A Primer on Social Media Influence

Influencing theInfluencersA presentation forAberdeen’s Revenue-DrivenMarketing Leadership SummitAlan Belniak / @abelniakOctober 18, 2012

What We’ll Talk About Today• WHAT is influencer management• WHY is this a big deal• HOW is a company like PTC responding to this• HOW has the power of digital and social affected this landscape• WHAT does PTC do, day-to-day• WHAT are some tools of the trade• An EXAMPLE of this, in action 2

Alan BelniakA marketing technologist and Digital marketer + practitioner, with deepstrengths in social mediaCurrent Role• Global Director of Social Media at PTC• B2B software, long sales cycle, high switching costsWhy IR Matters to Me• People rely more on what practitioners and analysts say, rather than what we say 3

The Landscape 4

What is “Influencer Management”? • An age-old issue with a shiny new name • We make stuff. People buy stuff. People are skeptical of us talking about our stuff. People believe other people when they talk about our stuff. • “Well, woopty-doo. What does it all mean, Basil?!”  • It means that we need to be friends with ‘the other people’.image source: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QRt2_OLY3Ho 5

Why Is This a Big Deal Now? The way we view it… • 30 years ago, the main groups of people that published opinions (and influenced) were analysts and major media publications. • Now, anyone can publish. • The number of ‘other people’ just grew exponentially. And the ways for them to share content grew. And the ways to find them and their content grew as well. (This is not meant to discount the present company!)image source: http://www.socialmediatoday.com/SMC/106502 6

Publication Proliferation = Stratified Credibility Paid Advertising Owned “Brand Social Journalism” Blogosphere & “Twitterverse”Control Earned Analyst Coverage “Traditional” Media Coverage Credibility 7

New Influencers are Passionate… Both Pro + Con Active Traditional Influencers Authoritative 3rd parties, community leaders, press, gov’t. Haters Lovers Desire to Influence Critics Enthusiasts Others Skeptics Mainstream Passive Dismissers Followers Reject Favor Brand Engagementsource: Sean Moffitt, BuzzCanuck 8

Example: A Modern-Day B2B Influencer• Estimated monthly traffic: 73,000• Google Indexed pages: 6,560• Alexis ranking: Top .12%• Links from 13,195 sites• 40,000 unique monthly visitors• Avg. post retweeted 129 times• New York Times citations: 6,510• Newsletter subscribers: 150,000 9

In The Modern Age 10

How Digital and Social Has Affected the Role• Our influencers have become de facto subject matter experts – We need to connect them to our SMEs – no longer will a topical answer suffice• If we want to gain credibility in the space, we need to be fast – respond to requests for inquiries from the right people• If we respond quickly and consistently, we get noticed• We then need to nurture and maintain that relationship (1.0) – Connecting with someone online, even if never meeting them or meeting them once, greases the skids for future conversations – Social media facilitates that – However, it is not the only way 11

Lots of Online Tools To Generate Numbers 12

You Need More Than a Number To Make a Connectionsource: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/867_5309 13

Now What? Be a Detectivesource: http://www.amazon.com/Private-Eyes-Hall-Oates/dp/B000001U3Q 14

Tools of the Trade• To roll up your sleeves and learn more about how to do this, visit: http://linkgui.de/SocMedInfluence 15

As it Relates to PTC 16

How is PTC Responding to This Shift? The PTC Story is Evolving • Product-centric  solutions-oriented storytelling • A challenge for new markets (lack of ‘legacy leadership’) • The good news: elevate our stature with the influencer community and focus on thought-leadership • Hurdle 1: need to clearly articulate the challenges our customers face and how to resolve them without talking about product features • Hurdle 2: But… ‘product news’ garners more clicks • Hurdle 3: bring influencers who know us along for the journey, while introducing ourselves to a whole new cast of charactersimage source: www.nileseldredge.com/companion.htm 17

So, How Do We Do This at PTC?• List of Tier 1 influencers and publications, per geography – shared among all PR/corporate communications staff• Traackr-collected list of influencers, based on key words• PR/Corporate Communications review every quarter, including agency – review coverage (location, person, volume, sentiment) – review potential new additions to Tier 1 list – review potential removal from Tier 1 list• Review internal press release pipeline – match stories up against influencer interest/publication beat – as appropriate, reach out• Engage with these influencers – social media has made people more findable and more reachable than ever before• Use clipping service and social media monitoring to track coverage 18

An Examplesources: http://www.flickr.com/photos/graye/30561751/ and http://www.flickr.com/photos/28346908@N08/2640991550/ 19

An Examplesources: http://www.flickr.com/photos/graye/30561751/ and http://www.flickr.com/photos/28346908@N08/2640991550/ 20

In Summary…• Influence – Is online and offline – Comprised of different variables• Influencers – Aren’t always who you think they are – Hang out in lots of places – Are people, too• Relationships – Can be formed with or without these tools – Need to be maintained (think ‘garden’)• Speed affects the ability to influence an editor or author; Social media has changed that speed• Absent context, numbers are just squiggly lines – The temperature isn’t the weather 21

Thanks!Alan Belniak@abelniakhttp://www.abelniak.com 22

A Primer on Social Media Influence

by Alan Belniak on Oct 19, 2012

Accessibility

Categories

Upload Details

Usage Rights

2 Embeds 161

Statistics

A Primer on Social Media Influence Presentation Transcript

http://www.cmswire.com	160
http://www.linkedin.com	1