Thought Leadership

Influencer Relations - Five steps to driving competitive advantage through advocacy

Establishing Thought Leadership Through Influencer Relations

Sustaining competitive advantage is the primary challenge for every business, and doing so in today’s volatile global economy is more challenging than ever.

Business is increasingly impacted by external factors out of the control of any single company—globalization, regulatory issues, emergence of new business models and convergence of industries, to name a few. In addition, customers are more empowered than ever before, exchanging their loyalty from brand to brand and having a direct impact on company strategies through blogging and other channels.

In the face of all this uncertainty, one of the most important things business can do to sustain competitive advantage is to build valuable relationships. Creating and nurturing a network of advocates who help drive your company’s agenda can minimize the impact of these changes and maximize the chances for success in this increasingly complex business environment.

In this context, influencer relations is then about building affinity for a company and its initiatives in support of business goals. The objective of influencer relations is to create a network of advocates who support a company’s vision of the future of its industry, its position on critical issues and ultimately help establish a company’s viability as a thought leader setting industry agenda.

How then, does a company go about establishing an influencer relations program? Here are five steps to getting started:

1. Focus your agenda. It is critical to understand how specific issues can impact your company’s business goals. A company can stake a position on a wide variety of issues, each having different impacts on corporate reputation and overall business objectives. Communications can play an essential role by convening a multifunctional team to discuss issues related to the company, its industry, even business and society at large, and then mapping those issues to business objectives in order to arrive at a focused agenda for influencer relations.
2. Identify influencers. Identify the most critical influencers to your business—individuals and organizations that have a stake or potential stake in your focused agenda, including those that are unaware or even opposed. And think broadly. The most supportive influencers may be those outside traditional media sources, including academics, venture capitalists, consultants and authors. This process will provide you with a view of how different stakeholder organizations and individuals are aligned in relation to your agenda and help you identify and leverage existing relationships and connections with potential influencers. It is important to validate potential influencers as they are identified, ranking them according to very specific criteria:
   • Insight: Does the influencer have knowledge of your agenda, positioning, key messages or point of view?
   • Influence: Does the influencer impact other stakeholders’ attitudes and decisions related to your agenda?
   • Exposure: Does the influencer garner relevant media coverage (quantity and quality) related to your agenda?
   • Access: Is the influencer receptive to engagement, or can engagement be achieved through other currently held relationships and contacts?
3. Create a “shared agenda.” Identify common ground between the issues and themes that matter to your company and the interests of your key influencers. This is the most critical step in the process, as the shared agenda becomes the foundation for establishing mutually beneficial relationships with influencers. It enables influencers to maintain their independence and credibility while espousing a shared opinion on an issue. The shared agenda also makes the formulation of an engagement plan much easier, because it is the way to identify educational needs of the influencers as well as opportunities for them to play the role of advocate.
4. Engage influencers. Use the shared agendas developed in step three to develop an ongoing engagement strategy for each influencer, determining who should make contact, how often and with what content. The engagement strategy must include an educational component designed to increase awareness and acceptance of your agenda and the shared agenda. The strategy also must provide opportunities for influencers to reach the right audience with the right message related to the shared agenda, such as networking events, panel forums and campaigns.
5. Measure impact. A successful influencer relations program will result first in “attitudinal change,” or the degree to which an influencer becomes a bona fide advocate of your agenda, message or point of view. Although much more difficult to measure than traditional media results, attitudinal change can be assessed by evaluating both the influencer’s acceptance of the message and advocacy of the message as it resonates among key audiences. Tracking this attitudinal change is important for assessing educational efforts and determining if influencers are reaching the appropriate stakeholders.

Ultimately, however, influencer relations must also help to deliver against business goals. Therefore, the most effective influencer relations programs are also measured against a series of milestones that track toward the achievement of specified business objectives.

Scott Friedman is currently the Regional Director for Text 100 North America. Prior to this, he led Text 100’s global IBM relationship, providing a broad range of services, such as driving cross-brand communications and strategic programs, including bylined articles and influencer relations for IBM’s On Demand initiative.