Jennifer Baik, Media Analyst & Account Manager, PublicRelay Influencers have taken the marketing world by storm. A single “influencer” has the power to drastically impact a company’s public image, and this has been especially true for social media. Forbes now has a list of top influencers across different categories, and Rihanna’s recent call out of a Snapchat ad on her Instagram story dropped the company’s stock nearly 4%. While the “influencer” is something that has risen over the last few years, building relationships to advance a company’s goals is as old as PR itself. But in a landscape of social media and a plethora of instant, online content, how do you pick the right one for your company?What separates the most successful communications teams from the pack is the use of sophisticated and data-driven analysis to guide a brand’s influencer strategy. Algorithms and news alerts (particularly on social media) won’t catch every opportunity, but using quality, analyzed data could help your team own an industry whitespace before the competition and bring troubling behaviors to light before they have the chance to tarnish your reputation (like Disney’s previous partnership with YouTuber PewDiePie). Beyond simply selecting the right influencer for your brand, personalized data can also measure the effectiveness of your influencer campaign. Sentiment and tone, audience engagement, and audience reach, are just a few sectors that can measure influence in real time. On a micro level, discerning between different types of influencers such as celebrities versus academics can help you choose which type of influencer will help you best achieve your goals. Using analytic data can get you results in real time—particularly on social media—and give you the context and insights you need before everyonClick to read more about The Data Driven Influencer Strategy.