How to Best Connect with Influencers
Has your business made the right connections with important influencers in your niche yet?
These are the online voices who have the ability to reach audiences and compel them to take action based on their advice and recommendations. Leaders like these have invested time and effort over a long period to build trust and authority.
St. Joseph Communications reports in a recent infographic that influencer marketing produces 11 times higher results than traditional marketing methods such as television, print advertising, and online advertising. And most of these connections come from Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter.
Tapinfluence also points out that nearly half of all buyers on social media make a purchase based on recommendations.
Word-of-mouth marketing has become essential online, as more people search for trusted and reliable sources. It takes just one recommendation from a trusted person in your industry to make your product or service popular.
Konnie Brown of Dell writes on the TopRank blog that a brand’s success stems from both a great experience for their customers, and strong relationships with influencers.
Here are a few tips on how to find the right connections in your industry:
1 – Begin With Who You Already Know
Start with your existing connections and lists online and segment them according to their area of expertise. As you go through each business or individual pay attention to:
- The number of quality followers/connections they have
- How active and engaged they are with their community
- Relevancy to your niche
Reach out to the people you want to forge a relationship with by sharing their content. Comment on their blog and/or social media, and join their professional groups. As you promote other brands, chances are they will start noticing you and your business.
2 – Research Your Topics of Interest
Find blogs and videos that have similar areas of interest, and have a large number of active and engaged subscribers. The best ways to find these is through trending posts in your niche, and specific hashtags on places like Twitter and Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, etc.
Eventually, as you share their content, your brand will get noticed – especially as you regularly publish informative and engaging content.
3 – Forge New Partnerships Online
Live video, podcasts, and blog series are great ways to interview influencers. Many are happy to share their insights about a product or service that they offer. Most people love to share their expert views. All the better if they can do so while promoting their brand to a new, active and engaged audience.
Encourage your participants to share your coverage on their social media networks. This will help increase your traffic and subscribership.
4 – Reach Mobile Users on Instagram
As Snapchat has been in decline for big brands, Instagram is still on top when it comes to attracting followers. This is true for both paid and with organic posts. Stories, in particular, have become increasingly popular. They are being used by leading experts like Ann Tran, Peg Fitzpatrick, Mari Smith, and more.
With the right images or video, headlines, links and captions, you can stand out to your community. That will be more so if you create special announcements and a behind-the-scenes look at your organization.
5 – Don’t Forget About Micro-influencers!
Not all influencers are big brands. Pay attention to up and coming individuals and companies that are gaining a lot of traction online. Interestingly, these are the accounts that are followed the most and seen most favorably. And they have more authentic connections with individuals.
A micro-influencer is more likely to respond to their community. They offer their followers something that relates to their own lives in a more personalized approach.
6 – Measure Your Results
Be patient and give your outreach process a few months to take off. After this, you will want to review who is responding and recommending your business and how your visibility is affected. Take advantage of the various analytics software available that can pull data from your blog and social networks.
Once you have established good relationships with influencers, your brand will start to see a greater ROI. And that will only increase as you diversify your content into videos, infographics, webinars, blog posts, and social media advertising and campaigns. Recommendations are like gold. Leverage them the right way, and the payoff can be great!
You may also want to read: How to Find and Engage Social Media Influencers
Micro-Influencers Can Increase Your Sales 10X: Here’s How
52 Top Influencers Reveal Their Monetization Secrets
Creative Ways to Compensate Influencers (That Don’t Involve Money)
Featured image: Copyright: ‘https://www.123rf.com/profile_jirsak‘ / 123RF Stock Photo
Susan Gilbert
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