How to Maximize the Symbiotic Relationship Between PR and Influencer

Put Me In, Coach

Want to be the best? Learn from the best.
Sally Falkow has over 30 years of experience in PR and has trained and coached thousands of professionals and executives of all kinds. She believes in tracking the right kind of data, determining actionable outcomes, and taking the time to find truly mutually beneficial relationships.
Meritus Media is a thriving Digital PR Agency that focuses on strategy, campaigns, and training. Sally is also an author with her book, “Smart News: How to Create Branded Content That Gets Found in Search and Shared Social” and her blog The Proactive Report.  
She joins the podcast today to talk data, measurement, and real influencer action.

In This Episode

• Why it is important to measure the right thing
• Why real influence creates action
• How too much data can be confusing
• Why it’s important to treat your influencers well
• Why research and planning is key  

Quotes From This Episode

“People might be reading your tweets, but if your tweets or your blog posts or whatever it is that you’re doing, your podcast doesn’t create some kind of an effect, doesn’t move them, doesn’t change their perception, doesn’t make them click a link, doesn’t make them download and watch a video, if they’re not good engaging and they’re not doing something as a result, you don’t have influence. You just have a big audience.” —@sallyfalkow
“A celebrity might have reach, but they have to also have relevance to the cause or the campaign or the topic or the brand or the product, whatever it is that we’re doing the campaign about because otherwise, this is a waste of time.” —@sallyfalkow
“Oprah is an influencer, fine. Everybody loves Oprah, but is she isn’t actually actively interested in education of preschool kids and if she’s not going to tweet about that and she isn’t actually going to forward my message, she’s useless to me.” —@sallyfalkow
“Don’t treat them like the media. Treat them like people. The media has a job. Reporters have a job. They’re being paid to write stories. We have a symbiotic relationship with them as PR people. Even I’ve built a relationship even in media relations. But it’s kind of acceptable for us to pitch the media. It’s what we do and they know it, even though they probably don’t like it very much.” —@sallyfalkow
“They’re not being paid to do this. Some of them are now making money, but many of them aren’t. They’re writing about something out of passion and interest and because they love it, because they want to. People follow them because they write great content. So, they have a genuine, organic audience.” —@sallyfalkow
“You have to take it slowly. You’ve got to build a relationship with those people. You need to have great communications skills. It’s not a sales pitch.” —@sallyfalkow

Resources

• In the News: “Why Influencer Marketing Works and the New Direction It’s Taking”
• Sally Falkow Twitter: @sallyfalkow
• Meritus Media
• The Proactive Report
• “Smart News: How to Create Branded Content That Gets Found in Search and Shared on Social”
• BlogHer
• Peter Drucker
• The Mezamashii Run Project
• McKinney
• Radian6

Would You Rather

Would you rather have an elephant trunk, or a giraffe’s neck?
I think I would have an elephant’s trunk.
Would you rather go back in time 200 years and meet your ancestors or go to the future 200 years and meet your descendants?
That would be interesting to meet my descendants, but I do like my ancestors. I’m very interested in ancestors. I think I would like to do that.
Would you rather that your diary be published or that someone released recordings of you singing in the shower?
As far as publish my diary, have at it. I wouldn’t bat an eyelid.