How to find the best social influencers to advocate for your brand

If your brand is active and present on social media, then perhaps it is time to invest in influencer marketing to help boost brand awareness and brand recognition. Welcome to the guide on how to find the best social influencers to advocate for your brand!

What is influencer marketing?

Influencer marketing refers to the collaboration between social media influencers and brands. It is similar to celebrity endorsements, but without the celebrity – instead, influencers are used to endorse the brand and its products or services. An influencer is not famous like a celebrity, but can be well-known, especially on social media. As a result of their strong presence on social media, leveraging influencer marketing may be advantageous if you would like to expand your reach on these platforms.

Influencer marketing can help to increase your reach as it can introduce new audiences to your brand, and introduce your audience to the influencer’s following. Influencers tend to have a following that is loyal as they trust the influencer – this is the type of audience that you want to reach as it’s likely that they too will also be loyal to your brand should they convert.

How to find the best social influencers for your brand

How exactly do you find the right influencers for your brand? We have listed some tips here:

• Influencers who align with your brand goals and purpose – ensure that any influencer you are willing to collaborate with have similar, if not the same, goals and purpose as your own brand. What would be the point of collaborating with an influencer who promotes healthy eating if you are a brand selling makeup products? The influencer’s own values should go beyond the content that they post – you should have shared values both online and offline to help maintain a long-term and lasting collaboration.
• Relevant audiences – influencers typically have a niche, but loyal and dedicated following. Ensure that the influencers you sign on have audiences that are relevant to your own – if your audience and their audience cannot even hold a conversation, then they are probably not the right influencer for your brand. Enlisting a social listening tool can be useful in this case if you are wondering what your audience may also be interested in.
• Meaningful and related content – although you cannot control every post that the influencer you are collaborating with will post, you should make sure that their overall content is related and meaningful to your brand. If your brand is produces vegan-only products, why would you collaborate with an influencer who supports or tolerates animal testing? Look at content on all platforms that the influencer is present on to get a general feel of the type of messages they send to their audience – are these the same you want to send to yours?
• Influencers who engage with their audience – although it may appear that influencers in general engage and conversate with their followers more than celebrities ever would, this does not mean that all influencers do. Influencers who engage with their audience can be seen as more authentic and genuine – and this is what you want in a social influencer.