Like many others, I tend to reference Yelp, YouTube, or blogger reviews prior to trying a new restaurant or making a large purchase. With social media platforms becoming a daily part of many people’s lives, individuals are relying more on customer opinions to influence their purchasing decisions. This trend is lending itself to a new type of marketing – influencer marketing.

Influencer marketing is a form of marketing in which brands place their focus on specific key individuals instead of directly to the target market. Simply put, brands are leveraging key influencers and opinion leaders to promote and sell their products and services. While we are used to brands leveraging celebrates to promote their offerings, social media has provided a platform for anyone with internet access to become an influencer – bloggers, YouTubers, Twitter users, etc.

Brands can leverage two types of influencers:

• Paid Influencers: individuals that have been incentivized to promote a brand.
  Incentives for paid influencers can include free products or services, sponsorship, or payment in exchange for the influencer to post or share content about the brand.
• Earned (unpaid) influencers: individuals that have a preexisting relationship with the brand and naturally advocate for it.
  Earned influencers tend to share content on a make because they simply enjoy it or want to promote their own social growth.

So what should you look for when targeting influencers? When considering what types of influencers to leverage, keep the following in mind:

1. Who is my audience?
   Find your ideal influencers by thinking not just about who your customer audience is, but where they are located, what channels do they utilize, what types of content would they like to see, and whose opinions matter to them.
2. What is their reach?
   An influencer’s audience is just as important as your own. Keep in mind the size of their audience, audience demographics, and geography. If you own a local restaurant in Rhode Island, it probably won’t make sense to go after a Connecticut-based food blogger unless the blogger is widely known in the region.
3. What can I offer to the influencer?
   Whether you decide to utilize earned or unpaid influencers, the decision is ultimately up to you. In the case of earned influencers, consider the types of content they share and how your product or service can be incorporated.