How To Spot A Digital Influencer

When kick-starting your Influencer Marketing campaigns, you must first start at the research and discovery stage where you find influencers who are a good fit for your brand and campaign. On some platforms, it is easy to distinguish whether a user is an

influencer or not, however on others, particularly Instagram, it can be very hard to differentiate between a regular user who has lots of friends and a digital influencer.

To help you narrow down your list and spot an influencer at first glance, here at 6 things to consider when you first land on their social media profile:

How Many Followers Do They Have?

A successful influencer has the ability to influence their readers and viewers about a product or service, so it is important to consider their follower count and the reach they have over a demographic of consumers. Their influential power depends solely on how many people are viewing, engaging and taking action from their content, so the first thing to consider is how many followers they have on each platform (or just the platform you are interested in) and their engagement rate.This doesn’t mean you should only work with the biggest and best influencers though; the smaller, local ones can have a big influence on their followers and your ROI too.

Do They Have A Personal Website?

We know not every influencer has a blog or YouTube channel connected to their social media platform, however, a large majority do (especially the ones who make a living from being a digital influencer). For marketers, a social media profile with a blog or website attached is a quick and easy way to spot an influencer amongst the crowd, and it’s also a good way to judge whether their reach and influence stretches across multiple platforms.

Is An Email Address Displayed?

If an email address is identified at first glance of a profile, it is almost certain that you’re looking at a digital influencer. Influencers have their email address readily available so brands and marketers can contact them for collaborations, so keep an eye out for profiles with an email address clearly displayed in the bio on Instagram or the contact page on Facebook.

Is Their Content Fabulous?

Another easy way to spot an influencer is to observe their content and their aesthetic. Are they following a theme? Do they use the same filter or editing style for each image, or do they post anything and everything? Do their images look styled and curated? Can you tell if imagery was taken on a DSLR camera of iPhone? As the influencer cohort grows at a very fast pace, influencers are in increasingly investing in high-quality equipment so they can focus on creating unique content on a regular basis to stand out from the crowd. As the old saying goes, a picture is worth a thousand words, so a quick glance at their content will tell you whether they are a digital influencer, and if they’re a good fit for your campaign.

Do They Feature Brands In Their Content?

Generally speaking, influencers want to increase their engagement and gain more exposure, so they regularly feature brands on their platforms and always tag the necessary accounts. Why? Because brands often repost user-generated content and tag them, which leads to more exposure for the influencer. Have a scan of their profile content and see whether there are any product shots or flatlays featuring branded products, and check whether the brand has been tagged in the photo. If so, that’s a pretty good sign that you are looking at a digital influencer who is keen to work with like-minded brands.

Are They Consistent?

To stay top of mind, influencers tend to post multiple times throughout the day, and only ever at high traffic times. This is most important for social media platforms where ‘peak time’ is between 6-9am, midday and 5-9pm, as that is when most users are on the platforms engaging with content. Also, there is minimal sporadic behaviour on an influencers social media channels as content is drafted, edited and pre-scheduled strategically so consistency is key.

So, do you think you could spot an influencer at first glance now? It’s important to be able to distinguish a digital influencer quickly and easily so you can find the right people for your campaigns and capitalise on their reach among consumers in your target demographic.

PS - If you need help looking in the right direction for potential influencers, check out this blog post we wrote on discovery influencers.

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