Five Influencer Types that can help any B2B Company

Influencer Marketing is now firmly established in B2C. It can also be very promising in B2B and contribute a lot to the image of a brand or company. This is especially true when using influencers from within the company itself to give the company a face. Find out more about the five most important influencer types for B2B-communication.

Can influencers still be taken seriously after they've been surpassed by a regular chicken egg with almost 53 million likes and nearly 10 million followers on Instagram (as of mid-March)? The answer is yes. Because crazy viral hits like the World Record Egg merely demonstrate the dynamics and range that are possible in today's social networks. Many companies are already strategically integrating multipliers into their marketing and communication mix in B2C. The influencers themselves are professionalizing with media kits, price lists and mood boards. And not just large, high-reach multipliers covering all aspects of fashion, lifestyle, cars and travel, who have millions of followers/subscribers on YouTube, Instagram or TikTok. Micro-influencers are also emerging in many niches. Their credibility and depth of content make them interesting partners for many companies. What already works in B2C has lots of potential in B2B. Here are the five most important influencer types for B2B at a glance and with practical examples:

1. The Corporate Influencer

a) The Social CEO

What do Tim H?ttges (Deutsche Telekom), Tina Müller (Douglas Group), Dieter Zetsche (Daimler) and Joe Kaeser (Siemens) have in common? They belong to a small number of German CEOs that are active thought leaders in their respective companies, as well as in social and/or business networks (Twitter, Instagram, LinkedIn, etc.). Their charisma extends far beyond the boundaries of their industry, not only because they are experts in their fields, but also because they speak up on social and political issues.

"From the bottom of our hearts, we want you to stay." This is what Daimler CEO Dieter Zetsche wrote, in an open LinkedIn letter to the British people regarding Brexit. Tim H?ttges also made a clear statement on corporate responsibility in a LinkedIn article a little while later. And Douglas CEO Tina Müller always takes a clear stance in her tweets, especially when it comes to diversity and the proportion of women in management positions.

Conclusion: Not every business leader feels comfortable in open networks. But, strategically supported by the company's own communications department, the CEO can initiate discussions, represent opinions and deliver first hand statements via Twitter, LinkedIn or Instagram - to all interested parties, followers, and even the media. This applies to SMEs as well as DAX corporations. 

b) Employees as Multipliers

A company is not just representable from the top down. Depending on the objectives and industry, it may be more appropriate to look for suitable corporate influencers within different departments. In-house experts can be used as authors of technical articles, comments or similar formats in PR. When it comes to employer branding and recruiting, your own employees should also be the first choice to give potential applicants a credible insight into the culture and everyday working life of the company. The vast majority of graduates and young professionals scan the social media accounts of their potential future employers before applying or accepting a personal interview. While the website has become more of an official flagship, YouTube, Instagram & Co. allow a more honest look behind the scenes at how a company ticks culturally.

Thyssenkrupp delivers a good example of how this challenge can be met. The industrial group has been offering insights into their employees' everyday lives through a career account on Instagram since 2016. If you also want to improve your appearance on the social networks, the first step is talking to the appropriate teams. Why not let trainees take over the account? Sharing through personal accounts should also be encouraged. At gyro, we have had a very positive experience with Insta-Recruiting: 90 percent of all our employees in the past 2-3 years came to us via Instagram.

2. Influencing through Event Ambassadors

Is it still worth visiting your industry's lead event? Or have other, more specialised events surpassed it? Perhaps you're better served with the "in-house exhibition" of a market-leading company? In B2B, specialist events playing host to an industry's decision-makers, take on a very central role. And the more digital that everyday communication is, the more important a face-to-face meeting becomes. However, decision-makers have very limited schedules and core events are abundant in every industry.

Event organisers are well advised to take this into consideration and use this opportunity to set up targeted Ambassador programmes involving important multipliers from their industries. The featured brand ambassadors are involved in the event as speakers and/or receive advantages due to more visibility and reach via the channels of the organiser. In return for these, mostly non-financial services, they promote the event via their (digital) networks. In any ambassador programme, however, care should be taken to ensure that both partners benefit equally from the cooperation.

3. Influencing through Customer Referrals

When it comes to promoting a new product, customer referrals are the perfect influencers. Nothing is more authentic. Who better to provide information about characteristics such as functionality, quality and concrete application of a product than a customer that uses it on a daily basis?

This was also the conclusion reached by the study on B2B influencer communication conducted by the Darmstadt University of Applied Sciences and Fink&Fuchs. It involved a total of 53 communication and marketing experts from small, medium-sized and large B2B companies. The participants stated that they most frequently used customers, business partners and journalists as highly effective influencers.

A successful practical example of this campaign approach was conducted by Time Warner Business Class, a provider of business services and business communication tools. To demonstrate how important their service was to their customers' success, the company asked each of them for video testimonials. Therein, the customers described how they achieved their goals thanks to the offered technology. The contributions all ended with a call to download an e-book from Time Warner Business Class and were spread online via YouTube, Facebook and Twitter.

4. Apply Users as B2B influencers

Influencer marketing works somewhat differently in B2B than when addressing private customers. The reason for this is that independence and reputation are often the greatest assets for B2B influencers. Therefore, in case of doubt, they will consider it threefold whether or not to risk these assets for a rewarded partnership with a company.

So when searching for suitable influencers, it can make a lot of sense to think out of the box. Here are two practical examples: eyeglass manufacturer Carl Zeiss Vision introduced new lenses that are particularly good for reading fonts on smartphones. One step is obviously to inform opticians. However, Zeiss also had a number of selected bloggers test its "digital lenses" and report their individual experiences in their blogs.

The reports were positive and also made available to the opticians. In return, these could now create credible awareness for the novelty product. Another pleasant side effect: any consumer googling "digital spectacles" today will immediately come across the mentioned user experience reports.

But the path to success does not necessarily have to lead through the purchasing department - as demonstrated successfully by a manufacturer of disinfectants. It distributed test packages of a hygiene product to employees who used it several times during their work day. Interactive campaigns further strengthened the relationship to the product. One example was a challenge between departments during the cold season: whoever disinfected best and thus had the fewest sick days, won the challenge.

This playful approach provided a certain fun factor among the employees and was extended by suitable hashtags in the social networks. In the end, it even convinced the purchasing department.

5. Experts as influencers

Who better to stand up for a complex topic than a true specialist? This is what the Voith technology group thought too. Together with four different external energy industry experts, the leading full-range supplier for equipping hydroelectric power plants organised the #DiscoverHydropower-Tour.

The aim was to create more awareness for hydropower through an unconventional approach. This did not necessarily necessitate multipliers with the highest reach. Influencers with less than 1,000 followers can also have a decisive effect if they include the few most important decision-makers that the campaign is designed to reach.

Voith's had the experts travel to three particularly impressive hydropower plants in Portugal, Scotland and Iceland. These were reached both by helicopter or by hiking through the Scottish Highlands.

Voith thus killed two birds with one stone: On the one hand, the event enabled a content mix that was of both technical and general relevance and was disseminated by the influencers in the form of live videos, stories and postings. Furthermore, with the help of a professional film team, video footage was produced, which subsequently generated additional buzz by providing spectacular footage not only for experts from the energy industry, but also for interested amateurs.

The result: More than 350 posts with well over one million impressions. In exchange for participating, the company was able to offer its influencers not only high-quality content but also new food for thought and networking opportunities that provided attractive added value in their role as experts.

The bottom line: There are various and meaningful possibilities for B2B companies to collaborate with influencers. However, in order to successfully design projects, companies should first determine exactly which type of influencer they need, what they expect from them and what they can offer in return. My advice: 1. Look for influencers within your own organisation first. 2. Do not pay for posts and make sure that posts are published out of true conviction. 3. create incentives for influencers 4. do not measure success solely in reach. Instead, look at how well your influencers are reaching the intended target group.