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Influencers vs Advocates in B2B Marketing
Paul Dunay is an award-winning B2B marketing expert with more than 20 years’ success in generating demand and creating awareness for leading technology, consumer products, financial services and professional services organizations.
Paul is the global vice president of marketing for Maxymiser a leading web optimization firm, and author of four “Dummies” books: Facebook Marketing for Dummies (Wiley 2009), Social Media and the Contact Center for Dummies (Wiley Custom Publishing 2010), Facebook Advertising for Dummies (Wiley 2010) and Facebook Marketing for Dummies 2nd Edition (Wiley 2011).
His unique approach to marketing has led to recognition of Paul as a BtoB Magazine Top 25 B2B Marketer of the Year for 2010 and 2009 and winner of the DemandGen Award for Utilizing Marketing Automation to Fuel Corporate Growth in 2008. He is also a finalist for the last six years in a row in the Marketing Excellence Awards competition of the Information Technology Services Marketing Association (ITSMA), and is a 2010 and 2005 gold award winner in Driving Demand.
Buzz Marketing for Technology, Paul’s blog, has been recognized as a Top 20 Marketing Blog for 2009 and 2008, a Top Blog to Watch for 2009 and 2008, and an Advertising Age Power 150 blog in the “Daily Ranking of Marketing Blogs.”
Paul has shared his marketing thought leadership as a featured speaker for the American Marketing Association, BtoB Magazine, CMO Club, MarketingProfs, Marketing Sherpa, Marketing Executives Networking Group (MENG), and ITSMA. He has appeared on Fox News, and his articles have been featured in BusinessWeek, The New York Times, BtoB Magazine, MarketingProfs and MarketingSherpa.
Paul holds an Executive Certificate in Strategy and Innovation from MIT’s Sloan School of Management and a bachelor’s degree in Marketing and Computer Science from Ithaca College.
There are so many categories of influencers. I agree with you, advocates (I call them “fans”) are especially exciting these days, given the many new ways we can communicate with them and involve them with our brands. There’s so much innovation in WOM right now.
Good post!
@ Barbara – I was calling them fans at one point as well but with Facebook Fans (fans of your facebook page) and Twitter Followers – I thought Advocates covered them both without sounding isolated to just Facebook – just a thought …
Ah, I see your point. Yes. ‘Advocates’ does raise it above the social tools.
I would use the term evangelist because I am one of them for the Detroit Red Wings. I tweet about other teams I don’t like not very often but my community knows me as the Detroit Red Wings fan and they know I can be count on for any updates on the team or otherwise.
Great post, Paul. I totally agree with the focus on advocates; we often spend so much time directly trying to find new customers instead of really supporting the folks that can often have much great impact on our behalf.
But the influencer side may not be so simple. Perhaps coincidentally, I’ve been doing some research on Influencer Marketing myself lately, although actually in the B2C space. Turns out that, at least in B2C, some new approaches to data mining can identify the “real” influencers on purchase behavior, and the most vocal and connected people are not necessarily the ones that actually influence purchase behavior. Think about the friend you have who knows “everything” about HDTVs, for example. He may not have a huge network, but he might be the guy that you absolutely trust for the right advice. This kind of everyday influence may be just as important, or more, as the folks who are constantly blogging and tweeting about similar products.
I haven’t dug into the B2B side of this yet, but it’s easy to imagine that similar everyday influencers are very well worth finding and cultivating even if they’re not such pure advocates on your behalf.
Paul, excellent post. You capture the essence and dynamics behind influencers and advocates making it easy to understand their importance. Each of these groups are important for engagement and creating awareness.
@ Jamei – that’s so cool – If I tell you I like the Rangers and am a partial season ticket holder for the Islanders AAA team (Bridgeport Sound Tigers) will you still read my blog?
@Jose – thanks for commenting Jose!
@Rob – Your research reminds me (or reaffirms) a theme I recall from The Tipping Point by Malcolm Gladwell. Your Influencers (like your HDTV person) sound a bit like his Mavens – but at the end of the day you are talking about the same sort of activity.
Would love to see a study on how this plays out for B2B Marketing!
Great distinction Paul!
Who would you advise a professional service provider with a narrow audience to classify as Influencers?
Are those who influence purchasing decisions the same as those who influence web presence?
If they are different, should one reach both in marketing efforts?
Catherine McQuaid, HUBBA, @SocialMediaHub
@Catherine – having been in a prof services provider I would absolutely say the influencers are the Press and Industry Analysts you want to reach (I tend to use a different definition of Influencer than others do). Influencers of purchases are more internal and would be hard to classify using social media. and YES of course you want to reach both with your marketing efforts BUT I would consider completely different tactics. Hope that helps and thanks for commenting.
Please can you tell me what are the meaning of advocates, decision makers, buyers and users in the target of B2B? Pls can you as soon as possible!!
@M’aab – Simple
Advocates – have influence on the sale in a positive sense
Decision Makers – have the budget control or authority to spend on your solution
Buyers – are a combo of Advocates and Decision makers – anyone who has a stake in the sale
and
Users – are the end users of your solution
hope that helps
p
For Paul Dunay, i just want to thank you so much, you told me exactly what i want :)..