Social media platforms are without a doubt the most important marketing arena in the modern world. There are several factors at play here – social media platforms derive a great deal of their marketing power from the fact that they can be used to deliver marketing content to very specific audiences.
A big part of the marketing power that these platforms have is derived from the presence of influencers. Influencers are among the most popular users on a platform – a single post by the right influencer can expose millions of people to a brand. Here’s how to find them.
Follow Hashtags To Find The Most Popular Content Creators
Since taking off on Twitter and spreading to just about every other social media platform, hashtags have completely transformed the way that most people interact with social media websites. By using hashtags, you can identify trending topics and people much more easily. If you want to find your way to the most popular influencers and discover the content that resonates the most with their audience, hashtags are a great tool to have.
There are also off-site tools such as Hashtagify that enable users to check the popularity of specific hashtags, find related hashtags and search terms, and keep monitoring them in order to keep abreast of emerging trends.
Another great tool for searching hashtags is Agorapulse’s social listening search. This tool makes it easy for you to passively watch over social media platforms and receive alerts whenever new content is posted. You can set up your own content filters, enabling you to listen out for particular hashtags or content from specific users.
Use A Social Media CRM To Keep Track Of Engaged Followers
Finding the best influencer to promote your brand can sometimes require a significant investment of both time and money. However, if you go about it the right way, then you should be able to significantly reduce these costs and connect with the ideal influencer for your niche. One way of dramatically enhancing the efficiency of your search is to turn to your own audience for guidance.
Customer relations management software has long been a staple of most modern business software armory. With the right CRM system in place, it becomes considerably easier to manage your customers and ensure that they are receiving an appropriate level of service at all times. There are now even CRM options on the market that include specific tools for managing social media.
We already mentioned Agorapulse, their CRM is packed with features for managing your social media. Most importantly, Agorapulse enables you to create your own influencer label for your biggest fans. Once you have identified your most active and most loyal fans, you can then tag them and follow them, ensuring that you are keeping them engaged and leveraging their potential.
Use Search Tools To Find Key Figures
Of course, not everyone is going to get so lucky as to find the perfect influencer within their existing audience. Most people are going to have to spend some time searching, and many will want or need to go beyond their own immediate circle. Unfortunately, there are no search tools available that are designed specifically for pouring through social media data and enabling you to hone in on the kinds of users that you are looking for.
One prominent example of such a tool is Buzzsumo. Buzzsumo makes it as simple as possible to identify influencers within the particular niches. You can also use the tool to sniff out any influencers located in a specific region. Sometimes, businesses will be looking for a purely online relationship with influencers. However, there is plenty of scope for synergy if businesses can also use influencers for offline marketing.
Building Your Relationship
Once you have identified the right influencer for your needs, you then need to work on building a relationship with them. In order to get the most out of any influencer, you need to spend time establishing this relationship. During this time, you should be aiming to inform your influencer about your brand, and the role that you can see them playing within it. If you have clearly defined goals to work towards from the very beginning of your relationship with your influencer, this will give you a real leg up when it comes to developing a credible marketing plan.
Although the power of influencers can be extraordinary, they are not magic. You need to pair an influencer with a coherent and purposeful marketing strategy if you want them to catapult your brand into the stratosphere.
Of course, if you are expecting your influencer to help promote your business, they are going to be much more receptive to the idea if you can offer them something in return. There’s not necessarily anything wrong with a one-sided relationship, some influencers are only looking for a transactional relationship and want nothing more than to get paid to promote your business. However, if there is the potential to act in a way that benefits you both equally, this is clearly something that is worth considering.
If you are able to find the right influencer for your brand, it could completely transform your fortunes. It is hard to overstate just how much power the most influential influencers have – they truly can make or break a business with just a single post. Of course, finding the ideal influencer for your needs is only one side of the equation – you also need to devise a strategy for properly harnessing their power.
Fortunately, there are now a plethora of tools out there that make monitoring and managing your social media profiles a much simpler process than it would be otherwise. In fact, much of the busywork involved in scouring a platform for an influencer and identifying the most fruitful hashtags to target can be automated by these tools. It might take a while, but if you are willing to spend the necessary time to seek out your ideal influencer, you will be rewarded handsomely.
