How do you create authentic and engaging content with your influencers?

1 Define your goals and expectations

Before you start working with influencers, you need to have a clear idea of what you want to achieve and how you will measure your success. Do you want to increase your website traffic, grow your social media following, generate leads, or drive sales? What kind of content do you want your influencers to create and share? How will you track and evaluate your influencer campaigns? Having specific and realistic goals and expectations will help you choose the right influencers, negotiate the terms of your partnership, and optimize your content strategy.

2 Find the right influencers

The next step is to find the influencers who match your brand personality, audience, and goals. You can use various tools and platforms to search for influencers based on their niche, location, reach, engagement, and relevance. You can also look at your own social media followers, customers, and industry peers to identify potential influencers who already have a connection with your brand. Once you have a list of candidates, you need to vet them carefully and make sure they have a genuine interest in your product or service, a positive reputation, and a loyal and active fan base.

3 Co-create the content

The best way to create authentic and engaging content with your influencers is to involve them in the content creation process. Instead of dictating what they should say or do, ask for their input, feedback, and ideas. Let them use their own voice, style, and creativity to showcase your brand in a way that appeals to their audience. Give them some guidelines and best practices, but also allow them some flexibility and freedom to express themselves. Co-creating the content will help you build a strong relationship with your influencers, ensure consistency and quality, and increase the credibility and trustworthiness of your message.

4 Amplify the content

Once you have the content ready, you need to make sure it reaches the right people at the right time. You can use various channels and strategies to amplify the content and maximize its impact. For example, you can share the content on your own social media accounts, website, blog, newsletter, or ads. You can also encourage your influencers to cross-promote the content on different platforms, tag your brand, use hashtags, and invite their followers to engage with the content. You can also leverage user-generated content, reviews, testimonials, and word-of-mouth to boost your social proof and visibility.

5 Monitor and optimize the content

The final step is to monitor and optimize the content and its performance. You need to collect and analyze data and feedback from your influencer campaigns and compare them with your goals and expectations. You can use various metrics and indicators to measure the reach, engagement, sentiment, conversion, and ROI of your content. You can also ask your influencers and your audience for their opinions and suggestions on how to improve the content and the collaboration. Monitoring and optimizing the content will help you identify what works and what doesn't, learn from your mistakes, and refine your influencer marketing strategy.

6 Here’s what else to consider

This is a space to share examples, stories, or insights that don’t fit into any of the previous sections. What else would you like to add?