6 Best Practices for Influencer Marketing

Influencer marketing isn’t a new concept. Getting the right people excited, engaged, and talking about your brand has always been one of the best ways to improve brand recognition, expand your customer base, and ultimately drive more sales. After all, word of mouth is the most trusted way for a potential customer to hear about your product.

What has changed is that social media has made word of mouth global and immediate. Someone talking positively about your brand and products on Twitter, Facebook, Google+, Pinterest or any other social media platform can have a powerful and far-reaching influence. That’s made building relationships with these online influencers more important than ever. In the 2013 Influencer Marketing Survey conducted by Sensei Marketing, 74% of respondents said they plan to deploy influencer marketing strategies during the next 12 months, and over half said they use influencer marketing as part of their campaigns.

Odds are influencer marketing is already part of your game plan. The ability it gives you to tap into a network trusted by consumers, turn fans into advocates, and generate both insights and leads makes it a necessary part of any marketing plan. The question is: how can you maximize your return on investment? Here are 6 best practices used by marketers to influence the influencers and produce real results.