The explosion of social media over the past few years has been mind-boggling. Facebook now counts more than 2 billion active users, monthly. By 2015, Twitter users were posting 100 million GIFs per year. Instagram now counts more than 40 billion uploaded photos since its release in 2010.
With this atmospheric rise, companies have struggled to keep up and make sure their marketing efforts are effective in this rapidly changing medium. One of the most interesting, and potentially valuable, social media marketing strategies is using influencers. As social media continues to evolve, these influencers remain important resources for 2018 and beyond.
Finding an influencer isn’t easy, however. Identifying a trustworthy person that matches your brand, connects with your audience, and strengthens your campaigns is fraught with potential pitfalls.
Here are four things you can do right off the bat to make sure your influencer campaign is a success.
Do a social background check
Let’s start with an easy one. Nowadays you can never be too careful when picking a person to associate with your brand. Before you get into any of the other social insights discussed below, be sure that your influencer doesn’t have any offensive posts, any associations that might turn your audience off, or anything worse in their history. This step doesn’t take long and it can save your company a lot of grief in the long run.
Recognize audience segments
You would never develop a campaign without thoroughly knowing the audience. The same is true of choosing an influencer. Get to know the age, gender and other demographics of the people talking about your brand on social media.
Once you know your basic audience segmentation, the next logical step is doing the same…
