Here are some tips and steps for building relationships with influencers in each stage of the journey:
Building Relationships With Influencers
Taking an influencer from completely unaware to an advocate for your brand or message is possible. These are the 5 key stages of influencer relationships:
Unaware
Though your influencers may have heard of your company, you are not on their radar yet. At this stage, you need to raise their awareness and get them to look you up and acknowledge you.
Aware
In this stage, you have gotten on your influencers’ radar – they notice you, and may start thanking you for RTs, etc. Now your goal is to build a rapport with your influencers, and have them recognize you and your contribution to the point that you can initiate a dialogue with them; even better, them with you.
Interested
Though still sporadic, you’ve now entered in a conversation with your influencers. They know who you are and what you do. You now need to increase your level and frequency of communication, for it to become a regular occurrence.
Engaged
You’re engaged in frequent dialogue with your influencers. For certain influencers, like journalists and analysts, this is where the journey ends, as their profession prevents them from advocating for specific brands; you will have to become creative to maintain this engagement level over time. With other influencers, your goal is now to turn them into advocates for your brand through “high touch” activities.
Advocate
You’ve entered influencer nirvana. You have managed to to turn an influencer into an advocate for your brand. For this relationship to last, you now need to build the foundation for joint success.
Once you understand the key stages of influencer relationships, the appropriate actions within each begin to make sense.
Originally published by Ginny Torok in Traackr.com
Noah Chilamakuri's Blog 