Collaborating with influencers has become a popular marketing strategy in recent years. Whether it’s A-list celebrities or local micro-influencers, almost every company somehow partners with an influencer. If you plan on doing this for your business, you must remember the following things to ensure your influence is effective. Here’s what you can do before, during, and after you craft your campaign, according to an Orange County SEO expert.

Look at the Metrics

People tend to be very shallow regarding influencer marketing, and it’s always about finding the most famous person rather than finding the most helpful person for their brand. Sure, your post got a lot of likes and comments from their followers, but are you gaining any sales from it? Did you shell out a lot of money for a sponsorship that’s all bark with no bite?
Let’s look at this notorious post by Scott Disick, for example. While he’s undoubtedly famous in reality television, he made his brand sponsor look like a big flop, which went viral for the wrong reasons. You’re looking for a return on investment, not a ploy for attention.

Pick the Right Influencer

It would be best to look at multiple factors to find the right influencer for your brand.
Firstly, you need to consider their followers. Part of their following needs to fit your demographic, while the other feature needs to extend beyond that. How can you look for new customers if you’re advertising to people who are already your customers? And then, there’s the price. Do you need a ton of money for a micro-influencer? Is it worth paying a ton of money for a famous influencer who is probably too busy to give your brand more than a passing glance? Finally, there are the influencers themselves. Are they a good fit for your brand, or only good for their name value? This all relates to the section above: you need to make sure they’re a good return on investment.

Look at Their Engagement

Look at the way an influencer posts on their social media profiles. Do they post often, or are their positions spread too far apart? Do they like interacting with their followers or leaving questions and comments without any response? Do they get a lot of likes? Has their like count been consistent for the past few months, or is it not growing? Is it just the same people liking and commenting, or is there a good mix of people? These are all critical questions to ask when analyzing an influencer’s activity.

Look at Their Followers

It would help to remember your target audience when developing a marketing strategy. Partnering with influencers is no exception. What’s the point of having an influencer boost your visibility to their followers if their followers aren’t what you were going for in the first place?

Be Wary of Fake Likes, Comments, and Followers

Influencing is an industry that is exponentially getting popular. With that comes cheaters who try to buy their way in with fake likes, comments, and followers. These fakes will not help expand your business, so you want to stay clear of any influencers with them. Look at their like-to-comment ratio. First, likes are cheap, but comments aren’t, so anybody with many likes with only a few words is suspicious. Also, look at the statements themselves—if many of them say the same thing or are just comments unrelated to the post, they’re not valuable either.
It pays to be vigilant.

Keep the Momentum Going

Influencing doesn’t end with just an uploaded post, and it continues and on and on until the post eventually loses engagement. The influencer must ensure they respond to comments to keep the attention for as long as possible. This is especially important because not doing so will harm your brand and the influencer. It’s like the difference between having a solid string of decent-selling songs and having a global hit sensation—one has gradual progress, while the other is just a flash in the pan and will be forgotten in a few months.

Follow Progress

Many business owners might be tempted to let the influencer do all the influencing, but this cannot benefit you. Instead, you two need to work together to accomplish your goals. You can share ideas on how to make a successful post. Two heads are better than one, after all. For example, if you notice that a post didn’t get as much traction as the others, you can try and figure things out with them. Did they upload their post at the right time? Did they use the best caption possible? Did they forget to include optimized hashtags? You can discuss what they must do for the next post. It works the other way around too. Influencers can have a say on what to post, and they could suggest maybe doing something more public-friendly or come up with their ideas on what to publish if they don’t like your suggestion. They know their followers the best and will see the kind of content they’d like.

Influencing isn’t just about the influencer. It’s also about you! To ensure your influencer is charming, you must keep all hands on deck, as this is your business, and hard work is on the line. You need to be present every step of the way to ensure its effectiveness.