Influencer marketing is one of the most popular forms of marketing in the digital world. Unlike a decade ago, today, influencer marketing is no longer restricted only to celebrities and big movie stars.
Anyone with good social and marketing skills can be an influencer in the current times. But what is this influencer marketing?
Influencer marketing is a type of social media marketing in which businesses collaborate with influencers in their niche for endorsements and product mentions. These influencers are individuals who have a huge social media following and are considered to have great expertise in a specific niche.
There are two main reasons why influencer marketing works so well. The first one is the trust that the influencers build over time among their followers. That’s why when they promote a business, people easily trust them and follow what they suggest.
Secondly, influencer marketing uses the word-of-mouth tactic and social proof while promoting a certain business. So even if they are marketing a product or service, it doesn’t appear too promotional. Using word-of-mouth and social proof in their marketing strategy can help them reach their conversion goals quickly and efficiently.
That’s why most marketers use influencer marketing to boost their sales, expand their reach, grow their followers, or do whatever their conversion is. But to make it more effective, you have to choose the right influencer for your business.
So let’s find out 4 easy ways to find the perfect influencers in your industry.
1. Google Alerts
Finding the right influencer to collaborate with is not easy, especially when you do it manually. But with tools like Google Alerts, detecting and monitoring influencers in your niche becomes super easy and simple.
Google Alerts is a content detection and notification service that notifies you every time your keyword is detected on the web. You can create alerts by adding relevant keywords to your Google Alerts account.
Once you do that, you will automatically start getting email notifications every time the tool detects the keyword you have added.
2. Hashtag Research
Another brilliant way to identify influencers in your niche is to do hashtag research. Using this method, you can find influencers who are not your followers but are promoting or endorsing similar products or services like yours.
All you need to do is search for specific niche related hashtags in Google or any other search engine you’re using. Suppose you’re looking for fitness influencers. In that case, simply go to Google and look for fitness-related hashtags.
For example, you can use hashtags like #fitnessmotivation or #fitnessfreak to discover influencers who are endorsing or promoting fitness products and services. Using creative hashtags like these can help you discover better results than using direct ones like #fitness.
You can also use hashtags search on social media platforms like Instagram and Facebook. Just go to the search field in your favorite platform, type #fitnessmotivation, and hit enter. It will offer thousands of results for you to choose from.
Now go through each of these profiles and identify the best influencer you want to collaborate with.
3. Google Search
Google undoubtedly is the best place to find anything you’re looking for. So why not use it to find influencers too for your marketing strategy?
But sometimes, you may not find the exact match on the first page itself. Don’t be disappointed at such times. Instead, try digging deeper.
Go past the first page of your search results, and you can discover some amazing options. Most of the influencers in these pages may not have hit the mainstream yet, but sometimes some of these micro-influencers are good enough for business collaboration.
Plus, they are comparatively less expensive than the mainstream influencers.
Another brilliant way to find influencers through Google is to use Google suggestions. When you type your queries in the search field of Google, it will automatically suggest several other queries too.
Using these keywords can be a very smart way of finding a good influencer to market your business.
You can also use related search options to uncover more influencers. You’ll find it by scrolling down to the bottom of your Google page.
4. BuzzSumo
BuzzSumo is a brilliant tool to find the perfect influencer for promoting your business. You can use it to find, follow, and shortlist the best names to choose from. It offers a variety of metrics that can help you identify the right influencer who can drive the best engagement for your business.
It offers detailed metrics that will help you dismiss all your illusions of follower count and let you know who exactly can amplify your reach. You can also track those influencers who are boosting your competitor’s content and the ones who are getting the most likes and shares.
That’s not it. With BuzzSumo, you can also find authors from niche blogs and popular publishers. To make your influencers marketing more successful, you can filter your search based on language too.
Over to You
So these are some of the best ways to find the perfect influencer for your influencer marketing strategy. But simply finding them isn’t enough. You also have to connect with them and convince them to promote your business in a non-promotional way.
So once you know who you want to collaborate with, enter their radar by following them on their social profiles and engaging with them by liking, sharing, and commenting on their posts.
Always be warm and try to be positive in whatever you do. This will help build relationships and trust. You should then try to contact them and politely offer what you want them to do. But never make the mistake of asking them to work for free.
If they like your proposal, you can start planning your content and how to take things from there. If not, don’t be disappointed. Just move ahead and start looking for other influencers.
You’ll definitely find someone who will collaborate with you and help you expand your reach, grow your sales, and finally achieve your conversion goals.
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