Just a little of that Human Touch...

The growth in tools for finding influencers based on social data is booming. And thats a great thing. The filters can help identify critical elements to a successful partnership with influencers - social reach, affinity, demographics, engagement, etc. You can quickly vet a group of influencers that can be considered on several important factors. But there’s a secret ingredient to real success that doesn't show up in any computer screen because it requires an actual conversation.

To respect your audience and build a bridge of authenticity with your influencer, you’ll have to first ask these questions: Do you use the product or service? Do you align with the campaign message? Do you have a creative approach that will elevate the content?   If you can align on these answers, you’ll then just need to make sure they are professional, reliable partners which comes from experience or diligent referral checks, not an API. 

So as the industry grows, let's be thankful that flood of great, useful data now gives us extra time for a little human touch.