Building Influencers IntoYour Content Marketing:

A SmallBiz How-To

A Small Business Digital Media Presentation of Vermont Small Business Marketing Associates

@VSBmarketing | www.VSBMA.com

What are influencers?

Influencers in content marketing are influential entities that help give your content strategy reach.

You can find ideas from influencers and curate content from them, and hopefully, they will share your created content.

Before You Start, Know Your Audience

Before you start working with influencers in content marketing, it is a great idea to build a buyer persona (i.e., model of your target audience).

Before You Start, Know Your Audience

If you want more insight into building a buyer persona, visit the VSMBA How-To Center at vsbma.com, and view the presentation called “Building A Buyer Persona For Content Marketing”

Know Your Audience

In the process of building a buyer persona, you will learn which people and resources your target audience relies on for information.

What blogs and news centers do they follow?

What newspapers do they read?

Where do they go most often online or in the real world?

Who do they look to as thought leaders?

Build A List

Next, you can build a list of influential blogs, websites and people from the answers you find in researching your target audience.

These blogs, websites and people will form the influencers for your content marketing strategy.

Start by indentifying 5 influencers.

1.2.3.4.5.

Know Your Influencers

Begin to understand your influencers by reading their blogs and visiting their websites and social media pages.

Sign up for a free account on Klout.com, and see if your influencers are there. Check out their Klout score. How influential they are? The average Klout score is 40.

Begin Interacting

Once you understand who your influencers are and the kind of content they share, begin to interact with them.

Follow them in Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, or any other social media networks.

Begin Interacting

Comment on your influencers’ social media posts or blog posts.

Like, Favorite, Share and Retweet their posts on your social media pages.

Begin Interacting

Write a blog post about an influencer’s activities or quote an influencer.

Mention an influencer in your post or link to the influencer’s work within the post. Share your blog post on Twitter and include the influencer’s handle (@XYZ) in your tweet.

Begin Interacting

Ad a “Click to Tweet” link within your blog post. Preload the tweet with the influencer’s Twitter handle.

Invite influencer to be a guest blogger.

Create a cross-promotion with an influencer and request the influencer share the promo in their network.

Begin Interacting

Remember that an influencer could also be a current or potential customer.

Give current or potential customers an incentive for trying your products or services and promoting them in their networks.

Track Your Progress and Adjust

As you work through your influencer list and begin interacting, track the results of your efforts.

How often does an influencer mention you? Did they like or follow you back?Have they shared your content?

If an influencer does not provide results, build out your list to include new influencers and adjust your efforts as you go.

Visit VSBMA’s Small Business Digital Marketing How-To Center

at www.VSBMA.com for more social media and content marketing Tips ’n Tricks.