By USDR
When it comes to audience engagement, there’s no replacement to the social media influencer. Simply put, the influencer uses their area of power to cause action among their audience group. When that action is buying a product or brand, it benefits the marketer. Thus, influencer marketing has really become the by-word of all marketing attempts, with separate budgets allocated to this arm of the campaign.
Finding an influencer is not too difficult and there are a few ways that you could try:
- Follow the news – depending on what your sector is follow the news of the happenings with regularity. The tech world is dominated by experts who will tell you everything you need to know about products and tech offerings. The same goes for the world of fashion, food, photography and what have you. Watch the news for expert opinions and go and look at their LinkedIn pages or Facebook profiles. Most of them will have blogs and websites too. Read up and see if you like what they have to say. Watch out especially during a product launch – that’s where the experts will weigh in with their opinions and their experiences.
- Use online information – this means news channels, different social media pages, advice groups and forums. When you see the name of a particular user or many users repeatedly, you’ll know that you’ve found what you’re looking for. Approach them and see if they can help you with your plan.
- co – Influence.co can help you find influencers. This is one of the easiest ways to find influencers for your brand.
- BuzzSumo – this tool doesn’t cost money and is a research tool for marketing. What it does is show you the most trending content and the people who are sharing the content. The total social shares are displayed and you look for either a particular website or by topic. Twitter displays show up when you look for influencer options. Export the information as XLS or CSV and save them for further looking into.
- Twitter – the analytics tool from Twitter is perfect to find trending hashtags and topics. You’ll need to figure out what your subjects and areas of interest are and then find corresponding influencers on this page. If you’re looking for a niche crowd or for a targeted audience, use the advanced search options on the site. With Twitter, you can always tell if your brand or content is gaining traction. Thus, finding influencers on the site is useful.
- LinkedIn – this website is not only for professional connections. When you key in specific phrases or search words, you’ll be able to find connections that may be useful to your area of work. Send them a polite text telling them what you need and wait to hear from them.
- Klout – this super popular discover tool trawls through social networks to give you a score. The score will help you decide what works for you. Use Klout for Business not just for analysis but also to keep your influencer activity in order.
There are other tools too, including GroupHigh, followerwonk and Kred. You should also check out YouTube channels, blog rolls and pages on social media pages to find the influencer who works for you.