Influencer marketing meetup summary

Last week we've held a meetup of the cyberpros community. The topic of the day was influencer marketing.

Although influencers have been utilized in marketing (and more often- in advertising) for centuries, it was most often for B2C (lifestyle) purposes. In recent times, this practice has been intensified due to the extensive use of social media networks. Only very recently have B2B brands begun to experiment with influencer-based marketing activities. In this meetup, we heard from Yael Moav, who manages a cybersecurity influencer marketing platform:

"Influencer Marketing, at its core, is about getting your brand paired with people who are seen as trustworthy in their area, both for B2C and B2B".

Before you begin engaging influencers, you need to define your goals:

-????????? Brand awareness/Demand Generation

-????????? PR

-????????? Generating Leads

Or- all of the above?

Influencers can be utilized for all these, but you need to carefully match the influencer with your desired target audience. A suitable influencer should have at least some of these attributes:

●????? Professional in your industry

●????? Already talking about the problems you are solving - or at least adjacent

●????? LinkedIn is still king for B2B, but know that personalities might be influencing on the relevant discord servers or Twitter (X).

●????? Have a good number of engaged followers who will make up your “organically targeted audience”

The relevance of an influencer per specific crowd is not exact science, but a combination of seniority, authority, followership, Geographic location.

Ideally, the influencer should "look like" your target audience: CISO for CISO, security researcher for security researchers, executive for executives…

To be considered an influencer people need to have a sizeable following.? As we're talking B2B here,? this will mostly include LinkedIn , but some influencers are also active on X (Twitter), Reddit, Discord and even more niche channels (slack channels).

Big influencers (like the late Kevin Mitnick) are usually very expensive, and could be perceived as being too commercialized by your target audience.

Aim at micro-influencers. They have higher engagement rate, are perceived as authentic,

Once you've recruited an influencer you can work with them on:

-????????? Content distribution

-????????? Comments

-????????? Content creation

-????????? Reviews

-????????? Webinars, meetups,

-????????? Direct endorsement (tricky)

Content creation – assuming your company creates the content,? the person needs to rewrite in his own words and then share on social media. This will work great on LinkedIn. It could work on X. It wouldn't likely work on Reddit or closed forums (like Slack channels) since they usually frown upon posting links to external sites and/or brand promotion.

Influencers can be utilized at physical events too. They can come to your side event (dinner, cocktail), they can spend time at your booth and post about it. Even a selfie at the booth could be powerful.

Do cybersecurity influencers differ from "plain" B2B influencers? Not really. They both have their brand to maintain, and most can be perceived to be too commercialized if they aren’t careful with their engagements.

To complement Yael's talk, we invited Michael Yehoshua who spoke about utilizing your board members as brand advocates. Michael spoke about the Authority Heuristic which explains why we obey/ look up /listen to people in uniforms, or to any other person of authority (or even celebrities). This works because our brain is busy and it uses heuristics to reduce cognitive load. We see people in uniforms and perceive them to have authority or knowledge. We use visual signs and known attributes.? We, therefore, listen to famous people, and also institutions like Gartner.

Influencers provide you:

-????????? A reason to care

-????????? Authority / credibility

-????????? Connections and

-????????? Crowd/followers? - customers, partners, investors, friends

If you recruit "celebrities" to your board (and you will most certainly have to compensate them for their time and effort) you can utilize them for press coverage, as "anchors" for luncheons and dinners, speaking opportunities and even digital events (like webinars). In a sense, they become brand ambassadors and influencers on their own (just don't expect them to post on LinkedIn every other day).

Summary:

Integrating influencers into your marketing mix is a great way to enhance existing activities, boost brand awareness and generate leads.

As starting this practice can be daunting, we recommend you consult with the experts before you begin. Contact Cyfluencer for a free consultation ([email protected])