Influencer Outreach On Social…

Is it worth it?

The answer is yes…if you put the time in and do it effectively.  Influencer outreach campaigns are tricky things.  It’s easy to get excited and want to jump right in, but blanketing Twitter or any other social media platform with requests and invites might not be the best strategy.  It helps to put some time in before you begin your influencer outreach strategy to narrow down the types of people to whom you’d like to reach.   To be effective with your influencer outreach strategy, follow the steps below:

Do your research

Are you looking for bloggers for example?  There are a lot of bloggers on Twitter, so setting things like types of blogs or number of followers to help narrow down the number of profiles that you are going to reach out to.  Remember that you don’t have to hit everyone the first time around.  You can always start with a small group and then reach out to another section of the group at a later point in time.

Know your message(s)

Now that you know to whom you would like to speak, you can begin to think about what you would like to say to them.  Take some time to draft your messages.  You’ll want to draft a short introductory message.  For those that respond, you’ll want to draft a follow up message provides them with a bit more information.  Consider also drafting a secondary message to send to those who do not respond immediately.  Lastly, when people decline to engage with you and your project, it’s a good idea to draft a short message thanking them for their time and for responding and wish them well.

Make lists

You can use Twitter Lists to create private lists for the different types of influencers that you would like to engage with.  This makes it easier to stay actively engaged with their content  I love to use chats to discover and add profiles to private and public lists on my twitter account.  Public lists are great because they are an open form of flattery.  Just don’t go crazy and add profiles to a lot of lists because you dilute the significance of the act.

I also make a secondary list in Google Sheets, Excel or another spreadsheet type tool.  This allows me to store all of the details that I need to remember: their name, website, email,  links to social media profiles, and what communications they have received from me (I like to include the dates too!).  The more organized you are, the better your influencer outreach campaign will perform.

Engage

It’s time! You are finally ready to actually start reaching out.  The first step is to follow your selected influencers.  Show them that you value their content.  Favorite or share a few of their posts.  Comment on one or two.  If they follow you back – you’re golden.  You can send them a direct message and respect their Twitter or Facebook feed.  If not, you’ll want to be a little creative.  You may not want to tweet them directly about your project.  However, that being said, sometimes that strategy can be very effective.  It all depends on the people that you are trying to reach.  My action plan is always clicking through to their websites and finding another way to reach out to them such as an email address or a contact form.

Follow up

Whether you have heard from them or not, be sure to follow up.  This is why it’s great to take the time to draft this message up front.  Give your influencers a few days after you send them your first introductory message before you follow up with them.  These people are busy.  It is after all, how they became an influencer in the first place.  Always be courteous and keep their busy schedule framed in the message.  Also, be sure to thank them for their time.  If they do not get back to you after this attempt.  Save their contact information for another round further down the road.  Being respectful of people’s contact information and inboxes goes a long, long way.