How to choose a social media influencer

How do I choose a social media influencer?

Influencers have come to influence everyone on social media. All of us have our favourites – some for very specific reasons, others for their celebrity-like status and seemingly perfect lives. The right influencer adds a lot of value to your marketing. Their mix of authenticity, personality and a wide reach is what you are after. It’s getting harder to pick the right influencer as media consumption evolves and new apps emerge, so here is what to think of while getting the right influencer to partner with you. If you require bespoke coaching on how to find the right influencers for your business or brand, please get in touch.

Introspection.

Times are hard and your competitors are growing at the speed of light. You should be able to answer the question, ‘Who are we?’. Think of yourself as a person. Study your business and your unique selling point (USP). If you know who you are, you will be able to look for the right partner to work with. This introspection – as banal as it is – helps you understand your organisation and ultimately your brand. It helps you identify who can represent you, on which platforms and where you definitely shouldn’t be. Believe me, it guides most of your marketing.

Insights, not numbers.

It’s easy to fall for numbers when it comes to influencers. We have all been there: ooooh, look at those million-and-a-half likes! Luckily for us all, we now know that social media follower farms are a real thing.

So, here is another couldn’t-stress-more key thing: quality over quantity. You need to look into an influencer’s work with their audience over catchy engagement statistics. Focus on engagement quality, not how many people ‘engaged’ with them. Does the influencer know something about their audience that you didn’t? What gets this audience excited? What makes this audience trust that influencer? It’s the stuff numbers can’t always tell you. This involves a long (but joyous) study of your target influencer’s audience.

Study an audience as humans to figure out their motivations, likes, dislikes, pet peeves and anything and everything that tells you why that influencer works. Emotions dominate this; human insights allow us to get the right influencer on board. An influencer’s relationships will lead to new relationships for you.

Authenticity.

In the spirit of the inherent supercalifragilisticexpialidocious power of influencers, there is the aspect of authenticity. The audience should trust the influencer. The ideal influencer is honest, authentic and does not shy away from vulnerability. As people, we tend to appreciate this in others because it helps us identify with them and feel that we can believe in them.

It’s good to remember that an influencer’s authenticity will make you more authentic too. Hearing about you or your brand from an authentic influencer is more powerful than a paid banner ad. An authentic influencer trusted by its audience is the right influencer for you. This word-of-mouth (or social proof) is invaluable for you to grow.

(Micro) Expertise.

Here is the meat; influencers can help people make decisions. It’s one thing to follow influencers with all that hashtag glam life, and quite another to rely on them for information. In a world where ‘Google it’ is the default response to just about any query around us, your influencer should be able to highlight – with authority and insight – why your products and services are the best. For example, you should expect a beauty influencer to understand what ‘natural’ ingredients mean and why they are ideal for their audience.

You should expect a literary influencer to know why an audience would pick one translated Japanese work over the other. Find an influencer who knows and cares about what you do and they can, in turn, tell their audience the value they see in it. This helps the audience learn more about you than that roll-your-eyes brochure all of us ignore.

Work ethic.

Finally, ask for and look into your influencer’s CV/resumé. Ask them pertinent questions like;

• Have they worked with your competitors in the past?

• How did they handle any controversies they found themselves in?

• What are their networks and how can they affect your association with them?

If something they said about a certain topic on their Twitter feed or in a comment makes you queasy, think again about using them. Also, if all they’re interested in is free merch or money, then you know you won’t be utilising a quality referral.

You need these nuggets of information to make a well-rounded decision about an influencer. People remember associations;  so how will you choose an influencer? First learn about yourself and study an influencer’s numbers with a pinch of salt. Work with someone who actually engages people and cares about the same things as you do.