Finding the influencers that fit your brand and program is a consistent pain point for influencer marketers. It’s not just time consuming, it is also the single most important part of setting up your program for success. Having the right influencers is critical to quality content and engagement, and therefore achieving your program KPIs.
Many brand teams do not have access to the same tools as agencies who do a lot of influencer marketing work. According to Relatable, 76% of marketing teams are operating their influencer marketing manually without any tools. If this situation describes you and your team, then this post is for you!
I have always found that a methodical approach to influencer search is the most efficient and productive. Here are some tips for finding the right influencers and vetting them efficiently:
1. Have clear influencer criteria
Gain agreement with your team on the top criteria for the influencers in your program. This is the most critical step and one often short-changed.Here are some considerations:
Audience. Make sure the influencer’s audience fits with your target demographic, interests and lifestyle. A good way to do this is to identify a persona (or a typical individual your program is targeting) and think of them in a holistic way. Consider if each influencer’s content would be appealing to this individual.
Subject matter and content type. Is the expertise of the influencer an content itself (type of information shared, tonality, etc.) a good fit for the brand? You may want specific content created to use on the brand’s website, social channels or marketing materials. In this case the influencer’s content format (social post, video, blog) and platform strength will make a difference.
Reach. What are the requirements for social following, blog traffic and/or subscribers? Your approach will be different for micro-influencers vs. celebs. Although following size is not the most important criterion, in my opinion, it is a primary measure for most brands when evaluating influencers.
Engagement. What are your goals for engagement rate? Benchmark engagement varies by industry, platform and following size, but most brands want to see a minimum of 1.6%-3.0% on Instagram, 0.09% on Facebook and 0.05% on Twitter.
Contact info. The preferred form of contact is email. If you do not have an email address for the influencer you can DM them. If neither of these is an option, use the contact form on their website. Responses from a contact form query often take longer.
Overall content quality. Consider if the quality of the content is professional enough to represent your brand. The production values in the images and videos should be consistent with what you expect for the brand and authentic to the influencer’s feed.
Sponsored content. Make a point to review the work they’ve done for other brands to make sure they bring their A-game. Consider how well the influencer integrates the brand into what matters to their audience.
2. Stay organized and document your findings as you go
It’s a good idea to get organized at the start. Often there are several people from the team involved in this stage and it is easy to get lost in your search and waste time. I know from experience!
Document the sources you have reviewed (e.g., articles with lists of influencers or a round-up blog post). When you find an influencer you think may be a fit, capture their name, bio, social handle(s), some following information and any other relevant notes. It is frustrating to try to remember where you found an influencer after you have moved on to another source. I suggest using a Google sheet so you can share your findings with your team in real time. If you get interrupted you will want to have documented what you have done so you or a team member can pick up where you left off.
3. Begin broad
Cast a wide net initially to gain an understanding of the influencer space within the topic area. Often some of this research is done before selling in the project.
You’ll want to get a sense for how many influencers there are in the space, any specialty areas or types of influencers, which social media channels are strongest, typical following size, etc. You will also want to gain an understanding of the key words specific to influencers you want. A few Google queries and hashtag searches on social platforms can yield some insights. Try not to spend an inordinate amount of time on any one influencer.
You may find the need to modify some of your search criteria once you have learned more about the influencer space.
4. Stay focused in your detailed search
Once you understand the space and have identified some sources to find influencers, it is time to dive deep. Here are some additional sources you can tap into to find potential influencers:
- Influencer software platforms. If you subscribe to a SaaS platform, use this to get a “first pass” list of influencers. Review them against your top criteria to weed out those that don’t fit. If you do not have a subscription, ask for a free trial or use platforms that have free tools, such as Tweetdeck and BuzzSumo.
- Social channels. Start with the most relevant social channel for your program. On Instagram and Twitter search hashtags to identify those that are most productive. On Twitter you can also search lists that relevant influencers have created (or that they follow). And on Youtube search relevant keywords.
- Google queries. Search keywords in Google to identify top influencers and any published lists of influencers in your specific topic area.
- Lookalikes. Once you’ve identified a few influencers you like, look for those who are similar on Facebook and Instagram. Follow them to see other influencers the social channel recommends. Review the followers of your top influencers and those who frequently comment on their posts.
5. Vetting
This step takes a bit of time, but is critical before recommending your top influencers. Review their relevant content and remove those from consideration who are not a fit.
- Recent posts. Make sure they’ve posted in the past days or weeks.
- Images and content. Is this an environment that is appropriate for your brand? Can you envision your target audience responding to their content?
- Engagement. Look for meaningful interaction in comments and responses from the creator. It’s a great sign if they respond to comments.
- Fake followers and engagement (bots). If you see a lot of post comments are 1-2 words and feel a bit spammy this is a red flag. There are some free tools available to do a quick check on how their following has grown and to get an estimate of fake (bot) engagement. Here are a few:
- Sponsored content. How well does an influencer represent brands in sponsored posts? What is the relationship between an influencer’s sponsored posts vs. organic posts? How well do they integrate their sponsored posts? If they post a ton of sponsored posts, and if those posts stand out as not in their brand voice, the influencer may not be seen as authentic. Did the influencer use proper FTC disclosures?
- Email or DM remaining influencers. Send prospective influencers a short description of the category and a few screening questions (e.g., Do you use products in X category? Have you worked with any brands in this category?). Although some influencers may not reply to the email for a week or two, I am always surprised at how many reply within a day. Don’t provide too much information at this stage about the brand in case you decide not to use them.
- Google search. Conduct a Google search of the influencer’s name and the brand to see if they have already reviewed or commented about the brand, positive or negative. Do the same Google search with top competitor names as well.
What other methods have worked for you? Feel free to add them in the comments.
This article was previously published in Medium.