Everywhere we look we hear about influencers. YouTubers, Instagrammers, bloggers and more are building online communities.
Working with influencers is not as simple as merely finding someone to write about your brand. It’s critical to think through your business goals, discover where your audience lives online and find a select group of influencers who will drive conversation and are relevant to your brand.
There are many ways to approach finding influencers, such as hiring agencies to use sophisticated analytics programs to comb the internet, investing in subscription-based influencer software programs or contracting with an influencer network that can recruit and contract with influencers on your behalf.
While all of these approaches can be effective, the most cost-conscious and accessible way to find influencers is through manual research. Of course, this also is the most time-consuming.
Step 1: Find Where Your Audience Lives Online
You already know your target audience and are reaching it through social channels. Think about which of your channels has the most engagement. Is it Instagram, YouTube or Facebook? Where else do your audience members spend time online? Do they read blogs? Who writes the blogs, industry leaders or peers? What Facebook groups do they join? What hashtags do they use? Search for message boards, forums and YouTube playlists your community may visit frequently.
Monitor the conversations your target audiences engage in. What problems are they trying to solve? How can you help? Finding where your audience lives online and monitoring conversations can help you be strategic about the influencers you approach and the content you ask them to create.
Step 2: Finding Influencers
Now that you have determined where your audience consumes media, the next step is to find voices that are relevant to your brand or space. This is where you can utilize free tools, especially Google, to scavenge the internet.
The following tips can help shape your search and put you on a path toward the best voices for your brand.
Keywords and Hashtags
The first place to start is with a basic Google search, using keywords to identify the type of influencer you’re seeking. Consider topics influencers might discuss, platforms they use or their geographic location. Some examples: “Fashion bloggers in Minneapolis,” “YouTube creators covering European travel,” or “Blogs about diabetes and weight loss.”
A basic search likely will surface influencers and point you in a direction to dig deeper. Take time to look through the types of posts these influencers share. What keywords are they using in their headlines? What hashtags do they use within their posts? Do they mention other influencers in their space? Take note of any initial clues to help shape how you continue your search.
Hashtags your target audience uses might represent a category or topic area, a popular event or a common phrase. Try conducting a Google search for each. Your results could surface additional people using the hashtag across social media or blogs. For example, if you’re looking to find pet enthusiasts, try searching #AdoptDontShop.
Once you’ve done this search, consider who else is using these hashtags. Who are the top voices? Who is receiving engagement on posts with these hashtags? The answers can help identify influential people across communities.
Common Search Phrases
Another approach is to take on the mentality of the audience you’re trying to reach. How would one search for content influencers share? Consider searching phrases a user might type into Google to find posts around these topics.
For example, if you’re trying to find travel influencers, search a topic relevant to that space, such as “How to visit Spain on a budget.” Look through your results to find blogs, articles, YouTube videos or posts from people who answer that query. Where the post appears in lists of search results is indicative of how well a post matches your query and the amount of traffic a post receives. Use this lens to determine whom the top voices are in your space.
Use Google Advanced Search
Employ Google’s Advanced Search tool to augment your search. Look for certain keywords while excluding others. You also can specify the time period you want searched.
Search for Lists
For broad topics, there likely are articles and blog posts that gather influential voices in a space. Conduct a search such as “Top Diabetes bloggers” or “Best organic food blogs of 2017.” This is a great way to check what research exists and is publicly available.
Search Related Sites
Perhaps you find a blog you love and want to see similar sites. One way is to conduct a related search. In Google Chrome type “related:” into the search bar, then add the URL of the blog you’re trying to find similar sites to and hit enter.
View Google Tab Results
As you go about searching topic areas, blogs and influencers, don’t forget to look through the tabs located at the top of your Google results. Clicking through to Images, Videos, News and more can provide insight about those publishing content around your topic area.
Set Up Google Alerts
Another great way to stay on top of the latest content being published relevant to your brand is to set up Google Alerts. Head to Google.com/alerts; type in a keyword, phrase or name. You will have the option of receiving email with links that contain your phrase as they’re published, weekly or monthly. This can help identify if there are new blogs or articles published on an area of interest, which can help surface influential content creators.
Utilize Insights from Google Analytics
If your brand has a website that uses Google Analytics, consider referencing top keywords and search terms that users search that lead them to your site. It’s possible this could identify topics or phrases related to your brand that you could search and cross-reference as you find potential influencers.
Step 3: Vetting – Deeply Researching Influencers
Deciding which influencers to approach requires more research. Review each influencer using these steps: Check their social media handles, following and blog. Is their audience engaged? Do they publish frequently? Do they use social channels to drive traffic to content? Do they write about your business/category? Have they mentioned your brand? Do they work with brands? Do you have contacts in common?
A tip: To search easily for content within a blog, open Google Chrome, type the website URL and hit the space bar. This will alert Chrome you’re searching within this URL only. Then type your keyword or phrase, hit enter. Your results will show posts or pages for the URL containing your search term.
With Influencers, Size May Not Matter
The results will help you determine which influencers are right for you to approach. A word of caution: Don’t get too caught up in working with influencers who have very high social reach. An influencer’s interest in and relevance to your category is equally, if not more, important.
While you’d like all the influencers you found to work with you, some may not be interested. Compose a list of influencers 2-3 times the number you’d like to work with, ranked in order of those you feel are most relevant to your brand.
Step 4: Engaging With Influencers. Before you reach out to influencers, think through your engagement plan so you’re ready to fully present the opportunity and be prepared to answer any questions. What are your campaign goals? Are you trying to drive awareness of your business? Sell a specific product? Register people for an event?
Now consider content that can help you achieve those goals. Put yourself in the influencer’s shoes. The benefit of working with influencers, of course, is they bring an authentic voice to create content that’s interesting to their community. Brainstorm how you can leverage that. Recall we mentioned observing topics and questions your audience discusses in online communities. Now is your chance to use that research. Create three (or more) angles to propose as content prompts for the influencer. Be open to hearing their ideas and evolving the plan to make it work for both of you.
Consider key messages you’d like them to build into their content and a simple call to action. Be prepared with a timeline of when you would like their content to be published, possibly aligning with a marketing campaign. You’ll also want to give them the option of using existing or new assets, such as images, videos, infographics, etc. Last, you’ll want to know your budget for paying influencers for their time and access to their community. You should plan your offer, but be prepared to negotiate, as many influencers have rates based on reach and previous partnerships.
Approaching Influencers
Typically brands approach influencers via email. You’ll want your message to be personalized, including greeting the influencer by name and referencing his/her recent content and how much you enjoyed it. Also, plan to note early in the message that this is a sponsored opportunity; too many brands flood influencers’ inboxes asking for free publicity, which is a thing of the past. To avoid ending up in the spam folder, make sure your message is free of links or attachments.
Create a spreadsheet to track your communication with each influencer. Note the date of the communication and what was discussed. If you don’t hear back from your first message, politely follow up in one week. If you still don’t get a response, move on to the next person on your list.
Craft An Agreement with Influencers
You’ll also want to create a partnership agreement, which can be approved via email, or a formal contract requiring a signature. Make sure you include everything you expect, such as the number of posts, sharing to social channels, payment and how long the content must live on the influencer’s channels. Be sure to share disclosure copy for influencers to use in all of their posts to be compliant with FTC guidelines.
Step 5: Amplify Influencer Content
Working with influencers can help you reach new people within the influencers’ communities, which should align with your target audience. But what if you could amplify that content to reach even more people? Many companies promote earned and owned content with paid media, and influencer content is no exception.
Consider investing in paid media options, including promoting content on your social media channels and pulling it into your search engine marketing. If your influencer creates video, consider promoting it through YouTube ads. Link amplification, such as Outbrain or Taboola, can drive additional traffic to YouTube and traditional blogs with a fairly small investment. With a larger budget, consider leveraging native ads to drive traffic in a more targeted fashion.
On Your Way to Working With Influencers
Influencer marketing can be a great way to drive word-of-mouth and help achieve marketing goals, but finding the right influencers for your brand can be challenging and time consuming. The tips for manually searching and vetting influencers give you a roadmap to get started on this journey.
Building a solid engagement plan, and collaborating with influencers, can make a big difference in the engagement you receive and overall success of your campaign.
CONTACT: @kshoop @missyvoronyak