By Alahna Fiveash
Your brand has the potential for exponential growth, but much hinges on proper marketing. Thanks to social media, modern marketing has become easier and more efficient than ever. Brands are placed within the public eye within seconds, generating awareness and interest amongst potential customers at once. The stronger your brand’s social media presence, the better, and there are easy ways to up your brand’s follower numbers. One way to give your brand a boost is by using a social network influencer. Identifying influencers takes some focus and attention, but they are not hard to find. Use this guide to identify influencers on social media and you’ll have a brand new influencer of your own in no time at all!
What Should You Be Looking for When Searching for an Influencer?
When looking for an influencer on social media, there are a few things you have to watch out for. According to Kissmetrics, there are three things that ultimately define an influencer for your brand:
1. Context
This simply means picking an influencer not just because they have a lot of followers (aka a wide audience), but because they fit in with your brand’s context somehow. For example, if your brand is about selling software, your ideal influencer would not be a popular ballerina who posts about dance on her page. While she might be a great fit for a clothing brand or a fitness brand, she wouldn’t quite fit for software promotion. This is why context is so important. Before you go searching for an influencer, be sure you define your brand’s context.
2. Reach
Your influencer’s reach refers to how many people see and interact with their posts. When your influencer shares content about your product, recommendations about your brand, and promotions, you want them to be seen by an engaged audience. This is where the numbers come in. Your influencer should have a sizable following on your social network(s) of choice.
3. Actionability
Finally, your ideal influencer should have a certain actionability. This means that when they make a post, there is a ripple effect in the audience. This ripple effect might look like your brand page getting some new followers, a video getting a few more views, your site getting a few more hits, or your monthly sales hitting a small (or large!) spike. In short, your influencer should influence a positive, tangible change in your brand’s life.
With these definitions in mind, you want to look for an influencer with a strong social media presence, someone who fits your brand’s context, and someone who is loyal, ready, and enthusiastic about your brand.
How Do You Team Up with an Influencer Once You’ve Found One?
Like marketing, reaching out is even easier in today’s digital age. This means you can drop a comment or a message to see if the influencer you have your eye on is interested in repping your brand. Different social networks might require different practices. On platforms like Instagram, LinkedIn, and Twitter, simply liking their posts and shares is a great start. This puts you on their radar while also establishes interest in them from your brand. From here you can message them about their content through a very specific, friendly, but straightforward message. You want to be totally clear about your intentions. Otherwise, you may fall by the wayside of random comments and messages from banal users.
There are other sites that are more straightforward when it comes to finding an influencer. These are actually designed for brands to shop around for the right influencer. Influencer Marketing Hub has a useful rundown of how to approach identifying and reaching out to influencers on different social platforms, as well as pointers for breaking the ice. When it comes to unique brand promotion practices, you can never do enough research!
A Rundown of the Best Practices for Influencer Identification
Long story short, identifying influencers on social networks takes focus and proper research. You do not want to reach out to just anyone to represent and promote your brand. For optimal success, you have to put in the effort to find an influencer who vibes well with your brand both contextually and relationally. To not just identify influencers, but find ones who are loyal, effective, and worthwhile, stick to these practices:
- Define your brand’s context
- Utilize proper tools
- Conduct in-depth research
- Go slow…don’t jump on a potential influencer the moment you see them
- Establish a relationship with your influencer
Now that you know how to identify influencers on social networks, you can get to work finding and working with excellent influencers. Through this unique brand of social media marketing, your brand will see growth and renewed popularity, which can only mean good things for your business overall!
