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Rochester Hosts Summit on Influencer and Blogger Relations

Ruth Harper-Rhode, PRSA Rochester Chapter

Influencing others digitally is a big part of what public relations professionals do in today’s world. On Oct. 16, the PRSA Rochester chapter held a summit focused on influencer and blogger relations. Presenters included Tina Clark from Roberts Communications, Kyle Psaty from Brand Networks and Allie Friedman and Mary Beth Frizzell from Eric Mower + Associates in Buffalo.

The speakers shared facts and ideas to help participants begin integrating influencer and blogger relations into their work. I’ve summarized what they shared into three main steps anyone could follow.  

Step #1: Understand what an influencer is and why they matter. 

Anyone you look to in order to learn about what’s going on regarding a certain topic is considered an influencer. This could be a celebrity or a reporter, or perhaps a neighbor or a random person on the other side of the world—who enjoys connecting with others about a topic so much so that a community has developed around that topic.

Influencers are important for PR pros because they’re trusted by the communities they influence. Tina shared that 92 percent of consumers trust their peers. Engaging with influencers or setting up an official influencer or blogger campaign can give your messaging more leverage among your target audience.

Step #2: How do I find influencers? 

This really comes down to defining your own goals, looking for and vetting the influencers who can help you reach those goals and then finding ways to engage with them.

Identifying and vetting influencers can be difficult. Before you can join or successfully engage with a community, you have to understand it. You could start by conducting research on Twitter’s advanced search, Alltop, BuzzSumo, Instagram, LinkedIn, Reddit, Quora and, of course, even Google. Boolean search will be helpful for this research step.

When vetting influencers, don’t consider their reach alone. While the number of fans or followers they have is worth considering, engagement is what shows an influencer is truly connected to his or her community.

Once an influencer is identified, watch what he or she posts. Take a look at who they regularly interact and engage with, and consider following those people as well. You could even consider making a chart to show which influencers are connected to one another. Remember that a community is more than just chatter. It could be helpful to maintain a record of posts with the most engagement to track what resonates most with your influencers.

Step #3: How should I engage with influencers?

When it comes to content, you should create and share your own but it’s also important to share what others are doing, too. The 4+1+1 rule is a good rule of thumb: share one piece of original content, one piece of relevant information and four pieces of content from your influencer network to educate your audience and to endorse your influencers.  By endorsing them authentically via sharing (such as retweeting), favoriting/liking and link backs, they’ll be more likely to endorse you back.

A few final tips the speakers offered around paid influencer and blogger outreach:
- It’s best to try to find a method of contact such as a phone number or email if you can to discuss options. This can be hard to do some times but if you get stuck, you can always reach out to them on their social network of choice to ask about connecting in private about a possible opportunity to work together. 
- When it comes to working with bloggers, approach this like you would approach a person in traditional media: with a pitch for a story that their audience would be interested in.
- Despite treating a blogger pitch like a media pitch, be prepared for the possibility of being asked for payment. Some specialized bloggers know they can get paid for their reviews and stories and they’re usually not shy about asking.
- Recognize that the blogger has been building their audience’s trust for years. Pitch on-topic ideas, and know they won’t push a product they don’t believe in themselves. 

Finally, no campaign is complete without an evaluation component. Constantly measure your success and tack what works and what doesn’t, as well as what influencers have the most impact and in what ways. Use that data not only to demonstrate your work but also to improve results for the future.