Step #6 How to Identify Your Influencers

[tweetmeme source= “brennels” only_single=false]I really struggled with this one at first and would ask myself: “Who are my influencers and how do I find them?” and that is the million dollar question. Knowing your business and target demographic will help you find where they hang out as well as their interests but publishing valuable content will help them find you.

Step #6- Identify Your Influencers:

Influencers are anyone internally or externally that are passionate about your product. Find them and engage them to build a relationship. You can do this by setting up a Google alert on specific keywords like your brand name which will send you an e-mail every time that word is found on the web. This will help you find conversations that are occurring that you can jump in and engage. Don’t be afraid to jump into a conversation. Some, like I did wondered what I would say and none of us want to look stupid. Forget about that and just get started with something simple like. “Hi (first name) great post” or “interesting conversation” and the best is “how can I help”. If they don’t reply don’t worry about it but be prepared for when they do and they will. This is also an opportunity that you can direct them to information on your website that could be useful. So, know your business and where your valuable content resides so you can paste a quick link to a relevant white paper or case study.

Twitter is a great way to do this and will help build a good following that will spread information you want to share. Realize that engaging in conversations can be a full time job so getting internal knowledge experts to participate as well will help your company cover more ground.