5 Benefits of Building Relationships With Twitter Influencers

Do you pay attention to who is sharing, replying to and engaging with your tweets the most? Or the people you’re connected to within your industry, who have huge followings that hang on their every word?

Twitter can be a great tool for influencer marketing – building relationships with influential, targeted individuals or brands. Here are five reasons why you should consider seeking out and connecting with your own Twitter heavy-hitters:

1. Increase your reach

If you build strong relationships with influencers on Twitter, they might become fans of your brand and start spreading the word.

Imagine sending a tweet that is not only seen by your 1,500 followers, but by the 150,000 followers that a Twitter influencer within your industry has.

Each time an influencer retweets you or engages with your tweet, you increase your reach and exposure. And by developing real relationships with these influencers, you can ask them to write product reviews, send sponsored tweets or more to augment your marketing efforts.

2. Know your audience

Connecting to the right influencers can actually provide you with some great audience insights.

Beginning by identifying influencers within your industry, you can explore who they are connected to to get an idea of what your target audience is like on Twitter. Check out who they follow, who follows them, and – possibly most importantly – the lists they are part of and have created. These will all offer up a different slice of your potential target audience, which you can examine one-on-one or in the aggregate using analytics tools.

3. Earn trust

By aligning yourself with trusted influencers, your brand will be perceived as more trustworthy itself. Typically, consumers trust word-of-mouth recommendations more than they trust messages sent directly from brands – so if you are connected to influencers who share your message, consumers may trust your brand more.

Of course, this strategy relies on a number of caveats. First, you must be connected to the right influencer: someone who is trustworthy and whose values align with both your brand values and the values of your target audience. And second, the influencer must genuinely want to share your brand’s message, because they feel it will add value to their followers’ lives. Otherwise, the endorsement will be hollow and may backfire.

4. Inform your content

Simply identifying influencers in your niche or industry can help you brainstorm content for your own marketing efforts.

Take a look at what they’re sharing and writing about. What’s trending? What’s controversial? What’s new? Influencers are often the first to share news or opinions within an industry, so following their example could be a fruitful strategy. Just be sure to use their content as inspiration – not as a carbon copy!

5. Meet new connections

By reaching out to influencers, you can find new connections, leads and potential partnerships. Many influencers will be happy to introduce two people or businesses within their network that they feel could be mutually beneficial to one another. By becoming part of an influencer’s network, you may be able to find new and interesting connections.

(Influence image via Shutterstock)