The Right Way to Find Influencers

There are lots of experts out there. With the rise of the internet – and social media in particular – people can easily find kindred spirits with similar, often hyper-specific interests. At any given moment there are countless digital conversations in progress, on topics ranging from utterly inane to absolutely critical.

Enter brands, which are realizing more and more the importance of establishing relationships with individuals who are influential within certain industries and topics. Their logical next step is to harness the expertise of subject matter experts in order to reach customers (and prospective customers) who have become increasingly knowledgeable and specialized in the digital age.

Doing so often requires you to find influencers at the intersection of topics – people with a very specific, perhaps niche set of knowledge. Here’s a glimpse at how brands can do just that.

How to Find Influencers at the Intersection of Topics

If you are using a social listening approach, don’t look for people who use “topic keyword A” and “topic keyword B” in the same content. That’s too rare. Instead, build a set of people who use topic keyword (set) A. Then listen to those people and see who also uses topic keywords in set B in other content. After that, switch the order and begin with a set of people who use keyword B, then filter down to find people who also use keyword A.

A Few Examples

• The maritime shipping industry struggles with high labor turnover due to intercultural communication challenges. One firm partnered with influential anthropologists who were in touch with maritime shipping industry influencers online. The firm ultimately enlisted the anthropologists to create content that addressed the issue.
• Recognizing that there are too many marketing influencers to engage with in a strategic way, one martech company focused on reaching marketing thought leaders who already had influence among the firm’s customer base.