Tushar Kanwar on how to find social media influencers

Meet them on the street, and they look no different from you or me. Online, they’re nothing short of pseudo-celebrities, commanding the attention and following of thousands of digital natives. Welcome to the age of the social media influencer, trusted voices that drive conversation and action within their online communities. Engaged wisely, social media influencers can mean a big boost to your product/service, but keep in mind—these are not marketing tools, they’re real people with whom you need to build and strengthen a relationship before you can expect the magic to happen. Let’s talk about how to find, engage, and use valuable social media influencers to drive your next campaign online.

VALUE OF INFLUENCERS

You may well ask—how is engaging with these influencers, or brand advocates as some may say, different from celebrity endorsements. Sure, there is overlap—both communities expand your audience and help raise awareness about your offering, and connect you to people (and other influencers) that you as a brand may not have direct access to. The difference lies in the ability to inspire action— celebrity endorsements are associated with short-term spurts in product recall with tricky measurement around actual sales impact. On the other hand, brand advocates and influencers display a genuine passion for the brand and the effects of their advocacy and loyalty are longer lasting and…quite honestly, more believable than a paid shill!

HOW TO IDENTIFY THEM

Identify the target influencer type: Influencers reside in every knick and cranny on the web, but finding the right type of influencer is almost as important to your influencer outreach campaign as the time, effort and tools you use. Before we proceed, take a minute to look at Klout’s Influence Matrix (http:// bit.ly/DW-Influencer) to identify what type of influencer would work best for your product/ service. Networkers, for instance, are known by everyone and seem to know everyone as well, with contacts in practically every sphere – their strength is connecting people, even if they themselves are not your target group. Broadcasters excel at disseminating information that then gets amplified through their extensive network of (typically) news outlets— perfect for maximum coverage. Trendsetters are regarded as pioneers of the web, always the first to spot the latest trends, test new products and platforms, while thought leaders are the expert bloggers, the conference speakers, the academics—their credibility on their areas of expertise is enough to lead and influence industry opinions.

Use the right tools: Tools like Klout, Kred, PeerIndex and Traackr help you assemble your shortlist of social media influencers and provide a measure to evaluate their influence. Klout, for example, scores influencers on three parameters – true reach (how many people react to content an influencer shares, such as replies and retweets), amplification (how many people share the content onwards) and the strength/influence of their networks. Data about your Klout score is polled from activity from a wide variety of sources—twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, Foursquare, Youtube and Instagram—thereby lending some degree of credibility of your Klout score representing the broad gamut of your influence online. Unlike Klout, Kred gives a breakdown of activity, updates, and score in real-time, and also lets users add offline “real world experience” like company size, certificates, and other achievements in order to boost their score, giving a broader picture of influence. Both of these options are free, and if you have the budget, consider Traackr as well, for its bouquet of in-depth services for finding influencers for your vertical.

Research, Research, Research: Research your influencers well, for it can be the difference between an unwanted brand outreach and a well-targeted one. Google is your friend, as is Hipposaur publicly available information about the influencers in your field. Scan their twitter timelines, note interesting facts you find out about them, maybe even run some keyword searches in twitter and Google to find out more influencers that tools may have missed.

At the end of the day, identifying social media influencers is not enough. The hard part is what comes next—how to build relationships with these influencers and get them to support your cause. Starting a relationship can be done by simple acts—retweeting their tweets, sharing their content regularly (on your blogs, Facebook page etc.)—let them know you’re a fan of their work by actively engaging with them. Once some degree of trust is established, invite them over to educate them on why and how you do what you do, maybe the inside scoop of how’re making a difference in your shared area of interest. If there is resonance, have them contribute in some way or form on your platforms, whether it is a guest post on your blog, or hosting a Q&A on a social platform for your brand. The result? Expansion and intermingling of both your audiences, and a stronger influencer-brand relationship.

Always remember to show your influencers that they’re VIPs for your brand—whether it is via inside-access to your management, or having them speak at client meetups and advocacy meetings, and when they engage positively, thank them…as publicly as possible. Reward them with company merchandise and other perks, as an incentive for continued engagement. Consider this parting tip—the person with the most followers may not be your best bet, so use the tools with a grain of salt and some everyday common sense. There’s a lot of buzz about social media influencer, including a bunch of hype about people who are the “most” influential. At the end of the day, only you can decide who is right for your brand, and you need to follow your gut and use your reallife knowledge of people and relationships to make the best of social media influencers.