5 Free Tools To Help You Find Social Media Influencers

To any social media campaign success, one key element which influences the result more significantly than any other factor is an influencer or a mega connector or a mega hub, if you may. Have you noticed how "pre launch leaks" by one or another of such influencer affects the cell phone industry? It should not surprise you that quite a number of times these leaks are planned well in advance to tip these influencers and their followers. The power of influencers is known to almost all the social media marketers, but what many of them do not know is how to find influencers for the campaign or brand. This is the bottleneck I am going to widen to help you sail through your social media marketing.

Klout

Klout is the first tool that comes to mind when a person thinks of checking one's own influence on social media. The platform not only measures online influence of a certain person on social media, but through its Klout for Business tool it also helps brand find key influencers which can take the brand to their devout followers. These industry-specific influencers have more power to sway their audiences than any mass media tend to have.

PeerIndex

Influence, as PeerIndex rightly post on its website, is the currency of social web. So this social media analytic company has taken upon itself to find a list of suitable influencers for anyone who cares to look its way. It claims that PeerIndex not only find influencers but also the context in which they are influential, and it present the data in the form of something called "Influence Graph." This tool is worth a look.

Addict-o-matic

Addict-o-matic scan through various key social media website (like Digg, Flickr, Topix, Technorati, Newsvine, Truveo, Ask, etc) to help you discover the things people are talking and/or speaking about your brand or category. This does not only work as a tool to keep you on top of the recent happenings in your niche, but it doubles as an influencer search engine. By listing the links, images, videos, and content shared on some of the key social media channels, it tells you about people who are holding that conversation. This information is vital for a brand, as it can be used to find influencers in the niche.

Boardreader

Boardreader is not your typical influencer searching tool that you can use to find social media influencers or discussion they are engaged in on various social media websites, nevertheless it is a powerful influencer discovery tool. It allows you to find you forums and discussion threads therein. You can skim through some of these threads and look for people who have a good reputation. They can be as valuable (or even more) on social media as the ones posting on twitter and other social sites.

Traackr

Traackr is another tool that helps you find influencers for your brand, campaign, or niche. The tool claims to provide metric-driven influencer mapping to help brand identify influencers for a certain topic. It helps you track the conversations your target influencers are engaged in or making happen. It also says that it can provide contact details of influencers and will bring all the places where he or she publishes anything in one place. This tool looks good to me, but I am not sure if it is free to use. I included it in the list for the power it possesses.

Which is your Favourite Tool?

If you are doing social media marketing for quite some time than you must have come across a tool that help you find key influencers in your niche. I'd like to know which tool you use to get your job done. Please share your experience below.