How do you leverage social media influencers and advocates to support your brand during a crisis?

1 What are social media influencers and advocates?

Social media influencers and advocates are people who have a large or loyal following on social media platforms and who can influence the opinions and behaviors of their audience. Influencers are typically paid or sponsored by brands to promote their products or services, while advocates are usually satisfied customers or fans who voluntarily share their positive experiences or recommendations. Both types of partners can help you amplify your message, reach new audiences, and boost your credibility during a crisis.

2 How to find the right partners for your brand

To find the most relevant, authentic, and aligned influencers and advocates for your brand, you can use tools like BuzzSumo, Traackr, or Upfluence to search for keywords, hashtags, or topics related to your niche. Additionally, monitoring your own social media channels and reviews can help you spot existing advocates and loyal customers. Once you have a list of potential partners, you should evaluate them based on criteria such as their tone, style, and content; their engagement rate, reach, and audience demographics; their reputation, trustworthiness, and authority; and their relevance, affinity, and alignment with your brand.

3 How to approach and build relationships with your partners

Once you have identified potential partners for your brand, you should reach out to them and build relationships. This can be done by researching their profile, preferences, and interests, as well as introducing yourself and your brand and explaining why you want to work with them. You should also offer value, incentives, or benefits in exchange for their collaboration, and ensure that you are respectful, transparent, and professional throughout the process. It is also important to follow up and maintain communication with them.

4 How to activate and support your partners during a crisis

In the event of a crisis, you should activate and support your partners to help you manage the situation and communicate with your audience. To do this, you should inform them about the crisis and your response plan, provide clear guidelines and expectations, and ask them to share official statements, updates, or apologies. Additionally, it is important to encourage them to share their honest opinions, feedback, or testimonials. Monitoring their posts, comments, and mentions is also essential. Finally, don't forget to thank them and reward them for their support.

5 How to measure and optimize the impact of your partners

To ensure that your partnership with social media influencers and advocates is effective and beneficial for your brand during a crisis, you need to measure and optimize the impact of their actions. This can be done by defining your goals and key performance indicators (KPIs), tracking and analyzing your partner's posts, reach, engagement, sentiment, and conversions. Additionally, you should compare your results with your benchmarks and objectives, identify what worked well and what didn't, and adjust your strategy, tactics, or partners accordingly. With these steps taken into consideration, leveraging social media influencers and advocates can be a powerful way to support your brand during a crisis. By following these tips, you can find, engage, and activate these key partners to help you mitigate the damage and restore trust.

6 Here’s what else to consider

This is a space to share examples, stories, or insights that don’t fit into any of the previous sections. What else would you like to add?