Social media monitoring for influencer marketing - HootSuite Tutorial

- [Instructor] Influencer marketing is definitely on the rise, and research points to continued growth. But, unless you have the budget to work with a high profile celebrity, how do you find credential and build relationships with micro influencers who might be the right fit for your brand? Well, you can contract an agency or influencer marketing firm. You can also use social media monitoring to discover smaller reach influencers with a loyal audience. Some of them might even be your customers. In your social listening dashboard, start paying attention to the people who actively pop up in your feeds. They could be sharing news or updates with the keywords companies or industry you're watching. You may already be connected to some of them. And you want to take a look at the content they're sharing. Maybe their posts have lots of personality, or a great sense of humor. Or perhaps they write product reviews related to your industry. Start to note down and track the most active ones, paying attention to whether they're positive, negative, or neutral toward your industry and brand. If they're on Twitter, you could create a public or private Twitter list. If not, you may have to enter their info into a spreadsheet by hand and continue to update it. Think of this as your IRM or influencer relationship management database. It should contain several columns for the influencer's name, hyperlinked social media handles, blogger website, the type and frequency of content they post, number of followers, whether or not they're a customer. And if you have any relationship with them. Of course, you should customize your IRM to fit your needs. Now, it's time to dig deeper and do more research. Pay particular attention to the platforms they use. Their frequency of posting, whether they have a website or blog, how long they've been active, and how engaged their followers are. And notice the sentiment and tone of their posts. You'll soon start to get a picture of who the thought leaders are and how much traction they get. And you can add them to a short list of possibilities. At this point, you want to start thinking about ways you might work together that builds on their talents and make sense for your business. And begin a relationship. You could start by resharing their content and adding your perspective or a comment on something they've shared. Just remember to monitor and act on their response. As you get to know them, you'll get a better idea of their personality and so will they about yours. Social media monitoring is like a window into the world of influencer engagement, by paying attention, you'll gain insights into the things influencers are passionate about and a better idea of whether or not they'd be interested in working with you and your brand. If you'd like to learn more about influencer marketing, here's a course with strategies and tips.