How can you tell if an influencer is legit?

Selecting the right influencer is the first step of influencer marketing, you can consider the following points: - Engagement: Genuine influencers have active, real engagement (likes, comments) from followers. - Niche Consistency: Legit influencers stick to a specific niche. - Transparency: Authentic influencers disclose paid promotions, following advertising rules. - Reputation: Check online reviews, history, and absence of scams or controversies. - Consistency: Regular posting with steady engagement indicates authenticity. - Verified Profiles: Look for verified badges. - Endorsements: Reputable brand partnerships or endorsements signal legitimacy. - Personal Interaction: Genuine influencers engage with their audience.

Assessing the legitimacy and potential impact of influencer is crucial before signing up an influencer campaign. Consistent and gradual growth rate indicates a credible profile and their ability to connect meaningfully with audience. Tools like Social Blade and Influencer Marketing Hub are insightful in this regard

Also, the Influencer's products have to be well known, receive good feedbacks and recommendations as well as lots of likes on social media. The Influencers write ups on the products and their companies are convincing and prove their efficacy.

Engagement quality is so much more important than rate. Engagement is down for all so rate isn't a sure fire way to know anything. Look at their comments. - Are they filled with emojis or comments that aren't relevant to the content? - Are the same people commenting on every single post... POD ALERT!! - Is it all spam that they aren't deleting? Might be trying to fluff engagement so in quick scans in the feed it looks like they have more Another thing to look at - who likes the content and follows them. - Do the accounts look real? - Are there a ton of accounts without photos?

I’ve noticed meaningful interactions such as thoughtful comments and shares, demonstrating that influencer is connected with her audience beyond mere likes. This shows genuine interest of audience. Hootsuite and Socialbakers are tools to provide insights with depth of connection between influencer and their followers.

Creator with focused niche suitable for your brand > Creator with multiple interests to get more followers. This result will also be shown in campaigns. Unless otherwise when the campaign goal is to experiment with new audience.

I’ve had some amazing and some of my worst experiences with creators. Highlighting some positives that you must look up before the campaign: - Good behavioural etiquettes, Respectful to you and your brand (even difference in views are regarded) - Focus on objective and deriving common goal and value for both parties - Clear communication (written), clear payment terms, clear deliverable These are some preliminary pre-campaign signals.

Analytics of influencer campaign are important just like an ad campaign. Reporting and measuring is crucial component to understand the influencer’s potential and suitability for your brand.