Jim JamesFounder, UnNoticed Ventures · Hi, what's on your mind? I'd love to know.

How Does A PR Agency Find Influencers

10 Jul 2020 · 2 min

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2:04

In this EastWest PR FAQ video, Jim James explains the systematic approach a PR agency uses to locate and engage influencers such as key media, analysts, and bloggers. The process begins with basic research—making phone calls, searching the internet, attending events, and observing who is most influential, prolific, and relevant to a client’s industry. Once potential influencers are identified, the agency tracks them, builds relationships over time, and organizes them into shortlists and bookmarks. For the top tier (e.g., the top ten) influencers, the agency extends formal invitations to meet the agency’s clients, sometimes arranging visits to client facilities abroad. Monitoring what these influencers write or film is emphasized as a core PR function. The video concludes with a call for viewers to submit further questions via the EastWest PR website or social channels (@EastWestPR on Twitter/Weibo).

Chapters

Hello, my name is Jim James, and welcome to this issue of EastWest PR's FAQ. And we're filming this in our Beijing studios, and we have a question from somebody who has asked, how does a PR agency find the influencers, the key media, the analysts, the bloggers that are so important? Well, first of all, what we do is research, very simply. We phone people, we use the internet, we go to events, and we use our ears and our eyes to find out who is the most influential, who's writing the most, who has the most followers, and that are most relevant to our clients. Once we've identified those influencers, then what we have to start doing is tracking them. We need to start to build a relationship with those influencers over time, and so we must track them. We shortlist them, we bookmark them, we go and visit them sometimes as well. And what we'll then do with the special influencers, maybe the top 10 influencers in industry, is we'll reach out with invitations to them to meet with us, meet with our clients. On some occasions, even invitations to go and visit the client's facilities overseas. So finding influencers and knowing what they're thinking and what they're going to be writing or filming about is a key part of what the PR agency does on behalf of their clients. So I hope that this answer will help in your searching if you're looking for influencers too. If you've got a question that you think we might be able to help with, do send it through to the website or on our Twitter or Weibo to @EastWestPR. I hope this FAQ has answered a good question for you. Thank you. Thank you.