We’re finally here. Post #6 on what it means to participate in the market conversation. Building relationships is a key part of that participation, but who should you be building relationships with and how? Every market space has a conversation going on by an ecosystem of individuals and organizations. These people include Influencers, Participants and Listeners. Building relationships with each of these groups has varying levels of involvement and necessary activities and/or effort required.

Politicians are stereo-typed as “baby-kissers” for the media cameras and back-room deal makers with individuals and companies who carry a lot of influence, but President Obama is the first presidential candidate who really took relationship building to the extreme and out into the general public. As a marketing case study, his campaign will be written in the history books as brilliant–even those who don’t agree with his political opinions can’t argue against that. So what did he do during the campaign, and now into his presidency, that epitomized what companies should be doing to build relationships?

What Does it Mean to Build Relationships? Who Do I Want to Get to? How Do I Do that?

1. Identify who the Influencers in your market space are. These are individuals and entities (organizations, conferences, groups, etc.) that most often raise new conversation topics and have their own audiences who listen and respond. Influencers can be press, bloggers, trade groups, business executives, vendors, customers, regulatory bodies, analysts and many others. By starting some simple research into what type of product/service you offer, what want/need your offering solves for people and basic brand name and competitor searching, particularly in social media outlets, will quickly show individuals or entities who appear over and over. They’ll have multiple ways in which they’re influence manifests itself (i.e. they write a popular blog, they’re a book author, they often speak at events, they hold a prestigious position, etc.)
2. Once you’ve identified the major Influencers in your space and made note of all the ways in which they’re influence manifests itself, then put your company in a position to get to know those individuals or get involved with those organizations. Consider all the ways in which you can find mutually beneficial opportunities to work together, speak on the same panel, hold joint events, etc. It could even be as simple as inviting the person for drinks after a conference to talk about your industry and discuss what opportunities you may have together. If they write a blog, read it regularly and offer constructive comments or questions–but resist the urge to advertise your company in those comments. Start referencing the Influencers by pointing other people to their articles, presentations, Twitter streams, etc. Be visible about it, too, by recommending their articles on your Twitter account or blogging a response to an article they wrote or writing a public review of their books.
3. Ultimately, your goal as a company is to build a relationship with the Influencers so that they will in turn talk about your and your company to others and so that you can get in front of their audience. Their audiences are the market conversation Participants and Listeners, which are essentially your target audience and potential customers. Participants include the Influencers, but in large are individuals who are responding to the topics raised by the Influencers. These individuals may be your customers, prospects, industry experts, competitors or anyone else with an interest in your industry. Listeners comprise the vast majority of the population—they are the individuals who look to Influencers and Participants to help them make purchase decisions and formulate their own opinions. Items 1 and 2 above are how you start to get noticed by these two groups and start to build relationships with them.
4. Keep in mind that your market conversation Participants and Listeners include your current customers, so look for ways to stay in touch with your customers beyond trying to up-sell them or get them to renew their subscription. And don’t just talk at them through email campaigns and newsletters when you have a new product or a sale. Use those mediums, as well as blogs and Twitter, etc., to give them helpful information about fulfilling their wants/needs. Don’t just sell to them and leave it at that. Provide tips and tricks, links to articles that may be of relevance to their want/need and ask for their feedback on how to improve your product. Watch for mentions by Participants and Listeners and reach out to them to thank them for their comments or to show that you care about their want/need and helping them fulfill that want/need when their mentions of your product are negative. You have a bigger opportunity to make yourself look good and gain more awareness when you properly respond to someone’s negative comments. If the person blogged that they purchased your product and it sucked, contact them or comment back offering to make amends or invite them at your expense to visit your company and be part of a focus group on improving the product. These are just some ideas, but I’m sure you’re starting to see how this works.
5. Finally, provide as many ways as possible for Influencers, Participants and Listeners to voice their thoughts and opinions back to you. A generic email address or form on your website doesn’t cut it. Have someone monitor social media and web content and respond accordingly in real-time. Give your company a human personality–give real names and email addresses of someone, anyone, so people feel like they have a person to talk to about their product issues. Follow other people on Twitter and invite your customers to follow your company–but give it as much personality as possible. If you don’t want to have a single person as the face/voice of the company, than at least have those people who are adding content be personable.