(Good) Bloggers = Influencers. How to Reach Them to Market Your Show?

Dana Vanden Heuvel has an interesting post that cites and expands upon thoughts from the book The Influentials: One American in Ten Tells the Other Nine How to Vote, Where to Eat, and What to Buy by Jon Berry and Ed Keller, as well as thoughts posted by Matt Galloway on "The Basement".

Berry & Keller: 

Getting through to the Influentials is not easy. They're hard to reach. They are among the most critical citizens and consumers in the society. They hold business to higher standards, are harder to persuade, see through hype more easily, and drive a harder bargain than the average American.

Galloway: 

Influentials become vital because they are networked and become the first to know about, and adopt, many things.

Bloggers, at least those that are indeed Influentials, are difficult to reach through advertising! If companies think blogs are important, then they should respect the bloggers and listen, optionally engage intelligently and individually – but they shouldn't try to persuade through advertising, as the old joke goes, it wastes your time and annoys the pig.

Vanden Heuvel:

(C)ertainly blogs are skewed to the early adopter set, but not all bloggers are influential, and certainly not all those who are influential blog. However, online citizens generally are more vocal, active, informed and powerful members of their social circles.

Berry & Keller:

Knowing what [Influentials are] talking about and where they influence opinions in the society doesn't mean an advertising copywriter will be able to speak persuasively. In fact, without a broader understanding of Influentials, such as their expectations of business, the copywriter will likely have a very difficult time.

Galloway:

It's worth noting that this is example where the size of the whole blogosphere doesn't matter. All that matters is whether there are enough Blog Influentials within our topic of interest. Without looking, I know that we have enough for politics, technology, teens, business, blogging and marketing.

To stay ahead of the curve:
1. Find your Blog Influentials.
2. Listen.
3. Repeat step 2.

Vanden Heuvel:

At the end of the movie, it looks like this. Influentials buy things, just like the rest of us buy things. They find out about things sooner because they run in different circles than the rest of us. As smart marketers, we need to be in those circles. Right now, RSS is one of the channels into that circle, and we need to be there to reach the influentials who are there now too.

What this means to you:  Many markets still aren't represented by bloggers, or at least not influential blogs.  As Galloway points out, if your event is marketed to those in politics, technology, teens, business, blogging or marketing, then you've got a base of influential blogs to work with.  I'd add legal and some medical disciplines to this list.

IT and marketing events in particular should reach out to bloggers if for no other reason than to use them as a type of focus group.

For the rest of us with shows in industries where there are few, if any, blogs, I would strongly suggest getting together with your in-house market experts, key speakers and/or most influential attendee prospects (you can find out who they are) and discussing the concept of starting one.  It doesn't have to be branded as "your" blog, although it could be. 

We're at a point in the adoption curve where those industries who could be expected to be early adopters have already adopted.  In industries where blogs haven't been adopted, there should be a significant advantage in being first to market with a blog, although being "best in market" must be an equal consideration.

There is a better than even chance you won't see any immediate impact your first year of blogging, although you might.  At the very least, by starting now, by the time next year's event rolls around, you'll have established a voice and begun the process of educating your market on using blogs.  At which point you'll have either attracted other influentials to your blog, or incentivized them to start their own.

And that's where it gets interesting.  Having multiple blogs in an industry is good.  That's what allows more meaningful conversations to happen.  And the more influentials who are out there commenting on your industry, the more chances you have to reach "the other nine people" who are following that influencer.

All your industry needs is someone to get that ball rolling.  Why not you?

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I am now getting spellchecked via email!  Thanks Aimee for the heads up on the headline error.