As influencer marketing has become a rather big part of marketing campaigns for brands, picking the right influencers is of the utmost importance. The right influencers will not only help amplify the brand to their followers but also help maintain the brand image as envisioned.

But how important is it to choose the right influencers? Let’s say you are a smartphone manufacturer who is about to launch its latest flagship phone by the end of the year. Once the phone releases, you approach a blogger/influencer to review it. But you wouldn’t want just any blogger/influencer to review it. Instead, you’d look for someone who works as a content creator in the tech domain and has a follower base that is interested in smartphones. Similarly, you have a specific kitchen appliance that you want a blogger to review. It would most likely be a food blogger, but you also need to make sure that this blogger has a fairly big kitchen in order to have space for it on the kitchen counter. Setting up all the criteria in advance will help you find a strong match and automatically decrease the time spent on finding the right influencers – you will know exactly what to look for.

Now let’s get on to the important part. How can you pick the perfect influencers for your brand? We take a look through a step by step approach.

1. Find influencers who share similar values
   This is the single biggest criteria that brands need to take into consideration while deciding on an influencer. As mentioned above, choosing the right influencer who creates content in the same space as the brand is very important. However, finding someone who also shares the same values as your brand is an even bigger bonus. Look through an influencer’s historic activity. A key part of preserving your brand is upholding a good reputation.
   
2. Look at the important metrics
   Do not be fooled by extraordinary follower numbers on an influencer’s social media handles. An influencer with 50,000 followers might have a pretty low engagement rate, as compared to someone with just 5,000 followers but still has a much better engagement rate and a tighter sense of community. A good way to evaluate engagement is to measure click-throughs. If links are included in social posts, how many people are bothering to click? Read the comments and type of feedback the influencer typically receives.
   
3. Content Quality
   Working with influencers means you are asking someone to make sponsored content for your brand, and since that content will be representing the brand and all the values it stands for, you need to make sure that their content quality is a fit for your brand image.
   When you look at the influencers’ profiles, you should look closely for content that’s clear, well-composed, creative, consistent, and optimized for Instagram.

With these points in mind, picking the right influencer for your brand should be an easy and informed decision, which will help you amplify the reach of your campaign. If you put in the work to find the right one, initiating an influencer partnership can add tremendous value.