If you think influencer marketing is just about famous consumer brands spending lots of money to have YouTubers and Instagrammers talk about them, you are far from the truth! Discover how any business in any industry can and should leverage influencers in this episode #142. Learn more about my upcoming book on influencer marketing, The Age of Influence, at https://nealschaffer.com/ageofinfluence.

Key Highlights

[01:36] Can Small Businesses Leverage Influencers?

[03:47] Send Me Questions!

[05:40] Believe in Influencer Marketing

[07:00] Influencer Marketing As An Extension of Celebrity Endorsement

[08:12] Two Ways of Collaboration

[09:42] Knowing the Voices of the Community

[11:11] How to Find the Right People

[14:10] HowTo Become An Influencer?

[16:09] Go Broader with Your Keyword Research

[17:02] The #1 Mistake Small Businesses Make When Reaching Out to Influencers

[18:06] "10-Person Rule"

[20:20] Ways to Categorize Influencers

[22:24] Have A Pool of Influencers

[22:56] Assess Your Pitch

[24:50] The Ideal Way of Reaching Out to Influencers

[26:51] Developing the Relationship

Notable Quotes

• Social media algorithms are controlled or managed by supply and demand.
• Regardless of how big or small your company is, it really comes down to who are the voices in the community that can help push your product forward in terms of it becoming aware by a new audience that doesn't know you or maybe an existing audience that you want them to get to know you better. This is a universal concept regardless of the size of your business that you should be talking about. 
• So who is talking about you, or about your competitors or about product names, and from there, you're going to begin to build a list of people that might be influential, you don't just want to look at follower count, you want to look at actually how many people are engaging with that content.
• I think it's natural that marketers who get involved in the space want to become more influential. 
• So at the end of the day, you need to understand the concept of influence and it's really going to help you in your influencer marketing as you become more influential.
•  It's really about finding a comfortable follower range. Right now, followers alone are not everything, they need to have a certain amount of engagement. 
• Start small, right? Start with people that actually have less global influence, but still have great influence in their niche.
• There are a lot of things you can offer influencers and influencers are only asking for money. That's where I sort of think of that as a red flag, because not every influencer is in it for the money. And if they are only in it for the money, it's more of a business to them. And

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