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

Why Influencer Marketing Is Great for Your SEO

These four tips will help you build a "win-win" relationship with your influencers.

Many marketers strive to align themselves with influencers because this kind of engagement has been proven to rapidly expand brand visibility for many businesses.

With influencer marketing, a much larger audience is suddenly exposed to your brand, which often results in a significant spike in traffic that can lead to more subscribers, followers, and leads.

8 Reasons Why Your CEO Needs Influencer Marketing

Influencer marketing is an effective method to boost your brand's visibility.

Influencer marketing has become one of the hottest trends for marketers. And, there’s plenty of good reasons why. It’s a powerful and effective way to organically connect with prospective clients and build your brand’s awareness. But, how can you sell your CEO on becoming an influencer?

Here are eight reasons why influencer marketing should be on your CEO’s radar.

1. It’s cost-effective.

Let’s be honest, influencer marketing isn’t 100% free. There are some costs involved, such as hosting a website, paying for social media management and monitoring tools and creating content. Compared to traditional advertising, which can cost thousands of dollars, influencer marketing can easily fit into marketing budgets of any size.

How much money does it really cost you to tweet and write a blog post everyday?

2. Establishes your CEO as an industry thought leader.

Whenever a CEO shares their thoughts or advice that are relevant to their industry, they eventually become a well-respected industry leader. That’s why whenever Bill Gates, Elon Musk, Richard Branson, Arianna Huffington, Warren Buffett or even Beyonce speak we listen. They’ve achieved high-levels of success and know the tricks and hacks to achieve that success.

3. Connects and retains customers.

A report from Rhythmone found that an astounding 92% of consumers have made a purchase after reading about a product on their favorite blog. While another study has discovered that customers who were acquired through word-of-mouth had a 37 percent higher retention rate.

Influencer marketing plays a part in both introducing your brand to customers and retaining them since you’ve built trust with your audience, have engaged and interacted with them and ultimately, humanized your brand. When you do that, people start spreading the word on how awesome you and your company are.

4. Drives recruitment.

Want to attract top-level talent? Get your CEO active in sharing facts about the corporate culture, along with the latest projects and behind-the-scenes visuals of you and your team having some fun. CEOs can even directly engage high-level candidates through social listening.

5. The ROI is phenomenal.

According to a poll done by Tomoson, businesses make an average of $6.50 for every $1 they spend on influencer marketing. And, that ROI can be even higher in other industries.

“For instance, RhythmOne reported an average $21.03 return on every $1 of paid media in the alcoholic beverages advertising category, and a return of $18.98 per $1 spend in the travel and tourism category.

6. Introduces your brand to brand ambassadors.

We’ve already established that word-of-mouth referrals are important. But, a whooping 88% of consumers say they trust online reviews as much as personal recommendations. That’s why brands are turning to social media influencers on YouTube or Instagram to become brand ambassadors.

As an influencer, you can spot these individuals on social channels and begin to build relationships with these rising stars so that you can form a partnership that is beneficial for both parties.

7. It’s targetable and trackable.

“Decisions without data are shots in the dark at best. For decades, the advertising industry was limited to shooting in the dark, having only access to traditional strategies that yielded murky information about audience reach, sales funnel influence and branding impact,” writes Misha Talavera, co-founder and CMO of NeoReach.

“The digital world is different. Every website visit, social like and picture posted online can be stored and analyzed, yielding oceans of data that turns into valuable insights about your target market and your advertising performance.”

Thanks to tools like Google Analytics and Facebook Insights you can easily track your efforts.

8. It’s an alternative to ineffective and outdated ads.

“It will probably comes as no surprise to you (or your CEO) that traditional banner ads have gotten increasingly ineffectual. In fact, according to Google’s Display Benchmarks Tool, the average click-through rate (CTR) of display ads is now only around 0.06%,” says Rampton.

“And keep in mind that some web users choose not to view ads at all. According to the Reuters Institute, 47% of online consumers now use ad blocking technology. This means that if you’re paying for exposure via banner ads, you’ve lost nearly half your audience right out of the gate.”

Businesses need to find alternative strategies for getting exposure and traffic. And, Influencer marketing could be just what’s needed in this advertising-wary culture.

Written By : John Rampton

Credit: Entrepreneur.com

8 Do's and Don'ts of Influencer Market

When it comes to getting major influencers to help with your marketing efforts, you can be embarking down a treacherous path. While it’s crucial to on-board folks who have a lot of sway with your market, you have to be careful not to rub them the wrong way.

Reach More Customers with Influencer Marketing

Here are a few simple ways to attract the right people to your brand.

Enjoy The Great Influencer Marketing Takedown While You Can

Nearly a decade ago, I had a boss who was skeptical about social media. His first tweet went something like…

“Trying out this Twitter thing”

His second tweet read…

“I don’t get it. It’s a fad”

Fast forward to present time—Facebook alone looks to be the second coming of Google and billions of dollars are being made and funneled through social media in some form.

The Shocking ROI of Influencer Marketing

Four trends are converging to make influencer marketing an increasingly important part of any B2C or B2B marketing program:

1. There is a glut of content being created, and breaking through the noise is more difficult than ever
2. The precipitous decline of organic reach on Facebook (and now Instagram) makes social media promotion of content a trickier proposition
3. Ad blockers make amplification of content through display ads (even hyper-specific remarketing) less appealing
4. Americans trust recommendations from real people significantly more than we trust advertising and promotions from brands, in any guise