10 Yetis Insight Blog: Influencer Identification and Influencer Outreach - 8 Mistakes You Should Never Make

A huge part of public relations for SEO and link building is undoubtedly influencer outreach. From the very first identification of the influencers, through to reaching out and seducing them, you need to have your game on point in order to achieve the desired effects. As Google plays about with the rules, it’s increasingly important to keep your influencer strategy clean, sincere and appropriately targeted to avoid future risk of Google penalties as the crawlers get ever more efficient and all-seeing.

Although influencer identification and outreach is no new thing, the practice is spreading; so it is new for some. More and more practitioners in the public relations realm are waking up to the fact that this is no longer an add-on, but an integral part of an integrated PR campaign.

As a result, we’ve seen some pretty horrendous mistakes. Here’s our top tips to ensure you avoid falling down the cringe-filled pitfalls and keep afloat on the influencer engagement scale.

1.Targeting the wrong influencers

Selling microwaves? Don’t go for the raw food VIPs (Very Influential Peeps – obviously). Equally, if you’re looking to promote British dairy farmers (topical, we like), don’t hit up your vegans. They will hate you for it; plus, you’ll be ten times as likely to get banished to the junk folder forever more (or blocked for those reaching out on social channels). Think about who would genuinely be interested in what you’re trying to get out there. If you have to lean either way, it’s better to be too discerning than too broad.

2.Selling the story

You need to step out of the PR zone for one moment here; this isn’t a time to reel off a list of a hundred benefits and a carefully constructed sales pitch designed to convince the recipient that they simply must cover your news. They aren’t journalists (although some may be!), and they shouldn’t be treated like one. This is not the place for story pitches. Instead, get chatting, lay out enough information to let them know what you’re talking about and invite them to find out more themselves. It should be more a case of chatting to a mate, rather than pitching to an editor.

3.Going straight in at the deep end

This may sound a little creepy and maybe it is; but it’s really important to give yourself time to get to know your influencers before you reach out with a story or message. Not only does it give you a little time to build a relationship with the targets, but it also allows you to get to know what they like, their engagements and interests. Having seen you around the social sphere, they will also be far more open to your interactions when the time comes for outreach.

4.Becoming a stalker

Laying the foundation is all well and good but, simultaneously, no one needs a stalker on their hands! Keep a check on yourself – you don’t need to know what they’re up to and who they’re talking to every minute of the day. If they notice that you have favourited their last 35 tweets in a row, they will find it creepy – not flattering. Be careful not to scare them off!

5.Relying on pester power

Persistence is not key to a campaign here. If they aren’t interested the first or second time, give up the ghost. Ramming a message down their necks is not going to make them sit up and pay attention. Remember – they don’t have pages to fill and a set criteria to meet. If they like it, they’ll usually run with it right away. If they don’t, they won’t. If you keep pestering them, they’ll block you and you’ll have no hope for future engagement.

6.Expecting them to know the PR game

They don’t necessarily know so much about the sordid world of PR, where whoring out a story is just another part of the nine to five. This may be a whole new request for them – or alternatively you might find that they are super-critical and cynical. Adapt your approach to suit the person, rather than the story.

7.Putting words in their mouth

These people are influencers for a reason; people listen and engage with what they say. Just because they aren’t journalists, don’t assume that you know how to convey the message better than them. Being pushy with exactly what review you would like, or what wording you want on the tweet, is instantly going to get their back up. You can communicate a message and hope they take interest and pass it on, but they will have their own slant on it; they aren’t rent-a-tweets (normally – some are!)

8.Going straight for the Bull’s Eye

Even influencers have… well, influencers. Be prepared to work in a roundabout way here. If the VIP of your dreams isn’t playing ball, don’t give up. In fact, part of the background work should be figuring out who they are influenced by, and also targeting those people so you reach your goal via them. You may find this is actually an easier route. For instance, a famous celebrity might regularly retweet or chat with their sister on Twitter – as a result, engaging with the sister and perhaps offering some free samples could well end up in snaring the celeb's attention.

Influencer identifcation doesn't have to be difficult, but it does have to be done right. That way, your influencer outreach won't fail before you've even started.