Each year I host an annual virtual summit, and the success of that summit is almost entirely due to my speakers’ affiliate promotions of it to their own audiences.
So, I’ve learned a thing or two about why speakers do or don’t promote collaborations they’re a part of (whether that’s summits, podcasts, etc.), and what we can do as the hosts/organizers to get them to share.
1. You came out of the blue: The ‘law of reciprocity’ in relationships says that if you do a lot of stuff for someone else, they feel almost obligated to return the favor. So, as an influencer, I’m way more likely to do favors and share stuff for people who have already invested in my community a ton.
If you came out of the blue and asked me to do a podcast interview when you never engaged with me before, never joined my email list, never contributed to my FB group, I’m not going to feel “obligated” to “return any favors”.
You have to understand:
the influencer is doing YOU a favor by providing you content for your podcast, summit, etc.
That is already enough of a favor, so by asking them to share it, you’re asking for MORE favors. They need a reason to want to go that extra mile for you.
2. You ghosted them after you got the content you needed: If you ask me to do an interview, then disappear for three months, then reappear telling me it’s been published and you want me to share tomorrow, you can bet that’s not going to happen.
Bonus: you have to give people time to work their promotions into their calendar. The bigger the influencer, the further out their year is already planned.
3. You made it a requirement: People are always amazed when I tell them that I DON’T make it a requirement for speakers on my summit to share it. “Surely, that’s the way to really ensure that your influencers share it, right?” Hardly!
Even if you make an influencer sign an agreement saying they will share it, how on Earth are you going to enforce that? You can’t. So don’t bother.
No one likes to be told how, where, when, and what they should be sharing with their audience.
Instead of making it a requirement, the onus should fall on you to make it an event/thing worth sharing. If it really is, then they really will.
4. You changed the details on them several times: If you tell me your summit is going to be in August, and I’m prepping promotions for August, then you push it back and back again, you’ve lost me. You seem super unorganized. I’ve lost faith; this is going to be a good thing for my audience. I carved out time for you in August, but now that time is going to someone else, and I’m not bumping someone else in December for your thing.
5. Your interview/collaboration did not produce content unique or valuable enough to share: I really wish more people understood this: no influencer is going to spend valuable real estate in their weekly email newsletter to promote a 20 min podcast interview where they’re answering the same questions and telling the same stories their audience has heard a million times.
You need to ask yourself how you can make your thing so good that the influencer would rather promote it over their own content.
6. You didn’t remind them: If you interview an influencer for a summit, for example, but that summit doesn’t go live for three months? They’re going to forget when it’s about to go live, even if they wanted to share it. Three months is like three years in entrepreneur time. A lot happens, and if the content is already done, it feels like the project is finished in their eyes because so many things have occurred since, even if your event is not even close to being over.
The interviews get scheduled, but the promotions often don’t.
You need to make the promotion schedule clear, and remind them often.
7. You didn’t provide them promotional materials: If you make it hard for the influencer to promote by assuming they will write their own social media posts, email copy, etc., they probably won’t do it. Create assets they can copy/paste/post, and you increase your chances they will share.
Bonus: Don’t send them a Google drive link where they have to go in an get them. Send the files individually as email attachments people can download with one click. Yes, you have to make it that easy.