What to Look for in Great Influencers

What kind of influencers are good? Small businesses don't have tens of thousands of dollars to invest in the trials of numerous self-described online gurus. Furthermore, it's difficult to gauge success only by following count because, in this day and age, you can essentially purchase additional followers from a vending machine.

It’s important to do some due diligence before approaching potential influencers. Here are the factors you should look for before sending that introductory email.

Real, engaged followers

Your dream influencer has thousands or maybe hundreds of thousands of followers, depending on your business or vertical. Yet once more, don't let the statistics convince you. Make sure that the individuals who follow the influencer are real and have a genuine interest in following their suggestions, which could lead to them buying your product or service, rather than just bots and phony accounts. Here, you should take two actions:

Audit the influencer’s last 20 or 30 posts and see if the comments actually make sense. A sure-fire way of spotting bots is when the majority of comments are generic “that’s cool!” phrases or emoji that could mean anything (or nothing) for an Instagram post (ie. thumbs up, clapping, etc).

Use a tool like SocialBlade to see the growth of the influencer’s followers. If you see a gradual increase, it’s more likely their growth is real. If you see a sudden spike in followers that sustains for a few days then drops back down, it could very well be a sign that they bought followers around that time.

If there is real engagement and enthusiasm from their followers, there’s no faking it. Another way to spot solid follower engagement is to check how often relevant images/videos are tagged with the influencer. On Instagram, it’s easy to check their tagged tab. If there are thoughtful posts from their followers there, that’s high engagement. If the posts are random, it shows two things: a) their audience may not be engaged, and b) the influencer doesn’t curate the posts they get tagged on. Either way, it’s a sign that they might not be the best influencer to work with.

Knowledgeable and a creator

There’s a difference between an influencer who actually knows a lot about their niche, and someone who is just a curator of other posts. See for yourself on any social media platform: for every actual legit influencer creating quality posts, there are hundreds of accounts that simply repost their creations.

Your ideal influencers are those that create original content that not only showcases their interest, but their knowledge of their niche. It’s the difference between feeds that simply post images of makeup items they enjoy versus feeds that provide tutorials as they actually use and review them. The real enthusiasts have a clear voice and a point-of-view on their passions.

And sure, if you can snag a mega-influencer, a social media person with millions of followers, maybe their “expertise” isn’t what you’re really after, so much as their reach. But snagging those whales are rare (and expensive), and don’t discount the value of the “power middle” when it comes to social media. They may have less followers, but much higher engagement and influence because they are the thought-leaders in their niche.

Authentic and likable

You know what’s surprisingly popular on YouTube? ASMR, which stands for Autonomous Sensory Meridian Response. People listen and get “tingles” and keep coming back for more. Yes, there is a niche for anything and everything.

One personality on YouTube is ASMRMagic that started in 2015 and has 1.43m followers. Another is ASMR Darling who also started in 2014 and has 2.52 million followers. They’re both attractive women with similar setups and quality. Why the disparity?

One difference seems to be that while ASMRMagic’s videos seem to be quite good, they don’t showcase too much of the creator’s personality. Many of the videos are without talking, and all videos are strictly about ASMR. Meanwhile, ASMR Darling creates “role play” videos as well as non-ASMR videos where she engages with fans and gives updates on her life.

Though she occasionally breaks out of ASMR videos to show off her personality, the latter comes off as more likeable and genuine—there may be other things at work. By allowing them into their lives, an ideal influencer will be able to connect with and build loyalty from their audience. Verify that the influencers you want to reach have these characteristics.

Even in your particular niche, not all influencers are made equal. Compile your ideal influencer profile and do your homework. You may use this to locate and establish a connection with the ideal people for your brand.