According to research, 75% of people turn to social media for purchasing advice. Influencer marketing is probably the best way to market a business or product at scale. It eliminates the most time-consuming, and sometimes intimidating, steps in marketing: Building a niche following. But, hiring a social media influencer to get relevant eyeballs on your product can be tricky. It involves vetting the right content creators on the right platforms among other things. In this guide, you’ll learn how to hire a social media influencer step-by-step. Let’s dive in.
How to Hire a Social Media Influencer
Before talking about identifying the right influencer, let’s quickly cover the basics.
Understand Influencer Marketing
Influence marketing is a unique yet effect way of putting your offer in front of a lot of relevant people almost instantly. When you work with an influence, you don’t have to build a niche following from scratch. However, you can use influencer marketing to fast-track your audience growth. Here’s how influence marketing works in a nutshell:
- Identifying the right influence (Niche, following size, engagement, price, etc.)
- Reach out and strike a win-win deal
- Maintain a healthy working relationship
- Measure results and scale
With that out of the way, let’s talk about what factors to look at while hiring a social media influencer.
Finding The Right Influencer
While the following size may be the most attractive trait of a social media content creator, there are other more important factors at play.
Niche
Start by finding a list of potential influencers in your niche. Look at their content. If it’s not related to your niche, working with them won’t be worth it. For instance, if you have a running shoe business, look for influencers who post content on fitness, specifically running, jogging, hiking, etc.
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The following Size
While the size of an influencer’s following doesn’t matter much, it’s still a factor worth looking at. This is because the number of followers dictates the sponsorship post prices.
Generally, the bigger the follower count, the more expensive the sponsored post. However, note that a niche influencer normally has a small audience since it’s based on a particular topic. The more targeted niches tend to have smaller audiences. For instance, someone focusing on the Keto diet for men above 50 will naturally have a smaller audience than someone creating content around generic health topics.
Engagement
Probably the most important thing to consider while hiring an influencer is the engagement of their content. That’s important for two main reasons:
One, there’s a possibility that the followers aren’t real. People buy followers that aren’t generally relevant to the content, which renders them almost useless. If there’s minimal to no engagement, you may not want to move forward with the deal. Second, the more engaged the following is, the better ROI you can get with your influence marketing campaign. The most important engagement metrics to look out for are:
- Likes
- Comments
- Shares
An influencer with a high level of engagement on their content is the right one to work with as a brand. To check the engagement, you’ll have to manually observe their latest social media contnet. The type of posts you should analyze also matters; it’ll mainly depend on what you want to achieve. For instance, if you’re trying to get reach on Instagram, you might want to look into Reels and Square posts.
Where to Find Influencers
Every social platform has influencers. The audience, niche, and marketing goal of your business impact which platforms you should work on. For instance, if young adults are your target audience, you might want to focus on Instagram. Whereas, if you’re trying to reach professionals, LinkedIn will be your best bet. Once you know which platform to focus on, it’s time to find and reach out to potential partners.
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Reaching Out to the Right Influencer
Reaching out to the right influencers starts with a simple search. For instance, on Instagram, all you need to do is put your main keyword in the search bar and visit relevant profiles.
Study each profile before engaging. If they’re a good fit for your niche and marketing goals, start by interacting with their latest posts. After a few days, reach out to them in their inbox with your offer.
Negotiate
Your offer needs to be attractive enough for an influencer. Otherwise, they may not even accept your DM request. Think about what they will find valuable by studying their previous sponsored posts. It’s fair to presume that you’ll mostly have to pay a certain fee for each sponsored post.
Measure Your Campaigns
Finding the right influencer and negotiating with them are a couple of initial challenges. But, you don’t want to keep spending your marketing dollars just because you think you’ve found the right partner. Keep an eye on your campaign results and see if it’s generating an attractive ROI. Ideally, you should have an ROI goal before even starting a contract. If you’re not reaching that goal, it’s time to put their content or audience under the microscope again.
How to Hire a Social Media Influencer: FAQs
Let’s discuss some frequently asked questions about hiring the right social media influencer.
How to Get a Social Media Influencer?
You can get a social media influencer by doing outreach on Instagram, LinkedIn, Twitter (Now X), and any other platform of your choosing.
How Do I Find and Hire a Social Media Influencer?
You can find a social media influencer by searching for your main keyword. For hiring, you’ll need to negotiate terms with them directly.
How Many Followers Are Enough for an Influencer?
An influencer is better defined by the level of engagement and impact. A large following makes someone a potential candidate for hiring as it’s not the only factor to consider while hiring.
How to Hire a Social Media Influencer: Conclusion
Hiring a social media influencer starts with understanding your marketing goals. Knowing who you’re trying to reach helps you pick the right platforms. For instance, for 20 – 25 year olds, you’ll need to develop an influencer marketing campaign for Instagram. Remember that it’s not easy to find and work with good influencers. You’re not the only one reaching out to them with a proposal. To stand out, your outreach strategy needs to be on point.
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