How to Use Influencers in SEO and Content Campaigns

Influencer marketing or using an influencer marketing platform utilizes a high-impact tactic to integrate into your SEO strategy. By now, most marketers know the term “influencer marketing” but few may understand its value or how to get started.

What is Influencer Marketing?

Influencer marketing is the process of identifying, researching, engaging, and collaborating with an individual in your industry who has an influential presence. These are typically leadership, consultants, shakers, and makers who have a large network of connections and social media followers. They may have their own digital presence and content platformssuch as a website or social media. What’s important is their critical role in creating relevant content, engaging customer dialogue and instilling trust for brands and marketers.

Influencers carry a lot of weight in their circle. A Nielsen survey reported, “92% of people trust recommendations from other people over brand advertisements.”

Consumers know and trust their family and friends, and the influencers they follow on social media. In fact, a study by Annalect and Twitter found that consumers have as much trust in influencers as they do their family and friends.

4 SEO Benefits of Using an Influencer Marketing Platform

Brands and marketers leverage influencer marketing to optimize their SEO and content marketing strategies. The benefits of this approach include:

Increased Content Reach and Visibility

You can leverage influencer marketing to expand your reach for any content you produce. If social media influencers share your original content, any shares, replies, and comments will immediately gain more visibility.

Social media influencers help drive traffic to your site and in turn boost your SEO rankings. But don’t forget about qualified traffic and content engagement. A million followers do not equate to the highest impact and authority. Influencers with smaller followings get stronger engagement and bring more authenticity and trust.

Use an influencer marketing platform to increase your content reach and visibility, and to keep your engagement high.

Greater Audience Growth

Influencer marketing helps you build your social media network as well as qualified traffic to your site. No matter how good your content is, people will only follow you if they know you exist. An influencer sharing your content could introduce a new audience to your brand or business.

This alone won’t increase your SEO rankings, but over time, a bigger audience generates more shares, more likes and more traffic.

Custom Content and Collaboration

Working together with influencers is a great way to foster an ongoing, mutually beneficial relationship. This might be in the form of an industry report or podcast in which both parties engage in a discussion on a popular topic.

This opportunity probably won’t be an option for early stages of influencer relationships, but once you have identified an ongoing partner, this will help you earn more visibility by borrowing from each other’s authority.

Content Development and Publishing Opportunities

As you network and build relationships with more influencers over time, doors to additional content and publishing opportunities may open. For example, influencers might volunteer their content to your blog giving you additional content to and authority on your domain.

Another example, if one of your influencers has a connection to an editor or producer of a large network, you could get an introduction to make a content pitch. Sometimes, it’s who you know and that relationship that will launch your success.

Getting Started: Finding the Right Influencers

A successful influencer marketing platform starts with finding the right influencer, connecting and building your relationship. Key metrics to help you identify noteworthy influencers include:

• Check the influencer’s domain authority.
• Check their statistics (i.e. unique visitors per day, week and month).
• Check their engagements per post.
• Check their audience demographics, such as age, location and gender.

The best influencers have three attributes: consistency, a large following and a genuine interest in engaging with their audience. To get started on the right foot, make sure you do your research. First, create a list of influencers you can find on your social media platform within your industry. Then, narrow down your list to the influencers who align well with your target market, goals and priorities.

To build momentum, reach out to local influencers and lesser-knowns. Then work your way up to higher social media authorities.

To get started growing your online brand reputation through mobile marketing, reputation management and web development, contact Unbiazed today.