As social media becomes an increasingly stable part of our lives and business, it makes sense to look for ways to benefit from it. Advertising using social media platforms has its huge benefits.
Not only is comparatively cheaper to launch a social media campaign, the returns on investment in terms of capital, brand visibility and loyalty can be quite huge. If this is something that appeals to you, then you should consider hiring influencers –social or otherwise- to help promote your business and make your brand more popular.
Just in case you don’t know what social influencers are, it’s simply a select group of individuals with a lot of following on social media. Some of these people aren’t even celebs in the real sense of the word.
People just like them and want to be associated with them because of the value that they bring to the table. Lucky for you, there are quite a few of them out there in various niches and industry. You’ll need to know how to find them, though. The following tips should help you do just that.
Use Social Influencer Platforms
This is fastest and easiest way to find influencers in your niche or related niches. You can either decide to do this manually –which can take up so much of your time- or use platforms like Neoreach which essentially brings brands and social influencers together for mutually rewarding partnerships.
Other tools you can try using include Buzzsumo, Hootsuite and Google Alerts. But none provides the direct access that Neoreach has to social influencers.
Look for Popular Relevant Bloggers and Pitch them
Look for popular bloggers in your niche and see if they would be interested in promoting your brand and business to their followers. Please note that you might also want to ensure that the popular bloggers actually have a following and a tribe.
This is important because there are bloggers who are popular for junk –Perez Hilton comes to mind- and have an audience that contribute no meaningful thing to their blogs.
For popular bloggers like this, chances are you won’t get manyreturns on your investment. Instead, check out blogs with considerable and valuable interactions among its audience and administrators.
Consider Reach and Engagement Frequency
These two are more important than anything. It’s not enough to have an influencer with 500,000 followers but can’t seem to generate up to 1,000 likes, shares or retweets for whatever they share.
You want one that has both the reach and engagement. The perfect social influencer can get the word out on your products and you’ll notice increased engagement, traffic, leads, sales and revenues from just that campaign.
How Authentic Are the Influencers
Most people would rather hear from an influencer who posts only when there’s something valuable to share, than someone who posts every junk he or she sees. People trust the former more than they do the latter.
So, look for authenticity, value and rabid engagement on their posts. For instance, you could have an influencer with 5 million followers that posts only once a week and generates as much as 2,000-10,000 comments, and over 50,000 likes.
These are the perfect influencers that you ought to do business with. They are more likely to help you grow your business and explode your brand. Please note that they may be a tad pricey, but rest assured that you will recoup every investment and then some.
Ability to Trigger Positive Action from their Audience
You need an influencer that’s able to rally or elicit some response from their audience. These influencers are often in the habit of consistently offering value to their audience. As a result, their audiences have grown to trust and engage with them. Look for influencers like this because they will generate a healthy ROI for you.
Guest Post by Oscar King
Oscar King, a small business owner and freelance writer shares articles and insights into effective marketing. If you would like to learn more about Oscar, you can check out his google+ profile.
