065: Connecting with Sneezers - How to Build Your Brand one Influencer at a Time

Whether you are brand new to business or are a giant corporation, building an ongoing relationship with current customers is key.  In the noisy online space it can be difficult to be found by new audiences.  When someone does find your business and talks about you, you want to cultivate a goodwill relationship.

If a blogger has taken the time to mention your website or product, that opens up the perfect opportunity for you to say thank you and to build a long-lasting relationship.  It gives you a chance to connect with that sneezer.  When you work on strengthening those connections, it increases the chance of developing a long term customer of your product or blog.  (By customer I mean not only someone who will buy your product, but also a reader or consumer of your blog, and someone who will continue to talk about you again and again.)  These individuals have found you and are talking about you - they are your sneezers!  Now it's time to show your sneezers how much you appreciate them and to build on that initial connection.

If you are unfamiliar with the concept of a sneezer, take a look at this short podcast episode on the book The Purple Cow by Seth Godin (affiliate link, but only because it's such a great book!).  It will explain everything!  The basic gist is that sneezers spread the word about you because they are big fans.

When you find people who are already talking about you, this gives you an opportunity to tell them thank you, join in the conversation on their blog, or offer a coupon code to their readers.  They have already found you and are saying good things about you. They are sneezing about you to all their friends and readers.  You can leverage that positive feedback by continuing to build a relationship with them.

Conversely, if you find that someone is saying something negative about you or your company, this gives you an opportunity to address their complaint.  If you handle an unhappy customer in a calm, helpful manner, that former unhappy customer could potentially turn into your biggest cheerleader.  At the very least they will hopefully stop spreading bad information about your company, and it gives you an opportunity to learn and grow.

How do you find out who is talking about you?  The first way is through alerts.  There are a couple different alert systems you can use to find out who is already talking about you.

1. Talkwalker Alerts  Setting up an alert for your business takes only about 10 seconds.  I set it up to receive an email once a week with alerts about who is talking about Brilliant Business Moms.
2. Google Alerts is another great option to try.

In addition to alert services, look at your traffic sources for any new sites you don't recognize.  This works for blog traffic as well as Etsy traffic.  We learn more about our traffic and referrals in two places.

1. Google Analytics
2. Clicky  - It lets us quickly take a look at our numbers and traffic.

If you're an Etsy Seller, simply look at your shop stats then traffic sources.

So what have I done with this information?

Through alerts and blog traffic data, I have found several bloggers who have mentioned the Brilliant Business Moms podcast in a post.  This gives me the opportunity to stop by their blog and leave a comment to say thank you.  I know as a blogger that I would appreciate this.  The blogger now knows that I am grateful that they are talking about my business, and hopefully this encourages them to continue being a loyal listener or reader.

This works for Etsy shop too.  Last year we noticed some traffic coming in from a blog we didn't recognize.  When we checked it out, she had purchased some items from our shop and wrote an awesome and unsolicited review of our products on her blog.  We didn't even know about it.  We took that opportunity to get in touch with her and gave her a special coupon code that she could share with her readers.  This resulted in additional sales for us.  She was already a happy customer and willing to talk to her blog readers about us.  By sending her the coupon code we opened the door for a continued relationship and additional sales.

Checking in to see who is mentioning you and sneezing about you is such an easy thing to do, but it really creates an opportunity for you to show appreciation and build long-lasting relationships.

-Sarah