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7 Secrets To Finding Influencers For Your Small Business

Small businesses often need to widen their reach on social media. They often get overlooked because ome bigger brands have better social media strategies. However, you can overcome this by using influencer marketing.

Influencer marketing is a powerful tool that can be in your hands if you find the right influencer for your brand. They would already have the trust of the audience – your target audience specifically and you would be able to reach more people.

Here are some useful tips on finding the right influencer and maintaining an effective influencer campaign.

What is Influencer Marketing and Why Do You Need it?

Influencer marketing is a relationship between a brand and an individual with a substantial social media engagement where the influencer is creating content for the brand and sharing it with their audience. It has been getting more and more popular over the years and now the vast majority of brands has an influencer.

Influencers are not celebrities in the same sense actors or singers are but they are knowledgeable within their niche and have a close relationship with their following. There are various types of influencers and this all depends on their niche and reach. While the amount of followers used to be a determining factor in choosing the right influencer, nowadays, brands are more focused on people who have the most engagement and who people trust in.

Brands like and need influencer marketing because people are tired of agressive advertising and stars – they want something or someone that’s much closer to them, more subtle and relatable. An influencer already has the trust of their users and this is what brands can utilize to avoid skepticism that users now have.

Your small business could use influencer marketing because it could help you widen your reach and get in front of more people through a trusted source.

However, in order to do it properly, you need to understand what works and what doesn’t.

7 Secret Tips To Find Influencers

Here are 7 secret tips to finding influencers.

Don’t be afraid to work with micro-influencers

While businesses used to look for people who had the most people following them – think celebrities in the ads of the past century – nowadays everyone is more focused on true engagement. And this is what micro-influencers have – small, engaged audience which trusts them. This is a great opportunity for you because you can easily reach these influencers and get more engagement than you would otherwise with bigger influencers who are much harder to reach and who work only with top brands.

Define your goals and needs

Before you opt to find an influencer for your small business, you should take a look at your own company. See what your goals are and what your needs are. This is the best way to define what it would mean for you to get an influencer.

When you figure out what your company needs, you’ll be able to narrow down your choices.

Create a relationship

Having a true relationship with your influencer is really important. There needs to be that bond – it’s not just a business offer but a friendship where both of you can benefit from each other. Make sure that you maintain that relationship.

Match with an influencer

You may think that all it takes is to find a person with a certain number of followers and that everything will happen easily from there. However, to reiterate, the number of followers doesn’t mean anything. Just look at the Kendall Jenner and Pepsi fiasco – they have chosen the wrong influencer for their campaign. They looked only at the number of followers and the popularity of their influencer but they forgot to match the context of the campaign and the spirit of it to the influencer.

So, make sure that you have thought everything over and stay away from making a mistake by matching well with an influencer.

Find authentic engagement

Some influencers have a large following but little engagement. Maybe they have had a scandal recently or said something wrong. People may be commenting – but what is the context of those comments? Are they good or bad? This is what you need to pay attention to when looking for a perfect influencer.

Look for authentic relationship between influencers and fans – trust, love and respect.

Don’t stifle their creativity

Some brands have their own requirements which stifle the influencer creativity. This is bad because those requirements might not be what the audience is used to and they will see through that. You’ll have no reach and no effect. The best thing to do is to allow influencer to represent your product in a way that works for them. They should, of course, ask you about it, but they should also be creative and add their own touch to it.

Look for influencers in your customer base

Maybe someone took a picture with your product or one of your customers has a substantial following – why not offer them this job? They already like your product without the contract so they will be good at advertising it.

Finding the right influencer can be a difficult job. For one, you have to understand your goals, your products and your target audience. Define your goals and find an influencer who has followers that match your buyer personas. Build a strong relationship with them and make sure that what you are offering is truly useful for the influencer and the audience.