I have a post on the Social Fluency blog today: Getting on the Radars of Influencers via Social Media.
It covers ways that you can use social media, e.g. blogs and Twitter, to build relationships with influencers. Please see below for an excerpt, and visit Social fluency to read the full post.
For all the challenges the PR profession faces amidst the transition
to an online-centric media world, it is important to realize that there
are new opportunities too.
One example is in the realm of media and analyst relations. While it
is true that the influencers we want to court have more distractions
than ever (just like everyone else) it is also true that there are now
more ways to get on their radars – especially if they (and you) are
active online.
Here are some examples:
For influencers who blog (or whose articles appear online):
- Comment on their posts/articles
- Link to their posts/articles
- Add their blog to your/client’s blogroll
- Write posts that mention and link to their posts/article
- Invite them to subscribe to your (or client’s) blog
- Invite them to guest post on your (or client’s) blog
For influencers who tweet:
- Follow them
- Call out and comment on their tweets via retweets and mentions
- Thank them if they follow you
- Use direct messages (carefully)
- Use hash tags to align with topical areas
- Tweet about topics relevant to their beats
