How to Prepare for and Manage a Crisis
By Ksenia NewtonMar 23
Working with social media influencers is a fantastic way to get your brand in front of a new audience. When done right, an influencer marketing campaign generates greater awareness, increases your social media following, and boosts conversions like sign-ups or sales. Essentially, it speeds up your results instead of waiting to see organic growth.
With that in mind, choosing the right influencers for your campaign is essential. Arbitrarily selecting someone based on their follower count isn’t going to ensure you reach your goals. To help you find the ideal influencer, here are seven things you should look for.
Key takeaways:
- Determine the end goal for your campaign before diving in.
- Don’t focus solely on an influencer’s total number of followers. People with smaller followings can have more engaged communities you’ll want to target.
- Choose someone with a relevant niche and similar values that resonate with your brand. And that you can depend on throughout the entirety of your partnership.
Determine your end goal before choosing an influencer
Although you may have a few ideas about the social influencers you’d like to work with, don’t get ahead of yourself. Part of selecting the right influencer is defining your campaign goals upfront. What do you hope to accomplish with your campaign? Are you looking to drive awareness, engagement, sales, or something else?
Beginning with the end goal in mind will help you flesh out the finer details of the campaign. For instance, you’ll be able to determine the ideal social media platform to target and what types of posts you’d like an influencer to share. Then, you can easily match the right influencer to your campaign objectives.
7 things to look for in a social media influencer
The influencer marketing industry was valued at $13.8 billion in 2021 and showed no signs of slowing down. Any brands looking to jump on board would be wise to consider these seven factors when choosing a social media influencer to partner with.
1. Audience
These days, many influencers specialize in specific content or audience niches. For example, there are fashion, travel, and fitness influencers.
When looking for someone to collaborate with, it’s smart to choose the one known for a niche that’s relevant to your business, or who reaches an overlapping audience.
By collaborating with a social media influencer with a relevant audience, you’ll be able to target consumers that may already be interested in the type of products or services you offer. Plus, the influencer’s content will better align with your messaging, creating a stronger campaign.
2. Values
You have to be careful with who you align with your brand. When you engage an influencer in a marketing campaign, they represent your brand. As a result, you may want to avoid influencers who have openly expressed controversial opinions or don’t share your brand values.
We recommend familiarizing yourself with an influencer’s past content and public reputation before approaching them with a campaign opportunity.
3. Reach
As mentioned before, follower count shouldn’t be the main deciding factor when choosing an influencer. That said, you want to consider it along with average post reach and impressions to get a sense of how many people will potentially gain exposure to your brand because this can help generate more brand awareness or drive sales.
Here’s how influencers are classified based on their reach:
- Nano-influencer: Less than 10k followers
- Micro-influencer: 10k-100k followers
- Mid-range influencer: 100k-500k followers
- Macro-influencer: 500k+ followers
Don’t write someone off simply because they have a smaller following. Up-and-coming influencers may still have an engaged audience that could be very interested in what you have to offer.
4. Engagement rate
Having thousands of followers doesn’t mean much if that audience isn’t engaging with the influencer’s posts.
If you see a social influencer that you’d potentially like to work with, scroll through their posts and check out their comments section. Do they receive a high number of genuine comments on each post? Or does their comments section seem pretty barren or spammy?
Also, consider whether the influencer is taking time to respond to comments. That’s a good sign that the influencer prioritizes community engagement, which will bode well for a potential marketing campaign.
5. Frequency
Another thing to look at is the influencer’s posts and sponsored content frequency. If you scroll through the feed to find that it primarily consists of sponsored posts, that’s not a good look. Your campaign could get lost in the shuffle or come across to the influencer’s audience as just another quick paycheck.
Instead, it’s better to work with someone who is more selective about the brands he or she promotes and is primarily focused on creating organic content.
The most successful influencers balance sponsored posts and their normal content. Anyone with an account filled with sponsorships could have their credibility questioned.
If you want your campaign to perform well, the influencer’s audience must take you seriously.
6. Quality content
Odds are, it was the influencer’s content that caught your eye in the first place. Quality content goes a long way, especially when creating an impactful marketing campaign.
You want to work with a social media influencer that you know will produce something special. This applies to everything from the image and video quality to copywriting, post metadata, and even their overall enthusiasm for working with you as a partner.
7. Reliability
When collaborating with influencers, you need to be able to count on them. Each influencer you engage with needs to be dependable when responding to emails, posting content on time, and fulfilling other commitments. That’s why reliability is another essential trait when choosing an influencer for your campaign.
No one has time to chase influencers to post promotional content constantly. You want to be able to outline your requests and trust that they’ll be completed in a timely fashion.
That’s a wrap!
It’s time to start effortlessly managing your influencer partnerships with these seven tips in mind.
Looking to find the perfect influencer for your next campaign? Our tools can help you easily search for social media influencers and select the right ones every time.
Ready to give it a try? Schedule a free demo.
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