Using an influencer to market their brand is a great way for a business to gain visibility with new customers. But how can businesses be sure that a potential influencer partner fits their brand—and is trustworthy?
Below, 12 members of Forbes Agency Council share advice for companies to help them ensure the validity, trustworthiness and brand fit of a potential influencer partner.
Members of Forbes Agency Council offer tips to help businesses determine if a potential influencer partnership is a good fit.
Photos courtesy of the individual members.
1. Align On Values Before Making A Decision
Try to find someone who was a fan of your brand before you started working with them. This at least partially obscures the transactional nature of brand endorsements and can better align an influencer with a brand. Secondly, find out what their personal values are. Your first question should be, “What do you care about and why?” not, “How many followers do you have?” – Kathleen Lucente, Red Fan Communications
2. Don’t Force It
Influencers are skilled in building emotional connections. Because of that, the most common issue I observe with clients hiring influencers is bias—brand managers force-fit influencers into roles because they love them. Checking for fit means exploring analytics, comparing the influencer’s target audience with yours and ensuring that their followers are similar to those who engage with your brand. – Ahmad Kareh, Twistlab Marketing
3. Analyze Who Influences The Influencer
Millions of followers don’t equal influence, especially with fake followers and bots. Yes, check that the influencer’s followers are aligned with your target audience, but also analyze who the influencer follows for deeper insight on their values. You can tell a lot about a person by whom they follow and their engagement on others’ posts. Do some external digging to find the real deal. – Stephen Rosa, (add)ventures
4. Look At Engagement Rate, Not Followers
Follower count is a vanity metric on Instagram that ultimately means nothing if it’s not backed by a solid engagement rate. The engagement rate can be calculated by dividing the average number of likes and comments per post by the number of followers. A high engagement rate shows that the influencer has a quality audience that is interested in their content rather than inactive or bot followers. – Darian Kovacs, Jelly Digital Marketing & PR
5. Start Small
We test the waters with influencers by familiarizing ourselves with their work and engaging with them in small ways before embarking on larger campaigns. Above all, we start by identifying those influencers who are the right fit. In business-to-business markets, we look at social media activity, speaking engagements and overall industry exposure to ensure we’re aligning with the right people. – Paula Chiocchi, Outward Media, Inc.
6. Put Yourself In An Audience Member’s Shoes
Scroll through the content of the influencer you’re considering and ask yourself, “If I were the type of person this influencer is targeting, and I regularly consumed the content they created, would I trust them?” Because that’s what influencer marketing is based on: trust. And unless an influencer is trusted by the people who follow them, their endorsement is useless. – Adam Guild, Placepull
7. Start With Your Own Fans
You need to have two goals in mind. Goal No. 1 is to find influencers who are already fans or at least users of your brand, because you want them to share a relevant brand story. Cooperating with people who actually like you is a safe bet. Goal No. 2 is to identify who your prospects already follow—for obvious reasons. Ideally, you should cooperate with the influencers who fall into both the lists. – Solomon Thimothy, OneIMS
8. Get Their Growth Story
An influencer our business vetted recently for a partnership was busted from over 20,000 followers down to 67 followers. Thankfully, we did not put our eggs in that basket. But that shows the importance of properly qualifying influencers. The best way we’ve found to qualify influencers is to get their story and audit their followers externally. If you see bot accounts, find a better option. – Evangeline Sutton, Regenerative Marketing LLC
9. Look At The Analytics Of Their Past Campaigns
Professional influencers will typically have unique URLs when they work on specific campaigns. We recommended that influencers share their Google Analytics data from previous campaigns. Previous clients should be able to provide reporting to the influencer with respect to their unique URL clicks, referral data, performance metrics, etc. – James Loomstein, Rogue Marketing
10. Analyze The Style Of Their Content
Take a look at their previous content to make sure that what they post about is in line with the type of exposure/promotion your brand is looking for. Don’t partner with a certain influencer and expect them to change their style for your brand—their followers are their No. 1 fans because of their style. Creative freedom is key—if their content/voice is in line with your brand’s. – Bernard May, National Positions
11. Don’t Pay In Full Up Front
Have a payment schedule with milestones, as dealing with individual influencers can be tenuous. Some may collect funds and not comply with the agreed-upon terms. – Tom La Vecchia, MBA, X Factor Media
12. Choose Someone Deep In Your Niche
Being in the right niche isn’t as important as being deep in that niche. Finding an influencer who is deep in the same niche can be a glorious combination, like avocado and toast. Brands want to be in the conversation. Focusing on a specific niche and connecting with consumers on a deep level gets the brand in the conversation. Align on the niche, and you have magic. – Andy Etemadi, EYEMAGINE
