(This blog is part two of a two-part series on influencer marketing.)

If you’ve decided from our last blog post that an influencer marketing campaign is right for your business, you’re ready to find an influencer and execute your strategy!

Finding the Right Influencer

Once you’ve determined the proper social media platform to use, you’ll need to find an influencer with an engaged audience who is also interested in your product.

On Instagram, search hashtags relevant to your product or service and look at the most popular accounts that come up. You can do the same on Twitter, Facebook, and other social media platforms by searching keywords and looking at the most popular posts.

An influencer with more followers doesn’t necessarily mean they’re better than an influencer with less followers. Look at the number of likes and genuine comments on their posts. If they don’t get a lot of engagement from their audience, or the influencer doesn’t interact with their audience in the comments, they probably aren’t a great choice.

Furthermore, an influencer who is dedicated to one topic with 5,000 engaged and interested followers is better than an influencer with no niche and 100,000 inactive followers. Plus, the smaller influencer will likely charge less.

Once you’ve found an influencer, you should ask about their audience’s demographics. You may think they have a young, primarily female audience in the U.S., but really they could have an older, primarily male audience. Focus on the type of person you want to target and look at the influencer’s follower data to determine if working with them will be beneficial for you.

(Need help finding your own audience demographics on social media? Check out this article!)

Hiring an Influencer

Hiring an influencer is typically less formal than a regular partnership or collaboration. Some influencers may have contact information listed on their profile, while others may ask you to direct message them on the platform itself.

Either way, reach out, introduce yourself and your product, and explain why you want to work with them. Although reaching out on social media may not feel professional, it is important that the partnership is still treated as a business agreement. If you and the influencer decide to work together, make sure to go over important details such as payment, frequency of posts, and what you want the influencer to say about the product.

You should let the influencer determine the photo and caption so the advertisement doesn’t stand out and seem unusual to their followers. You can also send them free samples of the product in advance so they can test it out for themselves and take photos with it. Only work with someone that likes the product and will give their honest opinion. It will seem more genuine to the audience, and the influencer will be able to answer questions their followers ask about the product.

Now that you know how to find the right influencer for your company, you’re ready to execute your marketing campaign. Check out these helpful tips to boost your campaign and get started!

Located in Columbus, Ohio, Creative Spot has helped organizations with strategic marketing campaigns for over 20 years. If you would like to learn more about influencer marketing or have questions about Creative Spot’s capabilities, please contact us.