Boost Your Brand’s Reach: 7 Key Tips for Hiring the Perfect Social Media Influencer

What is a Social Media Influencer?

You’re probably familiar with social media influencers. They’re people who have a large following on Instagram, Twitter, YouTube, TikTok, or any other social media platform and can influence their followers’ opinions.

Social media influencers can be celebrities, bloggers, or just regular people with many followers. For example, you might know someone whose blog focuses on fashion or travel. They might have thousands of subscribers looking forward to seeing new posts weekly.

That person could be considered an influencer because their content is so popular among their readers that it drives traffic back to the site where it was published.

Why Your Brand Should Hire an Influencer

Social Media Influencers can help you reach your target audience, build customer trust, and reach a new audience. They also have an established relationship with their followers, making sharing content easier across multiple platforms.

The best part? They’re usually willing to work on a commission basis or take payment in the form of free products or services. So, if hiring an influencer sounds like something worth considering for your business, here are seven key tips.

Tips for Working with an Social Media Influencer

1 – Understand Your Target Audience and Goals

If your goal is to increase sales or drive conversions, then influencers with a high volume of followers, this may be the marketing pathway best fit for your campaign. 

On the other hand, if you’re looking for more of an organic approach to help build relationships with customers (and potential customers), choose someone who developed a rapport with their audience aligned with your goals.

2 – Research and Identify Relevant Influencers

Once you’ve identified your target audience and the type of content they like to share, it’s time to find the right influencers. The easiest way to do this is by searching the hashtag of your brand or niche market on Instagram, TikTok, or Twitter. That will introduce you to the community you wish to engage.

3 – Create a Clear Vision for Your Influencer Campaign

Influencers are typically hired to promote a product or service, so you must know exactly what you want them to do. Do you want your influencer to simply mention your brand in their posts? Or do they need to create original content that includes your brand?

If so, how long will it take them, and how much will it cost? How long should this campaign run for (and does this align with any other marketing goals)? What kind of content would be most helpful for achieving those objectives?

It’s all about matching your goals with the work and content of the influencer.

4 – Work with the Right Social Media Channels

You will need to figure out which platforms are most appropriate for your brand. You’ll want to choose a channel that will allow you to reach the right audience and one that makes sense for the influencer you’re considering working with.

For example, if you sell health products, Instagram may be your best bet because you can share high-quality images of the products you sell. But if you are more B2B, then you may want Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, or LinkedIn, as these are more professional locations.

On top of choosing the right social media platform(s), it’s also vital that both parties use those same channels when communicating with each other. This way, they can connect directly via direct message or comment section rather than having conversations over email or phone calls where everything gets lost in translation.

5 – Measure Your Results

If you’re going to put in the effort to hire someone, make sure they’re doing their job. Social media influencers are supposed to drive traffic and engagement with your brand, so make sure that’s what they’re actually doing.

Measure ROI (return on investment), which is how much revenue was generated by a specific campaign compared with its cost. You can do this by tracking conversions from social media posts or by looking at sales numbers from before and after the campaign ran.

6 – Always Have a Contract

While it may seem like a lot of work, having a contract in place is important for both you and your influencer. A contract can help you understand what the influencer expects and vice versa. Ultimately, it will ensure that everyone knows what they need to do to achieve their goals.

7 – Keep a Shortlist of Potential Influencers

If you’re going to invest in influencer marketing, you must keep track of the influencers who are working with your brand. This will help you identify which ones are performing well and which ones aren’t hitting the mark.

When reviewing their performance, consider how many followers they have and how engaged they are (i.e., how many likes and comments are being generated). The more engaged someone is with an influencer’s content, the more likely they’ll be receptive when presented with new products or services from them in future posts.

When You Get a Bump – Push Customer Support

There’s no way around it: customer support is the most important part of your business. You need to have the right tools and people ready to go when things go wrong.

You will see a bump in conversions and leads after an influencer campaign. This is because that audience will engage with the opinions of the influencers and, at least, check out what you have going on.

In that case, you want your customer service to be top-notch, so your word-of-mouth marketing and customer journey are the best they can be. Use our customized Customer Support for WooCommerce plugin to support your goals. You’ll get an easy way to integrate 24/7 live chat options so your customers can get answers to their questions, make and order, and spread the word about the value of your brand.

Conclusion

We hope these tips have helped you get started on your journey to hiring an influencer. It can be a tricky process, but once you find the right person for your brand and create a solid relationship with them, it’ll pay off in more ways than one!