Turns out size does matter. But so does intelligence.
3 min read
Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own.
The following is an excerpt from Jason Falls‘ Winfluence: Reframing Influencer Marketing to Ignite Your Brand, which will be released Feb. 23 via Entrepreneur Press. Pre-order your copy now via Amazon | Barnes & Noble | IndieBound | Bookshop
The right people with influence begin to emerge when you study the five key ’tudes of your audience. But dude, what are the ’tudes? I’m glad you asked!
Amplitude of audience
Based on your business goals, does your audience need to be big? If you want 50 million people to see your name by Monday, take out a Super Bowl ad and hope the big game is this Sunday. But if you want to persuade legislators to support your stance on the state’s casino gambling laws, you don’t necessarily need to engage an influence partner with two million followers. You need an influential person followed by a few dozen state representatives and senators.
Altitude of audience
Think about this in terms of geography. If you need to influence employees inside your company, that Instagrammer with 250,000 followers probably isn’t your best choice, even if they post content your employees dig. John Chamberlin and Rachael Rennebeck of YaJagoff!, a blog, podcast and website focused on Pittsburgh, are great influence prospects with 50,000-plus followers, but they’re not useful if you own a single-location business in Birmingham, Alabama.
Related: How to Build a Successful Influence Marketing Campaign
Aptitude of audience
This is less about the audience’s intelligence and more about the complexity of what you’re trying to persuade them to do or know. If you want to help your audience understand the process of water purification, you’ll need to choose influence partners who can build instructional and educational content. If you’re trying to persuade people to buy a high-quality kitchen appliance that is 50% more expensive than its competition, your influence partners will need to be able to get into the weeds of why yours is better. Someone who just posts pictures of beautiful kitchen designs may not help you.
Attitude of audience
Do the people you hope to ultimately influence love you? Do they hate you? Do they not even really know you? Their attitude toward you can drastically change which influence partners are right for you. If they hate you, some rah-rah cheerleader type who just smiles and waves off any negative vibes won’t work. You need partners with deep levels of trust from their audience who are willing to work on changing attitudes with you.
Related: Get to Know the 3 Types of Influencers
Habitude of audience
What is the audience’s usual way of doing things? And, to use a play on words, what channels do they inhabit? If you’re trying to reach IT professionals who manage data servers, your influence partners will likely need to be present and impactful on blogs, YouTube, IT forums and message boards. If you’re trying to reach consumers of just about anything in Japan, Twitter and Line are far more important for your influence partners than, say, Facebook. Japanese consumers are culturally less likely to engage when their real identity is tied to the account, while Facebook norms are for each person to have one account under their real name. Twitter allows you to have a handle and represent yourself however you like.
If you want to know your audience, know your ‘tudes.
