Forget Influencers — 4 Steps for Identifying Connected Industry Insiders
We spend a lot of time talking about “influentials” in the context of PR and social media marketing. Top industry bloggers and Twitter stars are on everyone’s “A” list. But what about the people in the trenches, who actually get the work done? To keep things simple, let’s call these folks “insiders.”
Industry insiders are important, because they have powerful influence in their own right. In many cases, they have built their own solid social networks that are important to their own careers and personal reputations. They also have real credibility with their peers, because they’re not figureheads – they have day jobs and are doing the real work. And for brands, these are the people who have input on buying decisions. Simply put, it’s not enough to court your industry’s rock stars. You have to connect with insiders, too. So how do you identify the day-to-day professionals who make up the insider crowd? Here’s the 4-step approach I used to identify insiders for a sister company that operates in the IT space. They needed to grow their audience in several verticals, and social media was a logical channel for achieving this objective.
Read the full post by PR Newswire VP of social media Sarah Skerik on Beyond PR.
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