Influencer marketing is one of the hottest topics in the marketing world today. Many marketers are clamoring to start their own campaigns working with the world’s biggest social media stars. But what is influencer marketing really? And what tools can you use to find and connect with powerful influencers?
An influencer is someone who can affect the perceptions and actions of others. They can convince their many followers to read a book, try a recipe, or buy a product. In the context of influencer marketing, an influencer is advocating for a product or service on behalf of a company or organization. You are borrowing their reach, in a sense, by having the influencer share your message with their social media followers in exchange for free products, money, or other forms of compensation.
Influencer marketing is so effective because consumers trust third-party endorsements of brands more than messages directly from the brands themselves. They have built up a relationship with the influencer, so they trust their opinions on products and services, even if it is a paid sponsorship. Influencer marketing also gets around the tricky problem of ad blockers. Ad blockers prevent people from seeing banner ads on the internet. Even with ad blockers in place, potential customers would see influencer marketing posts alongside regular editorial content.
BuzzSumo is a popular tool for connecting with influencers. You can find the most popular content around a specific topic and identify who shared it. You can also search for influencers using keywords and hashtags. Another feature of BuzzSumo allows you to filter by different types of influencers such as bloggers, journalists, and companies.
Klout is a useful influencer marketing tool to help you gauge the influence of your influencers. The platforms give everyone on social media a score from one to 100 based on how influential the individual is. The higher the score, the higher the influence. An average person has a score of 40. Celebrities have Klout scores over 90. You will likely want to work with influencers who have a Klout score of 60 or above.
Traackr is an influencer marketing tool that helps you create, manage, and track your influencer marketing campaigns. You can use Traackr to search for new influencers to become your potential partners and see in-depth metrics about the influencer’s online activity. Traackr helps you monitor how well each of your influencer marketing campaigns is performing, including the mentions and engagement they generate.
Famebit is an influencer marketing tool owned by Google that connects brands with YouTube creators. To use Famebit, you submit your creative brief about your product or service. Then, YouTube creators will send you pitches about what kind of video they would create about your company’s offering. You select the proposal that works best for your organization.
Is your company interested in trying influencer marketing? Partner with the Borenstein Group, a Top DC marketing agency. We can connect you with top social media influencers to get your campaign off the ground right away.
