Originally posted here (Spanish) in 2017.

I am one of those who believe that true ‘influencers’ are those ordinary people who are by your side every day: those who recommend, or not, a product to you. That close person you trust based on past experiences. Not someone with many followers just because they tell jokes from school or because they refer to themselves in the third person. The types of ‘influencers’ have been segmented, but few times have we been told what considerations we should have, which is why I am writing this.

If you, the one reading this, want to add some ‘influencers’ to your marketing strategy, I’ll give you some questions and/or advice based on what I have learned in these years as an advertiser and now immersed in the digital world.

Let’s begin!

1. Quality over quantity.
   A fundamental point is the quality of the ‘Influencer’ rather than the billions of followers a person may have. Why? I’ll answer that with another question: What’s the value of a community of over 5,000 followers if only 0.5% of them are active? In most cases, we are drawn in by a high number of people following this ‘influencer’, but few times are we told how many are active, how many respond, how many really interact with them, etc.
2. Interaction is what leads me to influence someone.
   Is this ‘influencer’ active in responding to their posts? Because if you’re going to pay $500 for 2 posts but this person doesn’t respond to their community, or doesn’t follow up on inquiries, complaints, support, and other interactions related to that post you paid for, let me tell you that firstly, you’re wasting your money, and secondly, you could achieve more with paid advertising on Facebook, Twitter, Google, or any other social media platform that provides an ROI.
3. Serious and professional interview.
   Have you been visited by this ‘influencer’ and/or their representative? Your initial contact with this person is crucial. Remember that you are hiring someone to convey a message from your brand. It’s a job interview, not a conversation with your lifelong friend. There’s money involved here, and in the end, results must be delivered. There are individuals and PR agencies skilled in managing your relationship with influencers.
4. Lifestyle.
   Have you taken the time to understand the lifestyle of these individuals or group of people? What’s the point of paying someone to say they’re going to your store or using your product if they can be seen elsewhere in town or consuming your competition? Or even better, could this person jeopardize your brand by engaging in public drunkenness, being racist, or being associated with something that could affect them? This leads us to the battle of real lifestyle vs. digital lifestyle: Is the digital life of this person different from their real life? Can it have an impact? This is an extension of the previous point, as you must evaluate what they post, how they post, how they respond, and how they don’t respond in comparison to their real behavior.

   Let’s consider an example: you pay someone to say that your brand has no discrimination against anyone, but a few days later, this person, drunk in a bar, starts treating the waiter badly, insulting them and putting them in a humiliating situation. An individual ‘X’ captures this on video and posts it on their own social media. This is not hypothetical; there are documented cases of this. It’s in these instances that a brand realizes who holds more influence. An individual ‘X’ creates a ‘viral’ effect within their small group of people. How does the ‘influencer’ respond to this action by individual ‘X’? Let me tell you that this is where a brand can be most affected by the ‘influencer’.

5. Public profile on social media.
   Does this person use their profile or have a separate instance to sell their services? If it’s the first option: What is public? What is not public? Why? If it’s the second: Do you or your marketing team have access to the analytics to know the actual results being achieved and to better guide the campaign? An ‘influencer’ who does not provide direct access to monitor their analytics is rarely a reliable person. And if they use their personal profile, how do they measure the success of their campaign? By ‘likes’? Seriously? We always forget something: giving a portion of communication to an ‘influencer’ is giving communication to a human. Therefore, we must keep in mind that they are not perfect, and this should not affect the brand’s carefully crafted image that they manage or represent.