The tech industry is also turning to influencers with large social media followings. Those same influencers bring expertise when representing a brand so they can push the newest technologies with better understanding and information about how products will work for the consumer.
In the tech world, finding the right influencer is not about looking for a celebrity. It’s about finding an expert, people who will have the capacity to influence the buyers that a brand feels are their target; people who inspire those buyers.
Many tech marketing people feel that buyers come to a seller ready to buy a particular product about three-fourths of the time. They do their research ahead of time and talk with others who have made similar buys recently. They may also look for help from professional associations, user groups, mentors, partners, and community-based groups. Finding a way to use those resources along with the power of strong influencers may be the key to success in the tech industry moving forward.
Influencers attend events as speakers and leaders rather than just there to listen and report. Through those, they become active in lead gen, and the sales funnel using social media to amplify their voice regarding a product. Of course, they are still there to share their point of view with their followers. Instead of just spouting content written by the brand, they do their own research and then create new and unique content about what works with a product. Using tools like Traackr and Sprinklr, it is easier to see what and who is working best for a brand as an influencer. These tools help track the number of leads and downloads. They also help to analyze if the people who are reached fit the target audience for a product.
Measuring Your Influencer Marketing Campaigns
It’s still difficult to get good measurements on how much good an influencer marketing campaign may have on the bottom dollar. But there are things to look for such as pipeline touch. You won’t know any direct impact numbers since there are so many variables in a B2B campaign. When a part of a campaign such as an event uses other tech tools such as live streaming videos of talks and panel discussions happening at the event, podcasts from the influencers, or other tools, than the impact and result should be increased many times.
The power of influencers extends beyond what traditional public relations and corporate communications can do. But using a combination of these can impact the sales cycle at every level starting with customer awareness of the product to building partnerships with consumers.
About Ronn Torossian
Ronn Torossian is the Founder and CEO of 5W Public Relations. He is an experienced leader in the public relations industry with over 20 years of experience. Ronn Torossian has been named as Public Relations executive of the year by the American Business Awards, and has run countless award-winning Public Relations programs.
