It’s important to find influencers who align with your brand…
Social media influencers are increasingly changing the terms of engagement online and are now a critical aspect of both small and big businesses in the digital space. As an entrepreneur or a start-up with a limited advertising and PR budget, it would make sense for you to look at finding social media influencers to create awareness about your product or service, which, if all goes well, should increase traffic to your website as well as push up your sales graph. Social media influencers with large followings can influence the purchase decisions of their audience. They are social relationship assets that you should team up with in order to meet your marketing aims.
The internet is flooded with social media influencers. So how do you go about finding the right ones? Because, you need influencers who are aligned to your brand, otherwise collaborating with them will not have any impact on your brand. You need to look at reach as well as the quality of content. Who are the brands they have collaborated with earlier? What kind of engagement do they have with their followers? And, of course, how much is it going to cost you. In India, influencer marketing is still in the nascent stage with many marketers unclear about what the ROI (return on investment) is when they use influencers. However, here are a few pointers on finding the right influencers.
They need to be the right fit: Just because someone has a huge following, it doesn’t mean you use them. For instance, if you are marketing vegan mayonnaise, using a fashion blogger with a following of millions will not cut ice. You need to target food bloggers and vloggers, and Instagram accounts of foodies. Again, you need to look at whether they are suitable or not. Someone who is promoting the joys of eating steaks is not the influencer you need for a vegan product! A mismatched influencer can cause potential damage to your brand.
You need to spend time and make the effort: You may stumble on an influencer account that is the perfect fit. Or, a friend with a similar business or interests might point you in the direction of one or several. Otherwise, it means trawling the net and finding the right influencers. You could do a Google search with specific keywords related to your business. Another option is Buzzsumo, where you type in words in the search bar, which relate to your niche. Also, look at popular social media sites like Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, Pinterest, etc. You could type in a hashtag and it should help you find your target influencers. Other tools to find social media influencers are zoomph.com, getlittlebird.com and izea.com.
They need to be authentic: If influencers only put out sponsored content, it tends to erode their authenticity. However, when they personalize their engagement with the brand through videos, pictures or blogs that are compelling and engaging, their audience trusts them and trusts their judgement and reviews.
Engagement is critical: Just because someone has a million followers and is an influencer who fits your brand, it doesn’t make them the best choice. Many of them have fake followers and bots. Look at the level of engagement and the tone of engagement. If their posts have a healthy number of responses and active discussions, then it’s worth checking out the influencer.
Social media influencers can most certainly take your brand forward and get people to engage with it. They can weave an affirmative and trustworthy narrative of your brand. So, make sure you find the right ones!
