In a world full of advertising noise, arguably the biggest problem marketers have is breaking through. One method that’s becoming increasingly more successful is finding influencers to help give you the marketing boost you need. According to a report on Linqia, an influencer marketing platform, as many as 86% of marketers have been using influencer marketing and, of them, an astonishing 94% have found it successful.
The stats don’t stop there. According to Hubspot, 71% of consumers are more willing to buy a product if there’s a social media referral behind it. And A Convince & Convert study shows that in a single year, influencer marketing managed to generate more than 10 times the return of investment that banner ads achieved.
So how do we find these influencers? We thought you’d never ask….
There’s over 320 million monthly active users – which means you’ve got access to both leading influencers AND a captive audience. But that’s not all; according to the Poynter Institute, one quarter of Twitter’s verified users – and among the most active accounts in existence – are journalists and news organizations.
TOP TIPS:
You can build relationships with users simply by interacting with their content and joining their conversations. Share their tweets (and add your own two cents by using the “Quote Tweet” option – and tweet back at them too).
Do a search of real-time tweets to find users who have big engagement rates.
Try a keyword search to find big accounts that might be interested in or are related to the topics you’re working with.
The profile/bio pages of Twitter users often display email addresses or other forms of contact.
Remember: if you want to direct message a Twitter user, you’ll have to wait until they follow you first.
Ninja Outreach has been helping customers quadruple their traffic and increase sign-ups by ten. Whether you’re looking for blogger outreach, content marketing, or lead generation, they allow you to search for a topic and then deliver all the influencers relevant to those keywords. And with over 23 million websites in their database, you’ll find everything you want!
TOP TIPS:
The influencer’s info includes everything from their social profiles, contact info, SEO metrics, and engagement data.
They also allow you to record each and every encounter you have with an influencer so you don’t forget what’s been talked about.
You can even email your lists of influencers with customized templates with NinjaOutreach then track opens, clicks, and replies.
BuzzSumo is all about the keyword search; that’s where you can find great content and better influencers. You can also find real-time alerts on brand mentions.
The platform comes with two versions; free and pro (paid). The free account allows you a few searches a day with only the base results so your best bet is paying for a membership.
TOP TIPS:
You can use keyword searches to find out what the influencer engagement rates are with their followers.
You can search using filters based on location to find influencers in specific areas where you might want to engage a hyper-local audience.
They also allow you to search for content that’s related to specific topics – allowing you to find influencers who share similar interests and expertise to you or your brand.
Another great platform designed to help you find major influencers on Twitter. You can sign up for a free account that allows you to search both Twitter profiles and bios based on specific keywords.
TOP TIPS:
You can use the platform to track your relationships with those you follow and those who follow you (even if you don’t follow them back).
By using FollowerWonk’s “Social Authority” rating (determined by a user’s rate of retweets), you can analyze how influential your followers are. That way you can identify the influencers you’re already engaged with and target who you want to reach out to.
If you already have a lot of followers, you will most likely have to upgrade and pay for a pro account as Followerwonk only lets you access the free part based on a limited number of followers.
Klout collects all the information from a person’s various social media channels then collates them to bring you a Klout score that sums up how influential they are. Best of all? It’s free!
TOP TIPS:
Create a profile for your brand on Klout as it then makes you searchable to other people – influencers themselves – who may be looking for something you have.
If you click on the profile of an influencer, you’ll be taken to a list of all their latest content along with their different social networks.
Profiles also show all the different topics the influencer has knowledge of/tweets about.
A keyword search will also bring you new content that’s being generated about that keyword along with the influencers who are discussing it.
While exploring, you can find influencer’s contact info.
You can also visit the comments section where, while discussing topics related to your business, you can make connections.
When engaging with the influencer remember to follow these brief rules:
Relevance – Let them know how your messaging is relevant to their audience and what’s in it for them.
No Spam – Barging through a front door and telling an influencer they need to help you won’t work at all. Engage with them via organic, meaningful interactions. Be polite.
Guidelines – Some influencers lay out the grounds for how to contact them on their website; these include fees, etc. By learning what their needs are first allows you to better craft your initial outreach to them.
One last tip; don’t be overly concerned if the influencer doesn’t have millions of followers. The true influencer influences – so even if their follower count isn’t sky-high, their followers might be that much more engaged with them.
