Influencers are those who are capable of "influencing" others to do what they want them to do. And on social media, they can be a lot of help to boost your brand's visibility.
The reason is because people, or most notably their followers, trust the opinions and recommendations of these influencers.
As a modern day celebrities on the internet, they can be regarded as experts in their respective niches, despite the fact that they some may only have the slightest idea of what they're doing.
But still, influencer marketing can't be denied. The right influencers can help you boost your brand's reach, exposure, and credibility.
Know The Right Influencers
There are a lof of influencers out there. Knowing which one suits best is crucial for your efforts.
To know the influencers that have your targeted audience, you need to look for people who tweet about your industry, products, services, or your competitors. The reason is because their audiences are likely to be your target audiences as well.
So for example, if you own a restaurant, the influencer you should seek should be those that are food bloggers and others similar.
After finding them, create a list of those names and see their credibility:
- How many followers do they have? The more the better.
- Do they have bot followers? Seek influencers who have genuine human followers.
- How many social shares do they have in general and average? The more the better.
- What and who mentions them? The more respected the better.
Reach And Engage With The Right Influencers
After having a list of potential influencers that meet the above criteria, it's time to reach them.
Start following the influencers of your choice, retweet their tweets, mention them on your post, or comment on their posts as they share. Make them know that you're listening to them, and aware of your interest in them. After that, you can then reach them personally using the direct messaging feature.
If that is not possible, you may try reaching them on other social media, through their website or some other means.
In your own words, explain the reason why you're reaching them out, by first showing your respect and appreciation for their work. Then ask for some time to discuss how the two of you can benefit each other. If you have a good relationship with influencers, they're more likely to respond and work with you.
What you also need to know is that influencers are most likely to be active/power users. What this means, they may themselves reach out to your first if they found your posts interesting. If you find any influencers reaching you first, those are the people you definitely shouldn’t ignore.
Read: Engage With Influencers: Making You A Future Influencer Yourself
Discuss Your Campaigns And Give Incentive
In the communication between you two, you should discuss your campaign goals, ideas, and hashtags you may have thought of. You can share your idea and pitch your collaboration request.
But here is the thing: the relationship should benefit both parties. So it's wise that give those influencers of yours the incentive appropriate to their fame. If you want them to endorse your brand in a good way, you need to offer something valuable in return.
Work out a compensation model that suits you both.
For example, you can offer them to try your product for free and ask them to tweet about their experience. Or, you can offer them a fixed price for every piece of content they create and share.
Keep The Relationship At Its Best
Once your business with your influencers is done, it doesn't mean that you quit your relationship with them.
Social media is all about people sharing things. So behind great contents and quality posts, there should be a human behind it. Engagement is the key for marketing efforts, and on social media, nurturing relationship with influencers should give you advantages in the market.
You can keep on:
- Retweeting their posts that you find interesting.
- Commenting on their posts.
- Help them widen their network.
- Mentioning them in your tweets once in a while.
If relationship work both ways despite the business between you two is over, you may even make influencers happy that they will do the same to you. But this time, for free.
Conclusion
Social media is a place where people share things. It can be a wonderful place to start meeting new people and new prospects.
You should listen and engage with social media posts that dictate how those people's opinions influence your online presence. This is a continuous process called social media monitoring (or also known as social listening).
And when it comes to influencers, they are ordinary people but with the ability to influence others due to their popularity in their respective niche. Reaching them and creating a relationship with them can be a great way to boost your brand's visibility quickly and efficiently.