With so many influencers to select from, it can be difficult to find one who is right for your brand. It’s likely that the “celebrity-labeled” influencers you believe to get a return of investment (ROI) for your company will be expensive and may not ultimately be a wise investment.
To clear this up, we’ll talk about the many influencer types along with influencer identification tools, influencer identification, and the special benefits each one offers, from macro-influencers with enormous followings to micro-influencers with specialized knowledge.
Let’s dig in.
What is Influencer Marketing?
Let’s take a moment to comprehend the idea of influencer marketing before we enter into the realm of influencer identification. Influencer marketing is centered on people who have the ability to influence others. Brands work together with those who are influential in this sort of social media promotion to market their goods or services to their followers.
Influencer marketing has always been associated with celebrity endorsements. However, social media has given rise to a new breed of influencers in the digital age we live in that can offer brands enormous value. Although these influencers might not have millions of followers like celebrities do, their social media audiences are frequently very active.
In terms of authority and expertise in their field, 92% of consumers are more likely to accept a micro-influencer recommendation than a regular advertisement or a celebrity endorsement, according to ANA.
Must-Have Influencer Identification Tools
1. Hootsuite
By keeping an eye on topics pertinent to your sector occurring across several channels, Hootsuite search streams can assist you in finding influencers.
Once you’ve identified a starting group of influencers, add them to a stream so you can keep tabs on what they post and who they interact with. This will identify other possible influencers you may collaborate with while also assisting you in understanding their relevance to your audience.
2. Collabstr
Brands may find influencers on Collabstr, a free marketplace, by searching by platform, niche, geography, and other criteria. From there, until the deliverables have been submitted, you can make orders with influencers and engage with them directly through the platform.
3. Right Relevance Pro
The top content shared by influencers can be found using the Right Relevance Pro app depending on the topic and location. Based on the caliber of the content they share, use it to find possible influencer alliances and identify thought leaders.
4. Fourstarzz Influencer Recommendation Engine
The Fourstarzz Influencer Recommendation Engine app offers personalized influencer suggestions. It directs you in developing influencer campaign proposals and assists in predicting expected reach, engagements, and other campaign results.
5. Insense
Insense links businesses with a network of 35,000 content creators to create unique, branded content. Next, you may advertise the material on Facebook and Instagram, prepare it for Instagram Stories, and divide it into many videos using the AI video editor.
How Do You Identify an Influencer?
Influencer identification to market your product calls for serious thought and a calculated approach. You can follow these methods to find the ideal influencer for your brand:
1. Set the stage by Identifying your influencer marketing campaign goals
It’s crucial to know your goals before you start looking for influencers to collaborate with. You may use influencers to assist your brand to accomplish a variety of objectives, including brand exposure, sales, and follower growth.
2. Gain an understanding of your target audience
Any marketing effort, including influencer marketing, depends on knowing your target audience.
You must have a thorough understanding of your target audience’s persona and demographics in order to identify the appropriate influencers to collaborate with. This contains data about people’s homes, ages, jobs, passions, and interests as well as information on how frequently they use social media and their preferred social networks.
3. Select the perfect influencer type for your brand
Based on the number of followers, there are many influencer tiers. The primary groups of influencers you can work with, according to Iconosquare, are as follows, even if these categories are extremely loosely defined.
● Mega-influencers with one million or more followers
● 100k–1m followers for macro-influencers
● 10k–100k followers are considered micro-influencers.
● 10,000 followers or fewer constitute nano influencers.
Given that macro-influencers with up to a million followers only makeup 3% of their audience, the influence of micro-influencers is significantly more reliable as they have stronger relationships with their followers in their field of expertise. This leads to an engagement rate of about 8% on their social media posts (Izea).
4. Start searching for ideal influencers
It’s time to start your search after defining your campaign objectives, target market, and influencer identification. Here are several possible paths you can take to find the proper talent if you don’t know where to start:
● Look up hashtags for your specialized field or industry.
● Examine tagged posts or mentions
● Starting with one influencer, look for associated accounts.
● Use an influencer marketing tool to find out who your competitors are working with as influencers.
5. Knowing your influencer criteria for impactful collaborations
The number of followers an influencer has is just one aspect of the puzzle. To offer your marketing strategy the best possibility of success, you’ll need to determine what other qualities are crucial to consider. You might consider elements such as engagement rate, post frequency, voice/personality, and authenticity.
6. Seal the agreement by negotiating compensation and deliverables
It’s possible that you’ll need to engage in some bargaining when contacting influencers in order to meet the needs of both parties. Depending on your objectives and marketing budget, you can try to pursue a few other sorts of compensation, such as free products, affiliate marketing, and cash payments.
7. Track your metrics
After your campaign has begun, you must monitor analytics to determine its success. Online collaboration solutions can help you keep your entire team in the same direction by allowing you to handle these KPIs and data in one location. Growth of followers After the influencer postings were live, did your social media accounts see an increase in followers? To see if the campaign had an effect on your following growth, compare your follower counts before and after the campaign.
Key Takeaways
Data analysis, study, and intuition are carefully balanced in the art of influencer identification. In addition to having a good eye for finding the appropriate influencers who can effectively amplify your message, it necessitates having a thorough understanding of your brand’s values, objectives, and target audience.
Furthermore, keep in mind that identifying influencers is a continuous activity rather than a one-time task. New influencers frequently appear in the constantly changing digital scene. Keep an eye out for patterns, keep track of performance indicators, and modify your tactics as necessary.