10 Qualities Of A Good Influencer: Must Read For Brands

 

Finding good influencers can be difficult if you don't know how to search and what features you should put special emphasis on. Brands want influencers to speed positive words about their products and services so that they can increase revenue and get more exposure among their target audience.

If you know what you are looking for from your influencer marketing campaign it would be easier to spot the right influencers. But that’s just one side of the story, you need to check a few things in your influencer to become sure those are the right choice for your project.

As a leading influencer marketing platform here our expert influencer marketers highlighted some of the features which tells a lot about how good an influencer should be to provide the best out of your influencer marketing campaign.

Who are influencers?

Influencers are content creators known for their outstanding knowledge and skills in a particular niche. They are supposed to be backed by a huge follower and be able to influence their mindset regarding the final purchase decision. This is the reason brands prefer to partner with powerful influencers who will endorse their brands among their target audience.

Influencers can belong from any of the following tiers:

Nano influencer (within 10k followers) 
Micro influencer (10 to 20k followers)
Mega influencer (20 to 100k followers)
Celebrity influencer (more than 100k followers)

Depending on the number of followers and reputation on social media we can categorize influencers from any of the following. Brands choose to work with influencers as per their marketing requirement and budget, celebrity influencers are much costly than micro and nano influencers.

Influencers can also be categorized as per their niche and interest, some of the prominent categories are:

Bloggers
YouTubers 
Podcasters 
Social posts only 

Brands must not consider influencers merely as a marketing tool instead they need to be treated as social media assets who help you fulfil your marketing requirement with their content creation abilities.

Top 10 qualities of a good influencer

As a leading influencer marketing platform here our expert influencer marketers highlighted some of the features which tells a lot about how good an influencer is.

1. Knowledgeable

A good influencer must have proper knowledge about his/her own niche which would add more credibility. The influencer must be aware of recent changes and updates in the field of influencer marketing if he/she is interested in collaborating with brands. Reading blogs and checking influencer marketing news and updates would be extremely beneficial in such cases. Brands don’t want their social media marketing campaign to backfire due to influencer’s lack of knowledge so the more you know the better you would deliver the content and in turn, the brands would get impressed.

2. Social

The influencers must be extremely active on social media and post frequently. It ensures better engagement which is one of the topmost criteria of brands when they are selecting influencers for their promotion. They must interact with their followers in a friendly way. Also, check how the followers respond to such comments, another thing that big brands must check is how the influencers handle negative comments. You can simply take a look at the insight of their recent posts to understand how social they are.

3. Creative

Influencers are known for their creativity which not only makes the content dynamic but also interesting in front of the audience. Creativity matters when brands are looking to stand out, in fact for some brands creativity is one of the topmost criteria for collaboration. If you are one such brand looking for outstanding content you must check the creative skills of your influencers before going onboard. Make sure he/she can appeal to the customers with their content which is the whole point of running the campaign.

4. Aligned

The influencers must resonate well with your business otherwise you might face problems communicating with them. Make sure they understand and believe in your brand and genuinely care for what you do to stand out. They don't have to agree on everything but make sure they understand the main value behind your business.

If you are promoting a healthcare product you would not want a person with deal your drinking and smoking history to promote it. Even if so make sure the person has changed his/her lifestyle before endorsing your product. So ask whether this person has similar value to your business or do they support any other brand if yes what are the policies.

5. Responsive

A good influencer must be responsible regarding collaboration approaches. No matter whether the influencer is a celebrity or falls under the category of micro-influencer he/she should respond within 24 hours or a maximum of 48 hours (for mega and celebrity influencers). They must reply to every comment in order to maintain the engagement which is the higher the better. They must post frequently on social media if not daily. So check the post frequency, types of comment and response time of your influencers in order to understand how responsive he/she is.

6. Accessible

In some cases celebrity influences communicate via their managers or through influencer marketing agencies, in that case, you might face problems while communicating with them. But if you are dealing with micro-influencers you would get a prompt response in most cases. If not that influencer might not be perfect for your business, because if between the campaign something went wrong you need to communicate with the influencers to fix it. If you can not reach them on time you won’t be able to change anything. So make sure your influencers are prompt at replying to any of your queries on time.

7. Tech-savvy

Influencers are required to post high-quality images and engaging videos to engage their audience so make sure the content creators you are planning to work with are tech-savvy. Ask your team to check the content quality of the influencers, especially do that have an aesthetic value of their page, are their pictures maintain high quality, do they edit photos well etc. If the influencers are aware of how to use different influencer marketing tools you can give extra credit to them.

8. Consistent

Good influencers must be consistent in what they do, they must post frequently on social media because it has a direct connection with the overall engagement and reaches of the audience. On Instagram, the influencer must upload at least one post per day for micro-influencers and one post per two to three days for celebrity influencers. If you found more than a week gap between the posts try to avoid working with the influencers as they don’t maintain proper consistency while posting content on social media. Engagement is not a one-time thing the more you will post on your social media profile the better engagement you would get.

9. Versatile

The influencer must be able to create dynamic content as per the brand’s requirement, they are supposed to be agile and obedient when it comes to driving sales for a brand. Some brands are looking to partner with influencers as brand ambassadors for a long-term basis, if the influencer provides any sales to the brand, they can earn a commission, more like affiliate marketing. Make sure the audience listen to the influencers otherwise you may end up not having the exact engagement you are looking for.

10. Brand-friendly

The influencer must be friendly and familiar with the brand mission, they must have a clear idea about what the brand is looking for from the influencer. To leverage the ultimate power of influencers brands must keep room for creativity while planning for the campaign, so don’t push too hard to follow your instructions. Customers are smarter than the brands could imagine, they can easily spot the difference between a genuine campaign and a staged one which might look like nothing but the grab of cash to them. So be careful while curating the campaign tasks. If your influencer has a similar experience of working with a brand it would become easier to communicate with them, however, you can also hire freshers for your campaign if they match your criteria.

Also read,
7 Ways To Get The Most Out Of Your Influencer Collaboration 

8 Types Of Social Media Content For Better Engagement 

How to get brand collaboration as an influencer?

If you believe you can offer quality content to your audience while mentioning the sales pitch for a brand you are ready to roll. In the long run and for the right brand follower counts doesn't matter, as a leading influencer marketing agency in Canada we have understood that from our previous experience. As long as you are able to create good content that can create a buzz about the product among your audience (brand's target audience) you would always be wanted by the brands. If you are able to provide a healthy engagement and reach as per your reputation you will be considered as a good influencer.

You can also reach out to brands in order to let them know you are available for collaboration. You can tell them what you can offer to them and why should they choose you, take this as an opportunity to tell positive words about the brand so that they understand you genuinely believe in their products or services.

If you are looking for brand collaboration as an influencer connect with InfluGlue the leading influencer marketing platform in Canada with years of experience in dealing with influencer advertising campaigns for big as well as emerging brands. They have the largest database of bloggers, influencers, YouTubers and other industry experts in the country, if you believe you have the ability to work with more brands, you must partner with them. They will directly connect you with brands whenever there will be any suitable campaign for you. Not only that you can also get proper remuneration for your talent and creativity which can be a coupon, discount vouchers, free products or hard cash. So, you have no reason to hold yourself back from connecting with InfluGlue.