media update’s Nakedi Phala reveals what public relations (PR) professionals need to consider before selecting the right social media influencer.
When it comes to connecting with influencers, who better to trust than a PR practitioner tasked with building relationships?
It’s right there in the name — “relations”. Before this can be done, make sure they understand the do's and don'ts before moving ahead with the campaign.
Drawing on influencers can be risky because you can’t
know whether this strategy will work until it’s underway or whether the person might struggle to adhere to contractual agreements.
Here are five things PR professionals should take into account before bringing an influencer on board:
1. Does the influencer maintain positive engagement with followers?
It’s important to consider how the influencer in mind communicates with their followers on social media.
At times, an individual has a
huge online following but for all the wrong reasons. For example, they might have a knack for sharing fake news in order to chase “clout” (attention). This means that it might not be a good idea to build a relationship with such an influencer — before you know it, your campaigns are dragged through the mud along with them.
It’s better to associate with someone who has a good reputation on social media and who understands that being on these platforms is like acting as the brand itself. You need to hire an influencer who engages with their followers and brands respectfully, who is mindful of their language and who doesn’t perpetuate fake news and share useless and unnecessary information.
Furthermore, partner with an influencer who understands the value of building relationships with audiences; one who knows the benefit of responding positively to comments and reshares and who gets great reactions from followers.
2. Do they know how to share brand messages?
It’s vital to build a rapport with an influencer who has great content creation skills.
Why? It’s simple: You don’t have to spend as much time teaching them the ropes. This, in turn, gives you
more time to focus on other parts of the PR campaign.
For example, when looking at a current campaign they’re working on, does their style, tone, language and audience fit with the brand it’s publicising?
Let’s dive deeper. Suppose your client’s brand is rooted in South Africa’s Zulu culture. You might want to consider hiring someone who has a knack of mixing up their content with some Zulu cultural elements. See Twitter post below for example:
Just by looking at the post above, it’s clear David Tshabalala has a relationship with Aromat.
3. What are their analytics like?
Numbers don’t lie and luckily social media platforms crunch the numbers for you.
According to TweetBinder,
analytics are a reliable source that gives PR professionals insights into the influencer’s engagement rate, their gain and loss in followers and profile visits to their profiles.
Internal analytics (directly from the account/profile) also give you detailed information on the influencer’s content, impressions, sentiment on posts and how many influential people followed their account.
This type of data is vital to know in order to give PR professionals a clearer image of the account’s strong performance areas as well as areas that need improvement.
4. Use social media monitoring services to find the right influencer
Social media monitoring is vital, especially when you’re looking to recruit an influencer. That’s why you need to consider enlisting one of these services, such as
content management platform amaSocial. Not only can you find influencers for your brand with this service, but also, once you have partnered with one, you can also keep track of your brand mentions and the engagement that they are garnering for you.
As a PR professional, you need in-depth reporting features immediately available. For example, imagine your influencer's account is starting to lose followers or the engagement rate starts to decline. Not to worry; amaSocial is able to track this and find you key information that will help you discover the root of the problem.
Public relations plays an important role in building relations with just the right influencer. What are your thoughts? Let us know in the comments section below.
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