Prepared for Abderdeen's Revenue-Driven Marketign Leadership summit (#RDM2012) - October 2012. A primer on understanding and starting to identify the new influencer landscape.

1. Influencing the
Influencers
A presentation for
Aberdeen’s Revenue-Driven
Marketing Leadership Summit
Alan Belniak / @abelniak
October 18, 2012

2. 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
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3. Alan Belniak
A marketing technologist and Digital marketer + practitioner, with deep
strengths in social media
Current Role
• Global Director of Social Media at PTC
• B2B software, long sales cycle, high switching costs
Why IR Matters to Me
• People rely more on what practitioners and analysts say, rather than what
we say
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4. The Landscape
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5. 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

6. 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

7. Publication Proliferation = Stratified Credibility
Paid
Advertising Owned
“Brand Social
Journalism”
Blogosphere &
“Twitterverse”
Control
Earned
Analyst
Coverage
“Traditional”
Media Coverage
Credibility
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8. 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 Engagement
source: Sean Moffitt, BuzzCanuck 8

9. 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
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10. In The Modern Age
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11. 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
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12. Lots of Online Tools To Generate Numbers
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13. You Need More Than a Number To Make a Connection
source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/867_5309 13

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

15. Tools of the Trade
• To roll up your sleeves and learn more about how to do this, visit:
http://linkgui.de/SocMedInfluence
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16. As it Relates to PTC
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17. 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 characters
image source: www.nileseldredge.com/companion.htm 17

18. 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
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19. An Example
sources: http://www.flickr.com/photos/graye/30561751/ and http://www.flickr.com/photos/28346908@N08/2640991550/ 19

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

21. 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
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22. Thanks!
Alan Belniak
@abelniak
http://www.abelniak.com
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