How good is your brand doing with its social media ads? I’m sure you may be finding it successful to some extent, but do you feel like it may be time to try out something more rewarding?

If followers aren’t connecting as much anymore, and ROI isn’t kicking in the way it’s been kicking in the past, considering to reach out to an influencer may not seem too bad of an idea.

So many individuals assume that the only influencers out there are those who are famous stars and singers, but there is much more than that. There are thousands, if not millions, of influencers that have a lot of potential with their one thousand, ten thousand, or even a hundred thousand followers that are looking for the opportunities to showcase themselves. Now obviously famous stars and singers would be nice to collaborate with but there are still plenty more out there to benefit from.

These one thousand to one hundred thousand follower influencers can boost your brand through channels like Instagram, YouTube, and even Snapchat as part of their daily social media routine. Now to be realistic though, we all know that marketers and brands only want nothing but the best, so let’s check out five crucial points to pay attention to when hunting for THE proper influencer.

Category/Niche

How likely is it that you’ll see a big name brand like IKEA mention or give a shout-out to the hottest shoe in the market? Most likely never…The number one thing to inspect when checking out an influencer is their content category or niche specialty. That’s because the hottest shoe in the market is so irrelevant to what the IKEA brand has to offer, which is furniture.

Although some industries may be hard to find influencers for, there is always another industry that can complement another. For example, a pest control brand can always reach out to an influencer that loves the environment and cares so much about protecting the earth. Or a fitness influencer can help mention a food product that can assist with weight loss or a diet regime.

Rich Content

Now I’m sure we’ve noticed those on Instagram or Snapchat that post on a daily basis with a few nice pictures but have the worst captions. If they aren’t a celebrity or a famous television commercial host, they wouldn’t have what it takes to be seen as an “influencer” for very long.

On the real though, a well sought out influencer uploads content that could potentially benefit their followers. The proper influencer mentions brands with a brief description that resembles its uniqueness and they add a little bit of their touch which connects their audience with the brand. They provide the proper hashtags that allow search engines to capture keywords, which in the end leads a post to be established as amazing and rich.

Consistency

On average, users on Instagram share almost about 95 Million images and videos per day. In the middle of all those shares, 4.2 Billion “likes” are being racked up. These numbers are pretty scary, but it just shows to prove that there is a lot of competition for anyone who wants to be an influencer.

If an Instagramer appears to be top notch with their account but can go a week or so without sharing any content, they may not be considered top notch at all. Being inconsistent with followers and having irregular posting habits can negatively impact the reputation of an influencer and potentially a brand. Plus, not adding content for a long period of time can drastically slow down the growth of an influencer. So, choosing an influencer that is organized and consistent with uploads is crucial.

Audience Interaction

Now once you notice an influencer uploads rich content and can manage to be consistent with their followers, it’s time to look at whether they are engaged with their followers or not. This can be easily identified by looking at a few prior uploads and checking out the comment section. If the influencer is actively engaged with positive feedback, then that is a very good indication that they are highly influential towards their followers.

So many influencers decided to take what they might consider a short-cut by buying followers to make themselves seem popular. But in the end, it really just bites them in the butt because these fake followers hardly ever engage with uploaded content. It’s nice to have a million followers but what good does it do when a post is uploaded and only a handful of followers give feedback. There’s actually no influence involved! Save yourself time and effort and stay away from these influencers if such action is noticed.

Follower Insight

In addition to interacting with followers, are the followers of the influencers the potential audience that you, as a brand, would like to target? It’s very important that a brand collaborates with an influencer that has an audience demographic linked with what they are trying to offer to the end user. Otherwise, the effects of a campaign can be very minimal since you are targeting the wrong crowd. It goes back to the IKEA and the shoe example.

Utilizing resources from Social Bond, Deep Social, and Crimson Hexagon can be very useful in retrieving influencer audience data. They provide influencer audience interests, locations, age groups and much more.

Reach Out!

Influencer marketing is no doubt an option any brand should try. Research shows that 92% of consumers trust recommendations from influencers over radio, TV, social media ads, or even celebrity endorsements. The power of word of mouth in influencer marketing is extremely effective and it can be easily implemented with the help of other’s and their social media skills. This is the time to reach out to your audience through the right medium and through individuals you, and your audience can trust.