How Influencer Relationships Promote Business Development

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Heather Whaling launched Geben Communication in her dining room and successfully (and quickly!) turned it into an award-winning PR firm. As the company grew, she was able to shift her attention and focus to what she’s most passionate about—business development.
She wants to make sure she and her clients are constantly pushing the envelope, so she does a lot of trend monitoring: checking out what the big companies are doing, what people are talking about, and which new ideas are gaining traction.
One of Heather’s best practices is treating Geben as a client, and making sure she does what she tells her clients to do.
So what’s the next big thing in marketing? Influencer relations.
Heather explains how influence marketing is changing the cycle of business development and how it has become the core of her business. She covers what works, what doesn’t, and the best ways to actually create a successful influencer campaign.

In This Episode

• Effective ways to reach a different type of audience
• How to pick the right influencers for your business, project, or campaign
• The biggest mistake people make when using influence marketing
• How trend monitoring leads to new ideas

Quotes From This Episode

“From the very beginning, I’ve tried to treat Geben as a client and do the things that we tell our clients to be doing, and I think that has been really helpful.” —@prtini
“The first couple years, I could track 75 percent of all my new business back to relationships that began online, and most of those relationships went back to Twitter.” —@prtini
“If you’re going to do an influencer campaign, make sure there’s a promotional plan in place with it too, so you’re not just relying on the influencers to get the word out.” —@prtini

“It’s not just that, hey, we want a bunch of people talking about our product or our service, it’s that we want people talking about it in a way that will encourage them or inspire them to take action, whatever that action is.” —@prtini

Resources

• Heather Whaling on Twitter: @prtini
• In the News: Getting More with Less Control: Why CMOs Win When They Embrace Co-Created Content
• Geben Communication
• Business 2 Community

Would You Rather

Would you rather have your office always be 10 degrees too hot or 10 degrees too cold?
Ten degrees too cold. My office actually is cold, so I have a little space heater right next to me.
Would you rather be able to whisper for the rest of your life or only be able to shout for the rest of your life?
Whisper. I hate being the center of attention sometimes, so I don’t think I would like to be the person in the room that’s shouting above everyone else. That would make me very nervous.
Would you rather fight 100 chicken-sized horses or one horse-sized chicken?
Probably one horse-sized chicken.