Once identified, you need to be able to effectively manage your influencers.
How many is enough influencers? It would be flawed thinking to calculate the value of influencers in ‘reach’ terms. Someone with 40,000 followers might deliver less impact for your brand than someone with 400, if they’re the right 400, and someone with 400 followers might deliver more impact than coverage on an online publication with 400,000 monthly unique users. Your strategy needs to allow for the fact that working with most B2B influencers is more, not less, time consuming than working with B2B media, and you need to assess the investment/returns accordingly. In general, start small and build up.
Should they be paid? Asking someone to give up their time, insight and expertise for free to contribute to something is not a reliable strategy. That said, your strategy may call for very lightweight asks. Contributing an hour to a virtual brainstorm to support a piece of content co-creation that builds your profile – and theirs – might not be something an influencer feels worth asking for compensation for. And indeed, in general B2B influencers – because many don’t think of themselves as “influencers” but as whatever their day job is – might see the opportunity to engage and contribute as doing their part to further their industry/profession and not think it worth charging for. But the more commercially focussed your ask is, the bigger the time involvement, the more likely you should plan incentives of some kind to offer in exchange for influencer support and time.
What should contracts look like? In general, where there’s a commercial exchange, something lightweight should be signed by both parties that outlines mutual commitments and obligations. This protects the brand from investing money for no return and makes sure that the ask of the influencer is 100% transparent.
When should you schedule activity? In person or virtual? There’s no hard and fast rule here. But the bigger the ask, the bigger the draw and the bigger the incentive. Most B2B influencers have a day job which is unlikely to require they spend time with vendors. Industry analysts may be the exception! So, anticipate that an in-person event needs a strong incentive to get an influencer along. That said, influencer activity shouldn’t always take place online. Don’t forget about the face to face aspect of relationship building with influencers. Strong relationships both online and offline may encourage influencers to become brand advocates outside of their typical influencer ‘scope’.
How do I approach / engage them? Most people are reasonably happy if you approach them via the channels they make available to the world. A reply on Twitter or a DM, a LinkedIn message, or an email or phone call using publicly listed contact details are all reasonable. Just act with courtesy and authenticity in the way you engage, don’t mass mail or mass contact people and therefore personalise your approach.