We take a look at three ways you can interact with influencers by using social media.
1. Use Facebook
Facebook can be a useful tool to find influencers in your industry. It’s still one of the best platforms to boost brand awareness for both B2B and B2C companies.
Try to search for influencers by using keywords and relevant phrases. Once you’ve found influencers you would like to target, try to build an online relationship with them. Firstly, like their page, their content, pages they like and share and comment on their posts. If they reciprocate by liking your page, send them a message to introduce yourself and extend a greeting.
Remember to refrain from being too self-promotional – you are trying to build a relationship, not scare them off!
2. Connect on LinkedIn
LinkedIn is the premier professional social network for B2B marketing. Similar to Facebook, you can conduct a search using keywords to find the influencers you want to target. Send them a request to connect and ensure to let them know how you know of them/know them. If you don’t want to wait until they accept, you can always upgrade to LinkedIn Premium which will enable you to send direct ‘Inmails’ to people you are not connected with.
3. Networking on Twitter
Twitter offers many different ways to interact with people, create conversations and build relationships.
At first, follow all of the influencers you have identified – if they have personal and company accounts, follow them both! If you receive a follow back, tweet a thank you with their @handle.
Next you should create a list entirely dedicated to your influencers. This will make it easy to know when they tweet, and it will make their tweets easy to find! Here you can engage with them by retweeting, replying or simply liking their tweets. This is the best way to build a relationship with them. Just remember to stay active and post evergreen content to make yourself visible.
Read and comment on the original Entrepreneur article.