Hope you enjoy a guest blog post by Christian Golden.  We so appreciate his wisdom!

3 Tips for Upgrading Your PR Campaign by Leveraging Influencers

When it comes to customer acquisition, influencer marketing is a leading tool of the trade in 2018. In an era when your audience is doing more research autonomously and on social channels than ever before, few things drive brand awareness more effectively than the involvement of thought leaders, bloggers, celebrities, experts, popular enthusiasts, and other key influencers. Read on for three quick tips that will help you harness the power of influencers to your marketing strategy.

1.  Find the Right Influencers

Building successful marketing strategies around your influencers takes some planning. Your influencers’ impact will only help your brand when they have the right connection with the audience you want. After all, in influencers as relatable, authentic sources of content is what makes them such effective partners in promoting your brand.

You might start by using the keyword search and filter features of your preferred social platforms. Also try digging up influencers the old-fashioned way by mining your follower list for folks who fit the bill. Hiring an agency to conduct a search works well, too, though it’s more expensive. Finally, using an automation software like Hubspot can help you target specific types of influencers and keep outreach organized and efficient.

2.  Go Small or Go Home

It can pay to start small and scale up. Thought smaller than big celebrities (micro-influencers typically have 2k to 100k followers) have an outsized impact in social media niches where you want to plant your brand’s flag.

3.  Leverage the Influence

Once you find and connect with the right influencers, you can partner up and win your audience with these three techniques and others in the same spirit:

●       Empower your influencers with information about your brand and what it offers. They will want to ensure that your product or service fits with their own brand and content. Supplying them with freebies and samples is a smart investment. Your reach will grow when your stuff is the topic of conversation between your influencer and the audience you want.

●       Use your own digital resources to plant the seed. Build influencer quotes or photos into your email marketing program to project the connection to the audience you already have.

●       Invite those who speak to your audience to speak on your behalf. Your brand can only benefit by its association with thought leaders whether the showcased venue is virtual or live. A final tip is to film the results (with your influencer’s consent), and multiply its value by sharing it with your followers, creating an attention-grabbing series, and so on.

These days the folks you want to notice your brand are more likely than ever to tune out and even distrust banner ads and other traditional advertising tools. The three broad guidelines sketched here will help you work with key influencers to break through the noise and build your brand legacy from the ground up.

Christian Golden, PhD, writes about tips and trends in digital marketing and social media for TrustRadius. He is a philosopher by day who loves teaching and digging into the big questions. His extracurricular interests include making music, reading comics, watching (really old) movies, and being in the great outdoors.