A good communications program is like a basic food chain. Assuming your message is the right one, you educate key spokespeople and influencers on that message, and then the message flows down through the chain and ultimately reaches your publics through a variety of credible sources.
Which means that the most critical group in many communications programs are the early champions and influencers. These are the first people to try new products, and you hope they become the source of countless crucial recommendations.
Every industry has its analysts, consultants, financial analysts, key customers, academics, and leadership figures that others turn to for advice and recommendations. In cosmetics it is hair stylists, in the medical community it is doctors and nurse practitioners, in high-tech it is the key industry consultants, in automotive it is the car enthusiasts. Every marketer is currently targeting them with varying degrees of success. Despite recent efforts to automate this process, it still requires human relationship building. In fact, it is a fundamental skill of successful communications professionals.
Communicators need to make these early influencers their friends by including them in early briefings for new products. A beauty product could, for example, release new makeup products to makeup artists or beauty salon owners under an early release (almost like a beta program), and then gather quotes for their website to promote the product.
How do you know if you are on good terms with these early adopter influencers? The ultimate measure of a successful relationship is if they recommend your product to reporters, editors, and customers.
Before you attempt to measure influence, review the standards developed by The Conclave and the “Influencer Handbook” created by the Word of Mouth Marketing Association (WOMMA). After that, here are 10 tips to get you started:
Tip #1: Find out what they’re saying.
Use Google Alerts to set up tracking of social and traditional media for mentions of your key influencers. Collect their Op-Eds, articles, transcripts of their speeches, and any other mentions in publications that your customers pay attention to.
Tip #2: Map the network.
Now analyze the media outlets you found in Tip #1 to determine which sources their editors and reporters turn to for advice and information. If you can afford it, there are great tools like Little Bird and Traackr that make the job easy. If you can’t afford it, you can use social and traditional media analysis.
Here’s an example: The beauty care division of a major consumer packaged goods company was trying to figure out how to improve its overall awareness and preference with its target customers, women between the ages of 18 and 35. They knew that the audience read the top 15 beauty books for advice, but they weren’t sure how to influence those publications.
We conducted a “share of voice” study to determine how much coverage each of their categories — hair care, facial care, sun screen, etc. — received during the course of the year. We looked at all the articles about those categories and quickly established a list of who was most frequently quoted. As it turned out, hair stylists and salon owners topped the list. The client then made an effort to reach out to those groups both in their industry-specific trade publications, but also with events and specifically tailored programs.
Ultimately, the media analysis effort yielded a rich database that allowed them to spot trends in recommendations for specific products over time. They could further tie the specific recommendations to specific products and product efforts, establishing a “share of recommendations” metric. The final stage was to tie share of recommendations to market share data.
Tip #3: Track what they’re saying and writing.
To get started, turn to your existing media database, spreadsheet, or analysis module to record the name of the publication, the name of the reporter, and to list everyone quoted in stories about you, your industry, or your competition. This will give you a list of most frequently quoted sources and where they are being quoted.
Now record several other details about the article:
- Was it entirely about you or your industry or category?
- Did the influencer who was quoted refer directly to your organization, or was the quote about someone else?
- Did the article and/or quote contain one or more of your key messages?
This analysis will tell you which influencers are important and to what extent you are top-of-mind with them.
Tip #4: Find out what they’re thinking.
Tracking quotes in the media is a great first step, but regular ongoing relationship measurement will be critical to the success of your program. Annual or quarterly studies are recommended. Do it by email, and ask the influencers about their understanding of your organization. Specifically, your questionnaire should probe to understand:
- The extent to which they understood your strategies and mission,
- The extent to which they believe in management’s ability to accomplish the task,
- Their overall image and trust in your organization, and
- The extent to which they would recommend the company to that company’s customers and prospects.
To do so, ask them if they agree or disagree with statements like the following (taken from the Grunig relationship questionnaire):
- This organization can be relied on to keep its promises.
- This organization has the ability to accomplish what it says it will do.
- In dealing with people like me, this organization has a tendency to throw its weight around.
- I would rather work together with this organization than not.
- Most people enjoy dealing with this organization.
- This organization takes care of people who are likely to reward the organization.
- This organization does not especially enjoy giving other aid.
- I feel that this organization takes advantage of people who are vulnerable.
Tip #5: Benchmark against the competition.
It is particularly important to compare your organization to your peers and competitors, since they will no doubt be pitching competing messages and stories to the same opinion leaders. Thus, you need to make sure you ask them how your organization ranks in their minds relative to others in the industry.
Tip #6: Acknowledge the need for compensation.
The one factor that you need to consider when evaluating opinion leader relations is the impact of consultant/client relationships. Frequently, industry analysts and opinion leaders are paid consultants to one or more organization. Their access to inside knowledge of an organization is why they are considered “opinion leaders” and is an important part of the work they are paid to do. What this means, however, is that your status or lack thereof as a client has a direct impact on their opinions. If nothing else, it is worth noting in your database if they are or are not a consultant to your organization or one of the competitors.
Tip #7: Don’t work in isolation.
When Tracy Eiler worked at Business Objects she tracked analysts’ relations for a number of years. When budgets got tight she was forced to eliminate a position that was specifically charged with maintaining analyst relations. The following reporting period saw a dramatic decline in how the analyst community viewed Business Objects, particularly on the subject of responsiveness. Without the extra person, the company just couldn’t be as responsive. Through their annual survey she charted the decline in relationships as well as a subsequent decline in quotes in the media, presented the results to her boss, and the position was reestablished. And Eiler could point to other tangible benefits: “For public companies, there is a close link between influencers, such as industry analysts, and the financial community. They share information all the time. So it’s very important to map all those relationships.”
Tip #8: Continuously expand your network.
Tracking analysts can also help identify new opportunities for influence. Here’s an example: A major computer company had established a core list of critical analysts that we were tracking. As it turned out, some of those analysts were seldom quoted, and new names would often appear on the list. By providing them a regular update of new influencers each month we were able to continuously improve the list and the effectiveness of the analyst relations effort. This effort nearly doubled the percentage of articles containing key messages, year-to-year.
Tip #9: Be cognizant of everyone’s time.
Timing is everything. Cultivating relationships takes time and trust. A good analyst will want to be briefed months in advance. According to Eiler, “For the top influencers (there are 2-3 of those in total) we bring them into the product development life cycle and into the R&D lab to give super-early input on product ideas.” That’s a radical departure from a “media embargo” that no one really adheres to, or counting backwards from a cover date.
Tip #10: Learn from your data and show them what you’ve learned.
Every expert or analyst wants to know that his/her opinions are heard and deemed valuable. Relationships require two-way conversations. So, if you have heeded the advice of an analyst or been influenced to change, let them know. They’ll be more likely to come back to you if they think they’ve made a difference. ∞
