Social Media Measurement as part of a semantic web 3.0 is one of the hottest topics in the (social media) blogosphere and twittersphere. Hence, also software for measurement is getting increasingly important and so are the corresponding software companies. Personally, I think it is just a matter of time until Big G (Google) aquires one of these uprising software companies. (compare to Google Analytics)
But listening to your customers is just one side of the story. Basically, there are three ways how companies can act in the social web:
- Passive Listening: Social Media Measurement, as described before
- Active Participation: Companies join the conversation under their real identity (or sometimes even with fake identities!)
- Influencing the conversation: Influencing opinion leaders can create a very positive brand sentiment at very low costs.
Today, I will focus on the latter: Turn bloggers into brand ambassadors. A work which may be done by specialized blogger marketing agencies in the future?
Recognize the important role of bloggers
The theory of information diffusion describes the important role of opinion leaders (opinion brokers) as communication hubs and communication influencers. According to my own definition, bloggers with more than 500-1000 readers/subscribers are already key influental persons. From a company perspective, they are already important information intermediaries between the company and the consumer which can directly influence a purchase decision.
As bloggers get even more important than the average journalist it is time to restructure the company as well. Public relations and press department should appreciate and support bloggers, at least by giving them the same information (and access, and rights) as journalists.
But companies should even go one step further and establish a personal relationship with the bloggers. There is often a huge demand for direct access to bloggers, especially from a PR perspective but also for access to immediate product feedback. Bloggers are often lead users, particularly in case of high-tec products. But in any case, bloggers are at least opinion leaders and opinion brokers.
Outsource communication work to an intermediary
A direct contact to key influenters may be nice-to-have, but it is often not possible because of the following reasons:
- Fluctuation in communication demand: Usually, the communication demand of a company is not stable. When a new product is released there would be a high communication demand whereas there may be even no demand a few weeks (or months) later.
- Damning light on blogger and company: It could create a negative image for the blogger AND the company when the connection (e.g. sponsoring) between blogger and company gets published.
- Too many contacts: Engaging with only 10 bloggers is not enought. Depending on the product, company size and the target country it may be useful to stay in contact with 50 to 100 bloggers. This would often overload the department.
- Too time-consuming: Getting in contact and staying in contact is not that simple.
- Lack of skills: Small- and medium sized enterprises often don't have the right (and enough) employees for this networking-job.
For this reasons, it may be good to have an intermediary between the company and the bloggers. Having an institutionalized "blogger marketing agency" would help to avoid a negative image effect. Furthermore, the agencies aggregates the fluctuating communication demand from the company side which enables a stable contact with a large number of bloggers.
From my personal working experience, I know how important it is to establish a personal contact to the bloggers (also as an agency). Personal, real-life contact matters. It is also important to keep contact on a regular, continuous basis, ideally in real-life.
Blogger marketing agencies as the next trend for innovative agencies?
I think, that many reasons would favor "blogger marketing agencies". We have already experienced the hype of upcoming word-of-mouth and buzz marketing agencies in the early 2000's. Currently we are seeing the rise of social media measurement companies. "Blogger marketing agencies" as a business model for young agencies could be the next trend.
Do you agree?
