Every NCAA athlete shares one common goal — a goal that out of the 460,000 student-athletes, only a handful can claim they have achieved. It’s conquering all opponents when under pressure. It’s beating all odds. It’s being crowned a National Champion.
Duke basketball players celebrate their National Championship victory.
National Championship teams do not just happen to come together. Each and every individual on those teams was handpicked based on certain criteria. Coaches work hard for days, weeks, and years to pull together information on an athlete before setting up an offer. They look at stats, unique strengths, attitude, and more.
When it comes time to find influencers for a brand campaign, marketers can learn a thing or two from college coaches and tap into their mindset of recruiting.
Step 1: Study the Stats
Numbers don’t mean everything, but studying result-driven stats is a good place to start.
In NCAA gymnastics, performances are based on a 10-point scale, one being the worst and 10 being perfect. During a routine, gymnasts are deducted points for un-pointed toes, missed handstands, stepping outside the line, or falling off the equipment. The goal is to receive a score as close to 10 as possible, and to do so on a consistent basis. These are the scores that coaches look at in the recruiting process to gage whether the athlete is worth their time or not.
Similarly in the digital marketing world, influencers are judged based on their ability to drive action, connect with networks, and the ratio of reactions to the amount of content. They then receive a score based on a 100 point scale known as Klout score. Those with the most influence have scores close to 100. According to Klout Support, the average score is around 40. Users with high scores around 63 are in the top five percent of all users.
Once you’ve gathered a large list of credible users, it’s time to study them as individuals.
Step 2: Unique Strengths
Now that you have a pool of high scorers that you know are capable of accomplishing influence, it’s time to narrow down based on the goal of the brand.
Women’s gymnastics has four events: vault, bars, beam, and floor. Each one of the events requires different strengths from the athlete. Bars and beam are calm and graceful, while vault and floor and fast and powerful. Although it is possible for athletes to compete in all four events, when it comes to recruiting, there are times where you only need an athlete for a specific event.
This method can compare to a brand needing a specific influencer for the sake of their campaign. A helpful tool to find specific influencers is a site called Buzzsumo. You can type in any keywords that relate to your campaign, and the site will spit out some key influencers based on similar standards in which a Klout score is measured.
If an influencer appears in both your lists from step one and step two, it’s time to move on to step three to see if they pass the engagement test for your brand.
Step 3: Active Engagement and Attitude
Once coaches sift through scores and specifics, personality and gusto comes next. There are certain gymnasts that have a charisma that is contagious. Fans can’t help but cheer for them. Their secret? They engage with the audience. Their performance isn’t for themselves, it’s for the people in the crowd.
For example, take a look at this video of LSU gymnast Lloimincia Hall. You can hear the crowd cheering just at the mention of her name. Before the music even begins, the audience knows they’re going to get to witness an outstanding performance.
This is a quality that you want in your social influencer. A strong social influencer has built a level of trust with his or her followers. You want an influencer that sparks the interest in users just by reading their name. TapInfluence shares more on trusted influencers stating, “You won’t gain [trust] on your own—75 percent of consumers don’t trust ads. And while 92 percent of consumers trust recommendations from those they know, 70 percent still value strangers’ opinions online.”
In the video of Lloimincia Hall, there are probably people in the crowd who have no idea who she is, but when they hear those around them stand up and cheer, they join in on the fun. Social content works the same way. When there is a post with thousands of comments and engagements, users are curious and want to join in. The type of influencer has everything to do with this.
Step 4: The Money
After going through the first three steps, coaches then take a final look at the survivors on their list and decide which athletes deserve a scholarship. For the influencers who are still standing on your list at this point, it’s time to make an offer. TapInfluence suggests that a portion of the 15 or 30 percent of your marketing budget allocated to distributing content should be spent on recruiting influencers.
Without strategic recruiting and scholarship offers, national championship teams would not be the same. Recruiting is a game of finding the most talented athlete to represent your team. The same is true with social influencers. Brands need to build their national championship team of influencers in order to break through the noise and win over the Internet.
For more information on the importance of influencer outreach, check out Why Influencer Outreach is Important for Community Managers.
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Hurrdat is a Lincoln, Neb. digital marketing agency specializing in social media and content marketing. The company was founded in 2010 and merged with B² Interactive of Omaha, Neb. in 2014 bringing even more digital marketing specialties to both firms’ clients. Together they provide a full range of social media, SEO, and website development services to both national brands and local clients. The companies employ more than 75 people in Nebraska and have won multiple awards for their business efforts, company culture, and clients’ campaigns.
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