Do you need to communicate an experience to your customers or prospect customers? Could there be anything better than having one of them telling all the other ones about it?
And what if this customer has a high reach and can easily get in touch with other customers?
Leveraging on the right people is fundamental to implement successful Social Influence strategies.

You need to find and involve an "influencer". But how do you do it?

In a Social Universe that's full of "creators" (in the meaning that Forrester gives to this word) it's not easy to find out who can be a great influencer and leave out the ones that just contribute to noise.

Reach: look for numbers

Let's put this the easy way: Look for people who - with their actions - cause the highest number of reactions by other people. This will surely give you a first indication of valuable consumers you can involve. Of course you should search for people active on topics related to your communication objectives. There are plenty of tools that allow you to do it. Just to mention one, Radian6 is a great tool to find influencers and rate them based on the number of reactions that they cause. But this is not enough.

Affinity: don't look for numbers

When looking for influencers, you must not forget that these people will help you generating a lead: it could be a subscription, a purchase, a dialogue or a thousand more actions but the influencer should push influenced to act.
So let's rethink it: are you looking for someone who can reach the highest number of users?
Probably not. The one you're looking for is a person that can make an impact on the followers and inspire them, move them to act and push them to spread the message he is carrying. Real influence is not measured (only) with numbers. It's fundamental to understand what kind of affinity an influencer has with the audience.
Communicate the signal and wipe out the noise by choosing the right people.

How do you do it?

You need to breathe the influencer's world, to be part of the audience for a while, to look at the influenced closely to understand how a person can influence others.

Start by the numbers.
Analyze the behaviour.
Look for strong interpersonal ties. Avoid weak ones.

Apply your Social Influence strategy.
How do you find your influencers? Share your experience
Can you think of some additional to do’s when seeking for the right influencers? Tell it in the comments