From Amazon to Gucci. You’ll find that there’s hardly a high-end brand that does not have a social media influencer working for them. For a simple run-up, hear this out… Fashion Nova in 2018 roped in three times the billion-dollar figure that Gucci was able to score in EMV.

All because they collaborated with the likes of Cardi B and kept up with the Kardashians. You see the face of a renowned celebrity or social media influencer plastered with every high-profile brand out there—and there’s a reason for that.

Influencers bring in good money because they expose your product to a mass audience. Painting it in a positive light to the interested gentry.

But for businesses just starting out and have hardly the Gucci credentials, the influencer marketing arena can be overwhelming.

Finding active social influencers who are right for your brand is a tricky territory to tread. Ensuring that the audience you’re trying to attract is interested and invested in your product for the long-term is vital.

The secret: focusing on the brand when looking for social influencers. And we’re here to help you with how to do just that.

1. Look for Relevance

Always go through the content that an influencer has created on social media before selecting and collaborating with them. If they’re posting recipes, dig for relevance with your brand.

Let’s say your brand is about organic products and the influencer blogs about something different. Try and make sense of the blogger to understand if they’re the kind of consumers you’d like promoting your brand.

2. Look for Engagement

It isn’t simply a matter of an influencer creating and sharing social content that promotes your brand. There’s also the question of audience engagement.

Always keep a check on:

(a) whether or not the audience is engaging with the influencer and
(b) how the audience is responding to the content.

Does the audience sound satisfied and interested? Are there any curious and prodding questions? Or is the comments section filled with negative jibes?

3. Ensure Authenticity

Make sure that whatever social influencers you find to promote your product can pass as an authentic voice on the subject. The audience might be swayed by big names and pretty faces, but when it comes to spending hard-earned money, they’ll always listen to an authoritative voice.

For instance, if Kim Kardashian began sharing content that was promoting camping gear, the invested audience will naturally follow up with, “But what do the Kardashians have to do with camping gear?”

Long story short, an inauthentic voice acting as the face of your brand means less motivated audiences, less interested consumers, and generally fewer customers.

Finding the Right Platform to Connect with Social Media Influencers

The key to nailing the influencer marketing game lies in knowing where to find the best social influencers. If you start out looking for social influencers yourself, you’ll probably waste a lot of time and be taking a risk at that. Bigger names will either ignore you completely or charge exorbitant amounts of money.

For an alternative, how about trying Afluencer. An online platform that lets you meet leading influencers who will be just right for your brand and business. Find out more about us here or you can also reach out to us here.