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How to find the Right Influencer for your Business

Previously I sent out a newsletter discussing the different types of influencers. Today, I want to talk about how you can hire or partner with one for your business! Influencer Marketing is the first service my company Hashtag Communications Inc offered 5 years ago and have since executed dozens of campaigns. I have been able to see first hand the effectiveness of it.

Having an influencer to promote your small business is a great idea to look into and highly recommended and I have some tips here to help you when it comes to finding one for your business.

Your influencer must be relevant to your business.

When finding an influencer, make sure that their niche matches yours. Start with looking at your own followers. Do you already have someone with a good following who follows you? There’s a good chance you do. Take a look at who’s been commenting and liking your posts and check out their profile. If you don’t, why not try looking through relevant hashtags to your business and finding influencers that way.

You want someone who is authentic.

Influencers are viewed as trusted resources to consumers – even more trusted than celebrities these days! Take a look at their instagram and really read what they’re posting about. Does it feel genuine or forced? What you must take note of is their engagement and that they haven’t bought their followers. 1 million followers and 500 likes is not an authentic influencer. Make sure they have a decent amount of comments and that they’re responding and engaging with their audience. Are their commenters authentic? There are so many bots on Instagram, so look for comments with more meaning. Youtubers typically have the deepest connection with their audience.

Websites such as upfluence and socialblade can really help you when it comes to finding and authenticating your influencers. Socialblade has great, easy free analytics for multiple platforms.

Here’s a few more websites you can check out:

• Famebit which is owned by YouTube
• Ifluenz which is specifically focused on micro-influencers
• Tribe which is also specifically focused on micro-influencers

Your influencer must be active and post often.

An account may have a lot of followers, but are they posting often? Instagram tends to reward its most active users which means if they’re posting often then the promoted post they’re posting for you is going to be more visible. You’re going to want an influencer who is posting regularly so their post doesn’t get lost in their followers feeds.

Look for someone within your budget.

Reach out to the influencer you have in mind and ask how much they usually charge to promote something. Perhaps they would be okay with a free product/service or VIP experience as compensation, but you need to discuss that with them as everyone is different. You can also offer them a referral fee and to split some of the revenue that is brought in from them. You can either DM them on instagram, or some influencers will have an “email” button on their profile you can click, and ask them if they have a deck or rate card they can send you. This is basically an influencer’s resume which shows their previous work, stats and rates they charge for different things.

Look at their previous campaigns.

Just like you have a resume and portfolio for applying for a job, an influencer has a portfolio of previous campaigns they’ve worked on that they can share with you. Look for someone who has gone above and beyond in their previous campaigns. Scroll through their instagram account and see what they’ve done. Is it polished? Have they responded to comments on it? Does it seem forced?

Now remember, just because you hire an influencer that doesn’t mean they’re going to give you the world. You need to make sure you’re establishing SMART goals and objectives for your campaign.

 

Getting to know influencers and recommending them to brands and businesses is what I do for a living. You can take a look at some of my work with influencers here. If you have an influencer in mind, but you’re not sure don’t hesitate to reach out to me and maybe I can help!

Chat soon!

Rachel David