How to Find Key Online Influencers

Many thanks to Laura-Lee Walker for this Guest Post

Influencers reside in every knick and cranny on the web. They share stories about brands. The more influential they are, the more impact their stories have on the success of a business. Active web users create about 500 million impressions or data points on products and services per year, yet 80 percent of these user impressions were made by a mere 6 percent of users on social media.

Certainly this begs the question: how much of our time, effort and money is spent targeting those that aren't influential with our branding messages hoping to spread the word about our product our service? Is this an effective way to spend out time?

There are key platforms that are known for measuring online influence, the most popular being Klout. It's primary goal is to build a deeper understanding of personal influence and gauge online the influence of others on the web.

Klout has recently taken their platform and kicked it up notch with a new service being rolled out called Klout for Business. Business will receive complimentary analytics that reflect how and where influencers are engaging with your brand.

Business can access a dashboard that lets you know if you're engaging key fluencers on social networks where they are most active. Of particular interest, Klout tells you which topics your audience influences others on. This feature helps target your marketing efforts about your brand.

Okay, very illuminating, excellent!

One nagging question remains. Are all influencers that have the same amount of online influence built the same? Do we reach out to these inflencers in the same way? Traackr believes that have an answer and a service that addresses these questions and offer a solution.

Traackr identifies influencer types and suggests engagement strategies targeted to each type of influencer. Check out their infographic the Many Faces of Influence to discover 10 key influencer archetypes and how to get them sharing stories about your brand.