A Guide to Retaining Internet Celebrities
August 10th, 2008
Everyone seems to have a Blog these days (if not several), resulting in significantly more noise than signal in pretty much everything out there. Everyone and their brother seems to be jockying for position to be the next big name in… in what? Internet Celebritydom is a fickle and hard-to-reach goal, and more often than not is reached by pure luck than anything else. So in order to pare down this article I’m going to restrict myself to skill-based celebrities. Individuals who through their contribution to a particular field have achieved recognition and celebritydom on a level beyond the average Blogger. Chances are that you know some of these individuals in your own industry or field of expertise, and your own company would do well to be affiliated with them. They might be constantly out of the office speaking at various locations, however the fact that your company name is attached to their expertise marks you as the leader in the field. This article presents some guidelines on how to choose, contact, engage and retain such celebrities.
Before we get into the meat of this article, however, you have a decision to make: Will your organization truly benefit from such a celebrity? The benefits are significant- both your company and brand are affiliated with one of the names in the industry, and that comes with no small amount of prestige. Business will come to you simply to be associated with your celebrity(ies), and their name can be a valuable asset when converting new customers. The downside, however, is that celebrities are a pain in the ass to manage. They demand that their input is heard on everything that falls in or even remotely touches their domain of expertise, and will seed dissatisfaction if their input isn’t heard or integrated quickly. If your organization isn’t ready to support them, be very cautious- the last thing you want is for your celebrity to leave dissatisfied and publicly discredit your organization.
Identification
So let’s assume you’ve decided that a celebrity can add significantly to your business. You have two choices here- you can either attract existing talent, or you can nurture one from your existing employees. In both cases, it behooves you to be selective about their domain of expertise- attracting an expert in finance isn’t going to do your manufacturing business one whit of good, so make sure their knowledge matches your own business objectives.
Identifying talent should be pretty easy. Chances are they are already well established within your company or the community, and you won’t hurt for individuals willing to recommend them. The real trick here is substance- there are tons of individuals who have blogs that are little more than regurgitated trends, so what you’re looking for is someone who is adding to the conversation by providing their own ideas and insight. Just because someone has a twitter account doesn’t mean they’re adding to the conversation, it could just be that they’re a habitual retweeter or shameless self-promoter. A good rule of thumb to use for this is the “Holy Shit” effect- if, while reading a blog entry or paper of theirs, you have a moment of true “Holy Shit” insight, then you know that this person is capable of inspiring ideas and is an expert at quality content generation (Note- you’ll need to adjust for your own self-confidence, experience, and… a-hem… arrogance).
The other option you have is to nurture someone within your own organization, which provides the added loyalty benefit of gratitude. Again, identifying them should be easy- everyone knows them, they are frequently sought out for advice, and at meetings they are the ones willing to bite the bullet and ask sometimes stupid, sometimes compelling questions, and not just to hear themselves talk. Chances are that their hobbies are social in nature, and when given the opportunity they thrive in the limelight.
Engagement & Support
Having identified your desired celebrity, the next step is to establish a working relationship with them. It’s your choice on whether to engage them as a direct employee or as an affiliated consultant is up to you, though each comes with significantly different expectations. The former is an employer/employee relationship, where you can directly leverage their expertise to support your business (as well as promoting it). The latter is more of a client relationship, and convincing them to consult on internal projects will normally cost you a commission. Support is also fairly straightforward, and should already be in the skill set of anyone who’s worked in PR for a decent amount of time. Speaking pitches, convention appearances and invites, book authoring and more are things your celebrity might be interested in, and usually it’s only a matter of presenting an opportunity to get them to bite.
Fact is, being a celebrity is hard work. Authoring presentations, writing whitepapers and blogging each take quite a bit of time, and one has to remain image conscious at all times. Add to that the constant industry monitoring that these individuals engage in, and without support it’s practically impossible for one person to do it as anything other than a full-time job. This is where you, as an employer, can speak from a position of strength. As long as you provide them an environment in which their skills are applicable and their public identity is supported (with a little judicious image coaching in extreme cases), you present them with a rare and invaluable environment.
The Point of Arrogance
There is a point in time when you will realize exactly how arrogant your celebrity is. This is a crucial point, where they feel they could cut loose and do their own thing- in short, you need the celebrity more than the celebrity needs you. This point can happen anywhere: Raise negotiations, Watercooler conversation, a happy hour comment like “What are they going to do, Fire me?”, and it’s up to you to recognize that point and understand that all the investment and time you put into this celebrity is about to walk out the door. (Caveat: This doesn’t always happen- if the individual is already substantially invested in other ways in your company, chances are they need the company as well and recognize this fact).
Let me let you in on a little secret: The vast majority of professional “celebrities” out there have gotten to where they are with a significant amount of corporate support… and whatever you do, DON’T TELL THEM THAT! Instead, spin their own arrogance against them: If they think of themselves as an entity easily separable from the company, then frame the conversation as a mutually beneficial partnership: You get to promote through them, while mitigating the workload of their own self-promotion.
This can be as easy as changing the nature of your conversation with them. Instead of directing them to promote a particular product or attend a particular convention, you simply ask whether they’d like to do so (Frankly, you should have been doing this all along). Most humans have a really hard time saying no when a friendly favor is asked, and while it will appear as if you’re granting them the right to manage their own appearances, in reality you’re simply taking advantage of human nature.
Leader of the Pack
So what now? Well, at this point you’ve shown your organization that you’re capable of engaging and retaining a celebrity, and are reaping the benefits of their affiliation and advocacy while providing them with the recognition they desire. Unfortunately, this is also going to bring all the hopefuls out of the woodwork- sleepers that desire the limelight and see it as a source of long-term professional advancement, but have not until this point had the energy to pursue things themselves.
This halo effect is perhaps the most dangerous effect of having a celebrity in your organization, because no matter how experienced they may be, your hopefuls either consider themselves equal or firmly believe that with the same level of company support they would be. The question “Why them, and not me” is inevitably asked, and will generate substantial professional dissatisfaction through your entire organization.
You have two choices on how to deal with this: The first is to really understand everyone’s personal value structure and assist them in realizing that. This should work for most, though it might mean a few unscheduled promotions or raises. For the others, chances are most hopefuls are not willing to trade fame for their free time, but nothing short of personal experience will convince them of that. To assist with this you might do well to create a group much like Adobe’s Tech Evangelism program. A basic coaching program should suffice to give them the exposure to the hard life of self-promotion, and should weed out anyone but the most determined individuals.
The important thing to note here is that you have to support your hopefuls, if only long enough to convince them that they’re not cut out for the celebrity life. Giving someone the Standard Lecture About Community And Corporate Values (TM) is just going to sound like a lot of sensationalist crap.
Parting Ways
Fact is, the United States is culturally very focused on the individual, which means that sooner or later someone will make your celebrity an offer you can’t match. The more famous someone is, the more likely this is to happen, so get used to the idea; hopefully you’ll already have someone ready to take their place.
Having said that, all of your investment in this individual is hardly in vain, because they won’t forget all the support you’ve offered them. You can go the extra mile and commit to any future speaking engagements you’ve scheduled on their behalf, but that would just be icing on the cake. Make them feel welcome, support them in their new career path, and with this continued positive support you will ensure that you will get free advocacy from them in the future.
Have you read “a corporate brand won’t shield your personal brand anymore”? (http://personalbrandingblog.wordpress.com/2008/07/14/a-corporate-brand-wont-shield-your-personal-brand-anymore/) — I was reminded of it while reading this post. Dan Schwabel actually pulls out individuals vs the organizations they represent, and attempts to make a call as to which is the more powerful brand (and refreshingly, acknowledges that his personal brand is less than that of his organization).
The whole notion of personal brand as separate from the company you work for is pretty interesting to me. When we talk of an organization being open and recognizing those individuals that make it up, it is a big step! As you know, I try to always represent my company in the best possible light, but I think there is destined to be some divergence between the personal and the corporate activities (otherwise, there arguably is no personal brand to speak of). It almost harkens back to the challenge of reviewing a resume. Working for a company does not implicitly mean you were responsible for its successes or failures.. you must be cognizant of the level of involvement.
As for nurturing people within your organization to be outspoken advocates.. I don’t know that that always works. You know the breakdown: most people online aren’t interested in being creators. I think that a major part of people being active online, blogging, contributing to online communities, is tied to authenticity. I know some people who have been “encouraged” to blog. I think for it to be powerful (and not “this blog is officially sanctioned by”), it needs to come from the heart, not obligation..
The idea of internet celebrities is a constant battle over “the fifteen minutes” and “the actual celebrity.” A lot of people may see themselves as equal, but when one person is authoring papers, giving presentations, and working on becoming an authority (OUTSIDE of blogging) it says a lot more of that persons opinions and abilities as opposed to those individuals who blog non-stop and insist they are an authority (regardless of professional or personal opinion).
Some of the people who are considered “top bloggers” were fired from their jobs for their blogs (and quite possibly, rightfully so) but at the same point, as an employee, it’s a difficult distinction that oes between expressing opinion (we could’ve done better doing X) versus outright indignation (we did X, should’ve done Y).
Hard to say, Internet Celebritydom is still a new thing. It’ll be interesting to see how it progresses in the coming years.