How to find and identify influencers?

Influencer, influencer, where are you hiding? With the rise of social networks while still keeping connections with the press, brands are increasingly looking towards e-influencers, what we refer to as Influencer marketing.

As often noticed in Marketing, we enjoy bringing back ideas that are not new and trends go in cycles. However, influencer marketing is not something recent; the change now is that journalists are not the only focus. It is on blogging sites and social communication platforms where we can discover the influencers. Depending on the topic, you will need to identify which social networks are or are the best fit. Instagram, Twitter, Facebook?

So where can we find them is the main question! Additionally, one of the key challenges faced by communication and marketing experts in executing their influence strategies is the 61% issue of finding suitable influencers for their brands and campaigns. (Studio Augure.com)

So there are social scoring platforms, like Klout has been a known example for some time, ranking social media profiles. These tools are not perfect and often do not hold much value. Klout, for instance, labeled me a High Chair Specialist and in the town of Gatineau, in the province of Quebec! No, the influence is not easily defined. Is it simply the number of followers, for instance?

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In earlier times, brands relied on television news segments, ad spots, or celebrity sponsorships. This is still true, but other ways are needed. On one hand, because of the public’s and customers’ skepticism about advertising, and on the other hand, due to another trend of our era. The time spent on traditional media keeps dropping each year. As time goes on, the Internet and social networks increasingly capture viewers’ attention. Additionally, even when watching television, the viewer’s focus is often split with another screen, a computer on their lap, a tablet, or a smartphone.

Social networks are disrupting all our models

Social networks have become the new advertising screens. You have to find people where they are, where their attention is focused. After spending astronomical sums on online advertising, new ways to attract consumers are now emerging.

If television advertising is already an ordeal for many, people have even less patience for advertising that appears on the computer, tablet or smartphone screen. The Internet user wants everything immediately and many aren’t willing to wait 30 seconds to access a video or a few seconds to reach the next level of their game.

We must therefore develop other ways to attract the consumer’s attention, without interrupting him during his activities. Here’s how Content marketing it leads him to visit you when he needs you or to work with influencers he is interested in. The advantage is twofold: you gain access to qualified visitors, interested in your products or services because they are the ones looking for you and you don’t bother anyone.

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Furthermore, it’s always better to have someone else talk about you. When advertising praises the qualities of your product or service, we suspect that the judgment is biased. When an influencer speaks for you, his opinion appears more legitimate in the eyes of the consumer. Therefore, the influencer will be able to intervene in the creation of content through guest articles, interviews, etc. It can also amplify the spread of your content.

The influencer is the one who has the microphone!

Not long ago I happened to sing on stage with a group of musicians. I remember one concert in particular where another singer took the lead, the lead vocal, and I had to provide the second vocal. The song starts and when I have to intervene I realize that my microphone was turned off shortly before by one of the sound engineers, I know that you have to press the button for three seconds for the microphone to turn on and I can’t afford it because I play the acoustic guitar part and I’m the main instrument.

The singer has the microphone on and I shout nearby to try to make myself heard and harmonize the song like during rehearsals. Well, that’s what influencer is. He’s the one with the microphone! You can shout as much as you want, your voice will never have that much impact unless you are an influencer.

Identify your influencers

In addition to journalists, brands will be looking for:

– Brand enthusiaststhere are numerous blogs or communities that revolve around brands or themes. New technologies, cars, food, fashion and beauty, cinema, music, DIY, gardening, etc., have their own communities from which brands can draw certain influencers.

– Employees : internal communication is often too neglected in companies. Too often companies are still afraid to let their employees speak, even if they are experts in their sector! This is a big mistake.

– Current and potential customers

– Blogger and opinion leader on social networks

Influencer Vs Opinion Relay

It is important to know how to distinguish an influencer from a commentator!

Influencers :

– Design original content

– Has an audience on the RS

– Generate commitment

– To do this, do not hesitate to check the audience and positioning of your site

Opinion relay

– Simply transmits information or content from others. He may have a strong audience, but he’s not the first one we should be targeting. I see too many media agencies, for example, retransmitting content from other sites instead of producing it. They directly attract their potential customers to a colleague. It’s very nice, but it’s not good for business.

How to find your influencers

Some tools (most of which are paid) to help you:

– retweetrank.com: This tool will give you the retweet rate of a tweet. Since the community size is not enough, it is always good to know if your community is active around you.

– traackr.com: a tool entirely dedicated to finding influencers.

– Commun.it: one of the tools I use every day to follow my communities. It also allows you to follow and find influencers.

– FollowerWonk: Provide a theme, hashtag, region, and number of followers and FollowerWonk will create a list of Twitter users.

– Augure Influencers: a search engine for influencers.

– Meltwater: Identify and connect with influencers in your field.

Talking about Meltwater, we can highlight how the brand reaches influencers, opinion leaders and opinion relays. First, one of their employees reached out to some people on Twitter who are talking about WebMarketing in a general sense. Experts, students, professionals, etc. The idea was to participate in a live tweet discussion, around the hashtag #EspritsMarketing. He asked us questions on a topic and we answered them.

Beyond the engagement that this generates around the brand, it is also a relationship that is born with influencers or future influencers. Asking questions is also very smart! In fact, we all like to be asked our opinion. It’s flattering that our opinion counts, it’s flattering to be consulted, to be able to express your opinion and your expertise! Although he sometimes led the debate and expressed his opinion, he remained rather in the background.

While the event might perhaps seem a little light-hearted at first, it led to days of web conferences with different interlocutors! I think the live tweet event was less about finding customers for Meltwater and more about engaging a community of experts and influencers. An event for influencers!