Dan Willis breaks down how to pick influencers that actually work: they need to serve your same audience, show real engagement in the last 30 to 90 days, and already sound like they'd use your product. Misaligned partnerships feel fake and flop.
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The first thing that you're going to have to track down is, are they serving the same community? So there are lots of influencers out there with massive social media accounts, but the reality is if they're not working in that same community or they're not targeting the same demographic, they're not working with the same people, it's not going to be a value for your brand to try to come alongside right away. It's going to come across as disingenuous to that community because it's just not in sync. Make sure the first thing that you're looking for are influencers that are working in in your niche with the same community, and that's gonna go a long way to having a seamless interaction between your brand or business and the influencer's community. Number 2, now that you've identified their community and you know that those align well, the next thing you wanna look for is actual conversation. And I know this seems crazy. It's not enough for them to have a million followers. You want your influencers out there to be people that are engaged in conversation regularly with their community. So take the time to go in and actually take a look at their posting over the last 30, 60, 90 days. Take a look at the conversations happening with their comments. If there's a high level of conversation, of reposts, of reshares, you are knowing that this community is engaged with what's happening here and they feel like they've got a genuine relationship with whoever this influencer is. If, however, you do track down an influencer that aligns well as far as communities, but their engagement is nil, there's no conversations, there's no reshares, it's a constant spam fest with a big number on top, that's a big red flag and you want to avoid that at all costs. Last but not least, guys, when you're going through the litmus test on this for your influencers, what you wanna make sure that you have in place is you wanna make sure that the brand's voice, message, and product aligns well with this influencer. And I know that can seem like a really tough thing to do, but the reality is if your brand doesn't resonate well, doesn't resonate naturally with that community, there's gonna be a massive disconnect. You could have somebody that's in the, let's say the cooking space or in the fashion space. You can be in the same space, but your brand may not be ideal for their network, their community online. You really have to dial down. You have to be very clear, very specific about does this brand align well with mine? Can the two of us come together seamlessly as though we're a partnership? There are many, many great ways to do this. And among them, it's finding people that are already active users of your brand. But ideally you're looking for somebody that not only has a community in your niche and has a high level of engagement, but your brand is very, very similar in tone, message, and delivery.
