5 Ways Startups Find the Ideal Social-Media Influencer

Whether you are launching or you have been in business for a while, identifying social media influencers who can benefit your brand is critical to your success. For many brands, such influencers seem elusive, but if you understand the right steps to follow, it is possible to find the influencers who can draw attention to your brand and message.

1. Traditional online search.

While it might seem somewhat old school, a simple online search is one of the most effective methods for finding people within your niche or industry with the influence you need to drive traffic your way. Possible sources include reporters, writers, blogs and media outlets. Another option is to search for your competitors to find out who is talking about their brands and where they are receiving mentions. Google Alerts is often beneficial for this purpose. Simply set up an alert to find out who is already discussing your brand online.

2. Online tools.

There are also many online tools you can use to find and connect with individuals who may be relevant to your brand. Such tools include SocialBro, FollowerWonk, and Twellow. By using these tools, you can hone in on those people who may have an interest in what you have to offer, or who may have recently discussed a similar topic online.

3. Search conversation data.

Among the most important elements you will want to determine when searching for influencers is whether an individual frequently discusses topics that are of interest to your brand. Social media listening tools, such as Brandwatch give you the ability to input relevant keywords to identify individuals covering topics that matter to your brand. The key to making this strategy work is ensuring your keywords are not too broad in nature. Remember to keep them narrow for the best results.

4. Measuring influence.

Beyond simply identifying the individuals who may be likely to have an influence over your target demographic, it is also important to spend some time researching actual social influence. Tools such as Kred and PeerIndex provide insights into who may be influential in a particular niche or area.

5. Online circles.

Remember that some of the work of finding online influencers may already have been done for you, so don't overlook it. For instance, Twitter gives you the ability to group Twitter followers together. By leveraging that capability, you can more quickly and easily organize potential influencers. Tools such as Listorious can also be helpful for assisting you in finding such lists.

Finding social media influencers who are a good match for your brand can take some time, but is certainly well worth the effort. With a bit of planning and research, you can soon identify a potential list of influencers who can help to drive awareness and traffic toward your brand.

Written By: Brett Relander

Credit: Entrepreneur.com

4 Quick-and-Easy Ways to Connect With Influencers on Social Media

Social media is one of the easiest and most inexpensive ways to promote your brand within your target market, but you won’t have much of a reach on your own page.

Building relationships with social media influencers is your answer -- you can extend your reach and boost your visibility by creating relationships on social media with the right people. You probably already have a personal network built and know some of the people in your industry. But there is more to be done. Are you connected to the bloggers who write about your industry? People who have written books on your topic? What about magazine editors in your space, or investors who are particularly interested in your sort of product?

Keep in mind that there are billions of people out there, many of whom are looking for the answer that you provide. Here’s how to get their attention and utilize your network to the fullest, building relationships that get you noticed.

1. Connect on Facebook.

Facebook is a good tool for finding influencers in your space. Though some of the advertising capabilities have fallen off, Facebook is still the best platform for B2B and B2C companies to build their following in a targeted audience.

First, search Facebook for influencers in your industry using key words and significant phrases. Then, once you’ve found influencers who can help you, build an online relationship with them: "Like" their profile page and their content, like pages that they have also liked, comment on their content and share their posts. Post to their page about how much you like their message or product. If they like your page back, send a message quickly to introduce yourself and extend a warm greeting.

Remember, be judicious and non-promotional -- you’re trying to build a relationship, not overwhelm them. By getting in front of their audience, hopefully they will follow you and their followers will, too.

2. Connect on LinkedIn.

The importance of LinkedIn cannot be overstated, especially for B2B marketing. Like Facebook, search for the users that you want to meet by looking for key words. Send them a connection request, making sure to tell them how you know them or know of them. Follow the influencer’s company page, and share their content.

Once the influencer accepts your connection request, send them a message explaining that you know their time is valuable -- influencers get a ton of mail, so write a message that is to the point and explains what you bring to the table for them. If you don’t want to wait for them to accept your connection request, you can always upgrade to LinkedIn Premium, which lets you send direct messages without being connected.

3. Network on Twitter.

Twitter, to me, is the most fun of the social media platforms. There are so many ways to interact and have conversations that there is real opportunity for creating relationships.

First, Follow the influencers you’ve identified on Twitter -- all of their accounts, personal and business. If you get a follow back from them, tweet a thank you to their @handle.

Next, use your Twitter lists and make one just for influencers. When they tweet, it is very easy to find them. Engage in their conversations and re-tweet, like or reply to their tweets -- this is the best way to build relationships. Stay active, post often, and automate your evergreen content so you are always visible.

4. Connect on Instagram.

Search for your keywords to find influencers: accounts featuring your keywords, or people who are using your keywords as hashtags.

Once you identify the accounts with the largest followings that are in alignment with your space, get their attention by following their accounts. If the influencer doesn’t follow you back, try un-following them and following them again.

Instagram is about reciprocity. If an influencer comments, comment back. If they like you post, like theirs back. Make sure that you are posting frequently and regularly, and using relevant hashtags in your posts that will help you to be found.

Though this may seem like a lot of time and effort, social media marketing of the grassroots sort is one of the most important tools that you can have. Building relationships are imperative, and that can be hard work. If you feel overwhelmed, start with one or two social media networks and work up to more, or consider utilizing a tool like HootSuite to streamline your posts. Once you get the attention you deserve, the relationships you make will serve you long into the future.

Written By: Murray Newlands

Credit: Entrepreneur.com

3 Easy Ways to Increase Your Brand's Engagement on Instagram

Are you looking for actionable advice on how to get more followers to engage with your Instagram posts? I personally manage an Instagram account that has almost 900,000 followers at this time, and I frequently get as many as 10,000 likes on my posts. Achieving success like that isn’t magic; it simply requires sharing photos that people want to engage with.

If you’re not sure how to proceed with your own Instragram promotion, here are my top tips for creating Instagram posts that work for you.

1. Inspire and excite your audience.

Product photography is essential to digital marketing, especially for ecommerce websites and brands that sell physical products. Many times, this entails featuring a single product against a plain background so that the product stands out.

That kind of product photography is highly important; who doesn’t appreciate a well-lit product against a crisp white background? Great product photography can help increase the conversion rate for an ecommerce shop tenfold, so I highly recommend it for your site.

However, with social media, you have the opportunity to let your products shine outside of the whitebox. Instead of confining your items to a small area, feature your products out in the wild!

Here’s a great example from Under Armour:

A picture of the blue shirt by on a white background would be okay. In fact that’s how it’s featured on the UA website which is pretty standard for ecommerce sites.

If I’m into running and like the color of the shirt, I might click through and buy it. However, seeing someone like me wearing the shirt out there in the streets pursuing his running goals excites me such that I want to buy the shirt. 

Plain product photography is necessary in some cases, but on Instagram take the time to post photos that are a bit more exciting and inspiring. You don’t need an expensive camera or professional photographer to shoot your Instagram videos for you. Instead, just grab your smartphone and a friend or co-worker who is comfortable in front of the camera.

2. Feature your product with a user-generated photo.

One of the best posts a company can feature on Instagram is a user-generated photo: This will show your product in use by someone who is not a model -- just an everyday person who loves your product.

It’s even better if you can pair a user-generated photo with a quote from that customer that can act as a testimonial. To do that, try the following strategies:

•   Ask your customers to tag you in their own Instagram posts.

•   Ask your customers to use a specific hashtag when they use your products.

•   Ask your customers to email you photos they wouldn’t mind your sharing.

In the first two cases, you can use a free app like RePost that allows you to easily share your customers' photos while giving them attribution for their images. This is important, because you never want to look like you’re stealing someone else’s photos. In the third case, you’ll just need to set up an email address for collecting the photos. Alternatively, you could set up a form on your site that allows for an attachment.

The latter requires a bit more work, as you’ll need to communicate with the customer before you upload the photo. That way, you'll learn more about his or her experience;  but, hey, that’s not necessarily a bad thing. It provides you an opportunity to get the scoop from someone who is out there using your product "in the wild."

All three of these methods will help you to create a positive bond with your most vocal customers. By showing off their pictures, you'll be giving them a special reward for choosing you over one of your competitors -- and that’s great for increasing customer loyalty.

3. Show off the features of your product.

A picture of your product will show off what your product looks like, but what about showing off what your product can do? If you sell cameras, you can easily snap a picture with your camera and show off how amazing the quality of your pictures is on Instagram, just the way GoPro has done here:

Camera companies aren’t the only ones that get to have this much fun: Here’s an example from Philips Hue showing off its color-connected lighting under a couch:

And hey, if you really want to kick things up a notch, why not try video posts?

Instagram lets you upload short videos so you can easily show off your product’s features and benefits in motion just as Birchbox did here with Oribe dry shampoo:

These short videos don’t need to be professionally shot. All you need is some good lighting and a mobile phone to get the job done.

Getting started

Now that you know how to create Instagram photos that excite and inspire your audience, it’s time to get started.

Keep in mind that consistency is key. If you don’t see your engagement skyrocket on day one, keep at it, and you’ll see steady improvement. Success doesn’t happen overnight in most cases; it’s a process that you have to keep working toward. The good news is, a little sweat equity goes a long way on Instagram. If you put in the work to create engaging posts, you’ll be rewarded with likes, follows and comments.

Written by: Nathan Chan

Credit: Entrepreneur.com