Table of Contents

Introduction

03

1. What Is Influencer Marketing?

04

2. Why Influencers Improve Your Social

Media Marketing

05

3. Who Are Influencers?

07

4. Tools for Finding Influencers

10

5. Start Reaching Out

12

Get Started

15

Introduction

arketing is changing. Direct advertising has lost its pull; consumers dont trust marketers.
We have Google, blogs, and social media - we dont need billboards.

According to Forbes, social media has fundamentally changed the balance of power between
customers and brands.
We dont listen to ads anymore. This makes peer suggestions more valuable, than ever.
Thats why we have influencer marketing. Influencers are making marketing personal again
(The Shelf). They place products in front of new, interested buyers who trust them.
In this ebook youll learn why influencers matter, how to find them, and how to introduce yourself. Plus, well look at some useful tools to make the process easier.
Lets do this!

How to Work With Influencers to Maximize Social Media Exposure

What Is Influencer Marketing?

How it works
Think of it like an endorsement. Just like
Nike pays LeBron James more than $500
million to sell sneakers, VIPs in your industry can help boost your brands reach.
Influencers contribute in two ways:
You need trusted voices to promote your
brand. Everybodys wary of advertising, but
they listen to their smart friends and industry experts.

Creating content: Create new content

together. This could be guest blog
posts, email newsletters, or podcast
appearances.

If youre buying a car, you start by reading

reviews. Theyre probably more useful to
you than commercials. It feels natural to
trust a review, whereas we know that advertisers lie.

Building buzz: Leverage an influencers reach to increase your own. Have

them post on social media about your
campaigns.

With influencer marketing, youre trying to

find valuable partners for your brand.
The sway these people hold over their
audience is undeniable. When they talk,
people listen.

Create an influencer marketing strategy

that uses both to reach your marketing
teams goals.
Enough with the what, lets talk about why
you should be working with influencers.

According to the Sydney Morning Herald,

Social media influencers are the new darlings of the marketing world and businesses
are clamouring to get them on board.

How to Work With Influencers to Maximize Social Media Exposure

Why Influencers Improve Your

Social Media Marketing
The point of social media is to be social.
Users are there to talk to one another, and
to listen. Influencers have a particularly
loud voice because their followers genuinely want to hear from them.
Richard Lorenzen of Fifth Avenue Brands PR
says that influencer marketing is an opportunity to buy your audience. Instead of
going through huge ad networks, you work
with individuals who bring curated market segments.

They grow your audience

In the next chapter, well talk about identifying suitable influencers. You want people with a
sizable following similar to your own.
Every tweet or Instagram post they send is another opportunity to reach their audience. And
that audience is far more likely to engage because it was from someone they like.

They support your content strategy

Collaborate with influencers to create interesting new content. Theyll add a fresh voice, and
reduce your workload.
Ask an influencer to write a guest post or co-host a webinar. Request their comment on new
products, or their thoughts on the wider industry.
Find influencers whose expertise is different from yours to give your audience the information
they want.

How to Work With Influencers to Maximize Social Media Exposure

People trust them

Theyve done the hard work of building their fans trust, and their word carries weight. If not,
they arent influential.
This is especially true on social media, where connections are personal and relationships are
close. Influencers give you an opportunity to share your marketing message through people
who are inherently trustworthy.

They drive sales

They make you look good

A McKinsey study found that social recommendations induce up to 50% of all purchases. The study also found that 5%
of people had influenced 45% of those
choices.

The cool kids make the kids around them

seem cooler. Thats why we have celebrity
endorsements. Whatever your industry,
there will be interesting and innovative
people whose voices are louder. Leveraging their credibility makes you seem more
interesting and innovative, too.

In other words, a few powerful people are

influencing a lot of decisions.

Its cost effective

According to a poll by Tomoson, businesses are making $6.50 for every $1 spent on influencer marketing. They also found that working with influencers brings in more customers than
emails or organic search.
Especially for smaller companies, influencer marketing doesnt have to cost a thing. Consider
using a share for share model. If an influencer writes a blog about you, youll share 5 of their
blog posts with your audience. If they tweet about your product, youll suggest their email
newsletter to your subscribers.

How to Work With Influencers to Maximize Social Media Exposure

Who Are Influencers?

Good influencers dont just have a lot of followers. Yes, they need an audience, but thats not
enough.
Forbes equation for evaluating influence:
Influence = Audience Reach (# of followers) x Brand Affinity (expertise and credibility) x
Strength of Relationship with Followers.
While number of followers is important, you also need to ask whether they support your campaign goals.
An interesting example is mom bloggers, an increasingly powerful presence online. They
succeed because moms have credibility amongst each other (Aabacos). They have a loyal
audience that trusts what theyre saying.
Lets break down Forbes influence equation and explore each ingredient.

Audience reach
How many followers does the person have?
If youre trying to increase exposure, it
helps if an influencer has a large audience.
Check your potential partners following
on social media. Make sure they have a
sizable, authentic following.

How to Work With Influencers to Maximize Social Media Exposure

Brand affinity
The best influencers are relevant to your company. Theyll also have a proven history of knowing
what theyre talking about.
Say youre a B2B software company. You could pay a load of money to have Justin Bieber tweet
about you. But serious CEOs and marketing executives arent going to listen to Justins antivirus
recommendations. Or Snoop Doggs - in 2010, Symantec chose Snoop to promote its Norton
Antivirus software. Predictably, this was not popular.
Forbes says that honesty is king: if theres no honesty involved, its not influencer marketing.

Strength of relationship with followers

You need to be sure that your potential influencers have developed a quality audience of
engaged consumers.
Reach is definitely an important metric, but...other things such as how passionate someone
is about a topic, how trusted they are, how much first hand experience they have with the product often become much more valuable measurements of influence. (Social Times)
A great influencer will engage their followers. Look at whether their tweets are being liked and
retweeted. Are their blog posts being shared? If you cant find evidence of people enjoying and
sharing their posts, they probably arent much of an influencer.

Are they influential?

Does this person actually influence opinions and decisions? Thats going to be the key factor.
They could have a large audience that likes their stuff, but do they also take action?
If youre looking to change opinions or drive action and conversions, you need to make sure
youre working with someone who can do that.

How to Work With Influencers to Maximize Social Media Exposure

Where are they visible?

That same Tomoson poll included an interesting chart:

Your influencers are on several channels. You shouldnt ignore the platforms lower down the
chart. But a detailed blog or Facebook update will probably be more valuable to you than a
few tweets.
Of course, it depends on where your audience is active. A blog post is no good if your target
market doesnt read blogs.

Dont forget your current advocates

Existing customers make for great advocates. If youre lucky enough to have influential fans,
start with them. They already know what you do, why you do it well, and can speak from firsthand experience.
They also dont require as much convincing. You need your influencers to risk their reputation,
something important to them. Youve already established trust with advocates.

How to Work With Influencers to Maximize Social Media Exposure

Tools for Finding Influencers

Influencer agencies
If you want to outsource outreach, try services like Influential or Tribe. Each has curated lists
of people in certain industries, and will introduce you. They essentially act like talent agencies
for online influencers. Forbes has also entered this space, offering advertisers paid access to
journalists, academics, and bloggers.
But you can also find and connect with people yourself. Good social listening tools will let you
hear whos talking about your industry, and tell you when those people are important.

Social listening tools

Mention

Mention lets you see whats being said about you, your industry, and your competitors. Set
keyword alerts to find relevant conversations, and use the influencer score and dashboards to
identify influencers.

How to Work With Influencers to Maximize Social Media Exposure

10

Little Bird

This is a great tool for building influencer lists by topic. You enter a few keywords and Little Bird
suggests powerful people to reach out to.

SocialRank

SocialRank lets you arrange your Twitter and Instagram followers based on value or engagement. If you want to find your own influential followers, this is a good way to start.

How to Work With Influencers to Maximize Social Media Exposure

11

Start Reaching Out

Do your research
Tie your research to your goals. Are you
looking to add credibility to your brand,
grow your audience, or increase social engagement? This will determine which qualities
and influencers fit best.
Make lists of suitable influencers. Include
their name, email address, social profiles,
and why they would make a good partner. Be
clear about how youd like to work together,
and be consistent when you begin making
contact.

Make a connection
Start following your target influencers and
engaging with their content.
Did they write a great blog post? Leave a
comment. Did they write a great Facebook
or Twitter post? Like and share it.
Dont be tempted to send pitches to Facebook inboxes or leave them in blog comments. Remember, if you havent established a connection, your message is going
straight to their spam folder.
Youre just trying to get your name on their
radar, not close a partnership in one tweet.
Use social media to begin the relationship.

How to Work With Influencers to Maximize Social Media Exposure

12

Email is king
A great outreach email:
1.
2.
3.
4.

Builds familiarity with your prospect

Clearly states the purpose of getting in touch
Provides value
Ends with action steps

Make sure your emails are friendly, clear, and short - while still containing all of those elements.

Your outreach emails need to include:

Who you are
Why youre contacting them
The collaboration details
Whats in it for them?
Next steps
Make sure your emails are friendly, clear, and short - while still containing all of those elements.

How to Work With Influencers to Maximize Social Media Exposure

13

Create an email template

Youd never want to send the exact same email to each influencer, but having a rock-solid template to work from can make a big difference.
Heres a great template from our blog:

Hi [name]!
Im [your name] from [company]. I work with [mutual connection] who mentioned that you [what mutual connection said
about the influencer].
[Mutual connection] said that it would be a good idea to get in
touch with you to learn more about [topic] and work on [project] together.
Does this sound like something you would be interested in? If so,
I would love to get on a phone call some day this week around
noon and figure out a way to make it mutually beneficial.
Let me know what you think!
Best,
[your name]

You need a great subject line

Otherwise, theyre never going to open it. Think of it like writing a headline: you need to hook
the person in without giving everything away.

Follow up
This is a balancing act. Make sure they dont forget about you without seeming too pushy (read:
desperate).
If you havent heard anything after 7 days, send a follow-up email. In the meantime, keep interacting on social media. Your work isnt over.
Quick tip: Sidekick by HubSpot lets you track email opens and clicks.

How to Work With Influencers to Maximize Social Media Exposure

14

Get Started

ou cant possibly need any more convincing. Influencer

marketing is a simple and effective way to increase your
social media exposure.

To start seeing results, you need to:

1. Watch for influencers on social media
2. Create keyword alerts to help you find them
3. Make ordered lists based on influencer score
4. Make connections through social media
5. Start sending outreach emails
Reach out to influencers today.

How to Work With Influencers to Maximize Social Media Exposure

15

People are talking about your brand.

Find them and join the conversation.

Learn more about how Mention helps

brands build communities.
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