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How To Hire An Online Influencer For Your Company

Your company is looking to expand their content and social marketing strategies, or I assume so if you are reading this post. That’s great! Using content and social media to expand brand awareness and engage with your customers is a fundamental element of marketing in this digitally focused world we now live in. It is also one of the more stable means of advertising, thanks to a highly saturated market and an endless platform.

The first step is hiring a blogger, but you don’t just want any old writer for the task. You want someone who is going to take your blog to new heights, and craft a genuine, sustainable content foundation to build your efforts on. What you need is an “influential” blogger.

How do you go about finding and hiring one?

Define “Influential” As It Applies To Your Brand

influence

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Your first mission is to define what “influential” means as it applies to the needs of your brand. For example, do you just want someone who is good at writing engaging content that gets attention from customers? Someone who is able to write in a technical manner that stems from real expertise? Or even someone who is able to stir up controversy and get people talking?

Other factors to consider is how likely their name is to draw traffic, their experience in creating blogs in the past, and their social media presence and how they handle social media sites. Because social media correspondence and marketing are natural extensions of blogging for a brand, and they will have at least some part in that. Even if it is just optimizing headlines for social sharing/click baiting.

Have a clear idea of what it is you’re looking for, before you try to hire someone.

Know The Signs Of An Influential Blogger

Just as mentioned above, different qualities tend to make up an influential blogger. While the qualities that are important to you will differ, there are a couple to look out for and recognize:

  • Social media know-how. If they have a good and active social media page, they are halfway there. Not only will they be likely to share the content for your brand on those pages, but it shows their ability to connect on those platforms.
  • Ability to tell stories. It isn’t enough just to relay information at a reader. Storytellers make the most successful bloggers, even technical ones. They allow the reader to relate to them, and connect with the story itself.
  • Outlying skills. Photography, graphic design, copywriting, graph building, analytics experience, marketing degrees… these are all helpful outlying skills that can contribute to the success of their content.

Start a Company Blog

I know this may sound obvious for many of the readers but you’ll be surprised at how many companies haven’t yet utilized blogging yet. Some have nothing to say (or they may think so), others are not sure how that works.

For both, I think this guide on starting a blog is really comprehensive and complete. I’d recommend it for everyone who needs a high-quality all-in-one blogging guide that will be quite easy to comprehend.

Start a blog

Connect First, Then Make Your Offer

Once you have found the blogger you want to work for you, and you have set aside the money in your budget for their rate, it is time to approach. But that doesn’t be done right away. Take some time to make your presence known, perhaps over a couple of weeks. Start writing emails, connect on their social media page, and read through their content.

Further reading:

As you start to develop a repertoire, then you can approach the topic of them working for you, especially long term. Don’t be surprised if they are reluctant to do it on a different site, however. They might be unwilling to attach their name to a brand completely, in which case…

Be Flexible and Creative

Even if they are not interested to become your brand ambassadors, you can still use their skills. Many bloggers with established presences online will be interested in getting interviewed, become a one-time contributor to your blog or reviewer of your product.

Use any possibility to interact with influencers through great content: You never know what kind of possibilities that will open up for you. One thing to be sure about: Connecting to influencers through content marketing builds your brand trust which is priceless.

Conclusion

You can hire an influential blogger, and you will be thrilled with the results. Just make sure you are doing it the right way, and that you know what it is you’re looking for in the first place.

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