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Wearing: Dress: Allsaints, Bag: Chloe, Hat: Asos, Boots: River Island, Cardigan: H&M, Coat: Zara, Earrings: The Triplets

The PR world is such a dynamic industry and everybody working in this area needs to keep up to date with new things coming up, keeping the relationships going, keeping fresh market knowledge and keeping on top of things. And I bet it is not easy at all especially when the leadership has no clue about PR techniques or are not open to use digital influencers and any new PR techniques. I was thinking about this all the other day and realised that us influencers can be actually such a good source of knowledge to any PR individual out there.

We influencers gather market  knowledge by talking to each other, brainstorming, coming up with strategies for our own websites and social channels. We work pretty much 24/7. Most of us have been doing this for years, went through different transformations and learnt by trial and error whilst for some press and communications professionals this can be a brand new world. I feel myself I have also learnt so much during my career in recruitment/sales and there are so many things I can apply in what I do. Whether it is ability to sell something, networking, negotiate. There is honestly so much. At the end of the day without sales there would be hardly any business going on. I have seen it so many times that the people that are reward the most are those who can sell. It is amazing if you have that amazing technical person that can solve problem but If you have nobody to solve that problem for you are stuck. And other influencers perhaps learn a lot from their previous jobs too. You never know what it is we can offer.

Use our market knowledge – Most of us spend hours and hours on social media, we meet, we talk, we research as it is part of what we do. You as a PR specialist do that as well however you also do tons of other things and probably look at different aspects of everything. I like to understand what different brands are doing for their campaigns, what influencers they are using and why. It helps me to get an idea about the strategy of that particular brand. As this all helps me to get to know the brand and figure out if my brand is a match for them. I also love to come out with ideas who may be suitable for the brand. I have no problem to recommend people who may be suitable for certain job. I have been doing it pretty much at most meetings. My contacts may discover somebody truly amazing and I feel good about it. So I would always recommend to ask us.  Ask us about who, what, when and why? You never know what you can learn.

Utilize our ideas – There are so many brands that have a vision and they do not want to go outside of this. They give you scripted plan of the project and you have to fit in that box. Going back to my recruitment days I would call it fit us exactly in the job spec. Why not to be more flexible? Listen to our ideas as we are the creative crowd and maybe there could be other ways how to attract new potential buyers for the brand, increase sales or awareness of the brand. We may even have suggestions for venues, type of events, how to collaborate or how to boost the awareness for the brand.

Meet us – This obviously isn’t something you learn from us but by meeting us you can create relationship and you help us to understand your brand more and you understand us and our brand. It is crucial in any business relationship. Nothing is as efficient and effective over emails or phone as meeting face to face. That has always been rule during my career in sales. And I know PR world is busy and demanding however if you find that time you can learn new things from us, understand us, get ideas. Any influencer will always create better content if they know the brand well rather than reading some scripted brief for collaboration. I am always keen to meet face to face as it is the best way how to develop understanding and good relationship with the brand.

Listen to us and let us listen to you  – During my career in sales I have been told every day that listening is the most important part. By listening you get to the point of the problem and then you can offer solution. Good listening skills are one of the best things in any relationship and in life. You understand more each other, you communicate and you find solutions together just by good listening. I always laugh at that old drawing which is a joke showing client brief and client’s budget…And it reminds me so much when influencers trying to explain to PR professionals yes we can create what you want but we also need budget for it and time for it. We need to pay other people to help us to create X,Y,Z and if we do not have the budget there is no certainty of what our Instagrams husband can deliver for “free” LOL.

Like us try to keep up with all the platforms – This is tough even for me so I cannot imagine how on earth could all PR manage this effectively however to understand any influencer’s work and understand if they are the right fit you should be able to follow all of their platforms. Hard I know…However I try to do it as an influencer and follow people across variety of platforms…you honestly discover so many new things. Some people show totally different content on their Youtube and their Instagram stories can be more personal whilst their feed is focused on luxury. Only by following all platforms you can determine the suitability of the individual. You may even discover that in the end you only want to collaborate with them via Instagram stories or twitter. If you focus on one you may miss certain things. You can understand the whole package only if you look at the influencer’s brand in more complex way. Somebody can have a dreamy Instagram feed but swear a lot on their stories and you may realise they are no good for your high end classic old school brand.

Give us a chance/Be open minded – As an influencer I get approached by brands a lot (very grateful for that) and I try to be open-minded and give everybody a chance. Not every time it is the right fit for me but just because it is a small start up I will not discount them. Everybody starts somewhere and I look at the potential. I would say brands should be the same and not to look just at numbers, sales and engagement. Look at all aspects of bloggers with smaller following. What is their content like, what is their potential, what could they do for us as a brand? It is important to be able to balance things out. I work with smaller and less known brands and also big brands. It is very hard to decide sometimes trust me and it must be the same for PR however mixing things is up can bring positives. Try to bring new influencers on board, bring them on a trip, invite them to event. It again reminds me so much from my career in sales. Big corporate hiring several agencies and mixing the well established agencies with huge databases and the smaller new niche agencies with maybe three employees. They all have different things to offer. And eventually in few years that niche one can become huge anyway.

So let’s help each other out, let’s learn together and be open-minded. Many exciting things and great relationships are ahead of us.

Svet PR je velmi dynamicky, neustale prichazi nove veci a vsichni, kdo pracuji v tomto oboru se musi ucit, prizpusobovat novym zmenam a udrzovat sve znalosti. A to urcite neni jednoduche. Nejhorsi situace nastava, kdyz vedeni nevi nic o digitalnich influencerech a je to pro ne neznamy svet a PR se je snazi presvedcit, ze tohle je ta spravna strategie. Obcas profesionalum v tomto oboru opravdu nezavidim. Nastesti jsou tu influenceri, kteri maji za tech nekolik let, co tuhle praci delaji urcite znalosti a proc je tedy nevyuzit. Myslim si, ze kazdy PR profesional muze cerpat od nas hodne informaci a znalosti a posouvat se tak dale. 

My se ucime tim, ze komunikujeme mezi sebou a je to nase kazdodenni prace. Resime strategii, mame prehled o ostatnich v branzi a ucime se tim, ze zkousime veci, ktere bud funguji nebo ne. Vetsina z nas bloguje leta a prizpusobejeme se zmenam a novinkam, ktere neustale prichazi. Ja mam i pocit, ze jsem se naucila hodne veci diky me predchozi praci v oblasti naboru a personalistiky. Jednou z nejdulezitejsich veci ve spouste oborech je totiz umeni prodat. Je skvele, kdyz je nekdo technicky dobry, ale kdyz nemate komu prodat vase napady a nevite jak je prodat, tak je vam to k nicemu. Naucila jsem vyjednavat a take networking. To jsou vsechny veci dulezite nejen v oblasti prodeje, ale temer vsude. A proto nikdy nevite, co vam muze dany influencer poradit. A co se od nas muzete teda naucit? 

Vyuzijte nase znalosti trhu – Vetsina z nas travi hodiny na socialnich medii, potkavame se, resime nasi praci a je to soucasti naseho denniho programu. PR to samozrejme delaji taky, je to jejich prace byt na Instagramu, ale maji bohuzel i dalsi zalezitosti a pro nektere muzou byt nektere veci uplnou novinkou. A tak se nebojte vyuzit nasich znalosti. Ja travim na socialnich hodne casu, protoze me zajimaji veci jako jakou maji firmy strategii, kdo na cem pracuje, co se zmenilo, jake trendy zacinaji v urcite oblasti. Osobne nemam na schuzkach problem doporucit PR ostatni influencery, ktere si myslim, ze jsou vhodni pro danou znacku. A tak se nas nebojte zeptat na cokoli..at uz je to tip na influencera, jak usporadat akci, co ted frci…

Vyuzijte nase napady – Existuje tolik firem, kteri prijdou s napadem a snazi se influencery strcit do te jejich vize a krabicky, ale co kdyz to neni idealni reseni, co kdyz ma onen bloger treba zajimavejsi napad, pohled na vec a treba zrovna ta muze mit vetsi efekt? Zkuste byt vice flexibilni. Naslouchejte nasim napadum, protoze treba zrovna ty mohou pomoci k vetsim prodejum ci lepsi reklame. 

Seznamte se s nama tvari v tvar – To neni teda neco, co vas muzeme naucit, spise chci rict, ze osobni schuzka vam vzdy prinese nejvice. Emaily ani telefon nemaji silu osobni schuzky. Jenom tak skutecne muzete poznat nas a my vasi znacku. Behem me kariery v naboru jsem tohle slysela denne a je to pravda, jakmile jsem klienta pozvala na obed, vse slo lepe. Lepe jsem hledala ty spravne lidi a dokazala lepe prodat potencialnim zamestnancum to ci ono. Behem osobni schuzky zjistite nejvice, vse dukladne proberete a poznate se. Dokonce bych rekla, ze to cloveka motivuje a je to profesionalni pristup. 

Naslouchejte a nechte nas naslouchat – Behem me predchozi prace jsem zjistila, ze nejvetsi prodejni tajmestvi spociva v tom, ze umite naslouchat. Jenom tak dokazete vse analyzovat tak, ze nasledne dokazete najit problem a nabidnout reseni. Kdyz opravdu poslouchate, co je receno, vice si rozumite, budujete kvalitnejsi vztahy a je to opravdu dulezity aspekt v jakemkoli vztahu. Obcas si behem schuzek vzpomenu na takovy vtip, ktery jsem jednu dobu vidala hodne, je to kresleny v tip, kdy klient ma urcite predstavu, da vam zadani, ale rozpocet takovy, ze to neni mozne docilit. Casto od nas firmy ocekavaji dokonaly obsah, ale ten neco stoji. Kdyz je predstava hodne narocna, potrebuju zaplatit fotografa, najat misto na foceni a potrebuju cas. Pokud mi dana firma nezaplati nebo nezaplati dost, riskuje, ze jim nedodam, co si predstavuji. A proto poslouchejte co se vam snazime rict a budte dostatecne transparentni, at muzeme naslouchat my vam. 

Sledujte vsechny nase platformy – Stejne jako vetsina influenceru sleduji vsechny platformy tech ostatnich, je to dobre k tomu, aby jste si udelali predstavu o jejich “znacce” (Az po case si vyselektuju, ktera platforma me bavi vice ci mene). Je to samozrejme casove velmi narocne, ale jenom tak muzete videt daneho influencera vice komplexne. Kazdy z nas muze mit uplne jiny obsah napriklad na youtube a nase stories mohou byt vice osobnejsi. Pokud si reknete, ze ma nekdo super Instagram a napriklad se nepodivate  i na Twitter, insta-stories (kde dany mluvi jako dlazdic) nemuzete si byt jisti, ze ten bloger je vhodny prave pro vasi firmu. Ja jsem pred par lety zjistila, ze Stefano Gabbana sam odsouhlasuje kazdeho influencera a pak teprve da PR teamu sign off. Prochazi si jejich socialni site a platformy sam. Byla to pro me obrovska pocta, ze jsem prosla jeho sitem a take klobouk dolu, ze si na to udela cas. Takze i takovy lide si najdou cas, protoze je pro ne dulezite, kdo reprezentuje jejich znacku.

Dejte nam sanci a budte otevreni – Jako influncera me oslovuje hodne firem a moc si toho vazim. A snazim se dat vsem sanci a byt uprimna, kdyz si opravdu myslim, ze firma neni vhodna pro moji znacku. Ale chapu, ze kazdy nekde zacina, rada podporim mladou znacku, pokud se ke me hodi. Je dulezite videt potencial a drzet balanc. Ja jsem za celou dobu spolupracovala s mensima znackama i s velkyma. Je obcas velmi tezke se rozhodnout, ale udrzovat balanc je dulezite a muze casto prinest spoustu pozitiv. Vzpominam si dokonce i behem me kariery v naboru, ze je naprosto normalni zadat jednu praci nekolika rozlisnym firmam. Firmy jako velka ctyrka casto najimaly ty nejvetsi personalni agentury, co maji mega databaze, ale i mini firmy, kteri zamestnavaji treba dva tri lidi. A navic nikdo nevi, co se z te malicke firmy muze jednou vyklubat. A proto nemusite na sve press tripy brat jenom mega youtubery, ale dat sanci i mensim a zacinajicim influencerum, protoze nikdy nevite, co ten “novacek” dokaze. Cisla nejsou vsechno a je treba vzit v potaz obsah, kteri influenceri tvori, potencial a jine aspekty. 

A tak si proste navzajem pomahejme, ucme se a cekaji nas uzasne veci a pevne vztahy. 

Eva x