How to identify and vet social influencers for your brand – Part 1

April 17, 2018

Third-party influencer marketing is becoming an increasingly effective tool to reach potential customers, generate sales and field customer comments.

According to Linqia’s The State of Influencer Marketing 2018 study, “92% of marketers who used influencer marketing in 2017 found it to be effective.” Choosing the right type of social influencer is key to driving a successful influencer marketing program.

This is the first of a two-part series offering tips on how to identify and evaluate the right social influencers to help your organization enhance its marketing efforts.

One of the biggest mistakes organizations make with influencer marketing is choosing influencers based solely on their popularity. Influencer marketing is about finding industry leaders who can impact your target audience. Select an authentic influencer who will promote your brand’s message and connect better with your audience.

Here are four key groups of social influencers to select from:

1. Mega-influencers:AKA celebrities, these are people who have over 1 million diverse followers on their social media accounts.
2. Macro-influencers:These are the content creators, thought leaders and advocates for select markets. They have a large social following ranging from 100,000 to 1 million people.
3. Micro-influencers:Influencers who have between 5,000 to 100,000 followers with a more targeted audience and higher engagement rates.
4. Nano-influencers:Everyday people or super fans, they are passionate about a specific brand and drive digital conversation.

DEFINE YOUR GOAL

A key step in any marketing campaign is defining your goal. Influencer marketing is no different. To be truly effective, you need to determine what you are trying to achieve. Are you interested in gaining a massive reach with mega-influencers? Or do you want to connect with a small but more targeted audience with micro-influencers?

THE THREE R’S OF INFLUENCE

When assessing prospective influencers for your brand, consider these three factors:

1. Relevance:Effective influencers must be able to  drive conversation, share content and develop a following relevant to your business and the industry you wish to target.
2. Resonance:This is also known as the potential level of engagement. Micro-influencers have the highest rate of engagement ranging from 25 – 50%. They develop personal interactions and relationships with their followers. The engagement rate of macro-influencers is 5 – 25%. Mega-influencers have the lowest engagement rate of 2 – 3% per post.
3. Reach:The amount of people you could potentially connect with. Look at the number of followers influencers have on their blog, Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, YouTube Channel, and so on.

WHO DOES YOUR TARGET AUDIENCE TRUST?

When identifying prospective influencers for your brand, consider your audience. Understand who your customers pay attention to. Better yet, understand the type of person  they seek advice from. Your audience must respect and trust the opinion of your influencer. According to Twitter, people 45 and above trust household name celebrities as opposed to social media personalities, whereas millennials look to digital content creators.

SELECT INFLUENCERS IN YOUR MARKET

Look for influencers who are in your same niche and can communicate directly with your customers. Create a list of thought leaders, industry experts and speakers that your audience and employees follow. The easiest way to uncover influencers in your market is to conduct a simple hashtag search to see who’s already communicating about your brand, industry or competitors.

In the second part of this series, we will discuss how to vet influencers once you’ve identified them.