If you are into professional SEO, you may be familiar with the term influencer marketing, which has become a major buzzword among online marketers. This concept is believed to have a lot of potential to bring more value to overall SEO efforts. According to the SEO experts, influencers have great networking skills that can be used to gain the following advantages:Gaining a better reputationAttracting a larger spectrum of audienceConducting mutually beneficial exchanges of information, content, and anything with online valueWhen it comes to the mightiest application of influencer marketing, it can surely be in search engine optimization, where it is now the fastest way to scale and boost your strategies. However, the most difficult aspect of the entire game is to know where to find the influencers and how to identify the best out of them. Remember, you need someone with expertise that is relevant to your business and brand. For those who are new to this, let us discuss more about the relation between social influencers and SEO, and how you can leverage this relationship for your benefit.Searching For Influencers:There are various ways to find the right influencers. Here, we will discuss a few of the easiest and most effective approaches.Basic manual search – You can conduct primary searches as your first option. Basic Google search and social media searches have to be conducted to identify top influencers. You can also search using the top keywords matching to your industry, and also generate a list of the strong personal brands based on region.Using software – There are few good social listing software available such as Buzzsumo, through which you can chase down the top influencers involved in frequent conversations. Some of the top search software can also recommend the right influencers in your industry on sharing information about your preferences.Refer to industry publications and events – Try to follow the top publications and events related to your industry to find out the apt influencers. This is again a manual process. For example, check for the speakers in conference, classes, consulting etc. and check who are being discussed the most on the social media.Identifying The Right Influencers:Look for the following pointers to identify your most ideal influencer. Generically, three major qualities of an ideal influencer to seek for are:Huge following – By default, an influencer should have a significant level of influence on the public. This needs to be measured based on the number of followers. The audience of an influencer you are targeting should be in thousands at minimum, preferably tens of thousands to millions. Without such a huge count of followers, the influencers will not be able to offer you the desired level of returns based on a shared contribution.Live and regular – You should go for influencers who are live and active on the social media. For example, some influencers such as celebrities may have millions of followers, but they may be inactive on the social media and may update posts only occasionally. They are, of course, not the right choice. You have to search for someone who is always involved in regular conversations, and someone that engages with the audience successfully.Relevance to your niche – Most importantly, you need to seek an influencer who is from the same industry as yours, or has a significant influence over your exact target group. It is not mandatory that you have to find one in the same niche, but one thing to note is that there exists some shared relevance.You can refer to Google to get more directives on identifying the right influencers.SEO Boost With Influencers:To start with, we will discuss about how proper influencer networking can help improve the search engine rankings.Enhancing online visibility and winning more inbound links – Link building is the most essential activity for SEO success, and quality backlinks are important if you want to gain a high domain authority for organic search engine ranking. Getting the right influencer can take your content to thousands of fresh viewers.Getting a high reputation and more connections – Building relationships is more effective with the right influencer. On getting your content mentioned by an influencer, it will naturally build your reputation among the followers as well as the publishers. By slowly building up your reputation this way, you can further get a chance to post with bigger publishers too, which can help you win more valuable links to enhance your acceptance.Creation of mutual value through collaboration – Effective collaboration with the right influencer on a given piece of content shared can ensure a better reach to wider audience, thereby also offering mutual growth. As your social content reaches further, you can enjoy more social signals and more inbound links.A Few General Points To Keep In Mind While Engaging With Influencers:Once you rightly identify one or multiple influencers you can successfully engage with, a few more things are there that you need to maintain a proper decorum in the deal.Be dignified and unique – Know that the influencers get frequent requests for association. They make a decision on whether to consider you or not by seeing what uniqueness you put forth. So, always stand out in your plan and approach.The influencers are busy – The influencers may be running big businesses or engaged full time in managing active social profiles. So, they are always very busy and seldom get time to respond to everyone’s query. So, don’t be surprised if you don’t get response all the time.Time is money for them, so ensure the best value – You should put forth a really valuable offer when it comes to sharing something. This can be a content contribution, sponsorship, or a supportive insight, which may differ based on the need of the situation.To conclude, while finalizing your influencer, it is essential to go through a few best options on the basis of the relevance, willingness to engage with you, and their activities etc. Maintain an active relationship with the influencer if you find a positive ROI, and keep on trying to work your way up for better and more valuable targets.About the Author:Selina Jenkins is the brain behind the SEO success of www.seoadvise.com. She leads a team of professionals including marketers, technicians, and webmasters. She possesses expertise in analytics and also frequently posts informative articles in various SEO blogs.Find Me On GooglePlus
