forum posts, and ratings and reviews.” Forrester calls these influence posts, and estimates that people in the US create 1.64 billion influence posts every year. Not surprisingly, blog posts and blog comments account for about 40 percent of these posts.

I have blogged about how to create blogs, utilize blogs and the reasons for blogging in the past. Now, I would also like to touch on a couple strategy points I believe are extremely important when reaching out to bloggers. Utilizing these may activate the potential to create awareness and consideration among their audiences and yours:

Below are 5 tips for your blogger outreach strategy:

1. Identify the right blogs and bloggers – As Forrester points out, the lion’s share of influence belongs to a small portion of online participants. Doing research into who the strategic targets are will save considerable time and effort in the long run, as well as produce better results for your clients. As I tell my team, work smarter, not harder.

2. Read their blogs – don’t just skim – This is a simple concept that is often ignored, especially by junior level professionals. If a blogger knows you are genuinely interested in what he or she is saying, and aren’t just paying attention to circulation and readership numbers, odds are you will be much more successful. If possible, point back to previous posts or provide additional thoughts on a post you especially enjoyed. This can go a long way in building a relationship.

3. Identify the benefit for the blogger, and lead with that – Just as with traditional media relations, you have to be able to connect your pitch with how it benefits the blogger’s readership.  Simply offering a sample product, free webinar, or guest blog post isn’t enough. Find out what the bloggers objectives are, and explain how you can help achieve them.

4. Make yourself available – Avoid the urge to pitch and run. As far as the blogger is concerned, you are the face of this company. You are customer service, public relations, and product support all rolled into one. The blogger will most likely report on the whole experience, including the way the company (YOU!) handles the relationship.

5. Keep track of comments and responses – This last step is one of the most critical. As a guest blogger for several popular marketing sites, I have learned the importance of monitoring the conversation. Social media is a two-way, ongoing dialogue. Make sure you are there to continue to direct and interject when appropriate.

As the media landscape changes, I believe the importance of blogger relations will be one of the most notable transformations. Bloggers are poised to change the way we buy cars, software, baby bottles and dating services. Regardless of the industry, there is a good chance online influencers are available to you and should be an integral part of media relations. Do you have a blogger outreach strategy? What methods have you found to be most effective?

Steve is President of Wunderkind Public Relations. He regularly comments on public relations strategy, social media and trends impacting the communications industry. You can follow him on Twitter or connect with him on LinkedIn.