Want to grow your brand on Twitter?
I’m not surprised. With 134 million daily active users, Twitter is the preferred platform for enterprising brands and marketers. In fact, 70% of B2B and 60% of B2C marketers use Twitter for brand promotions.
By the same argument, Twitter is a virtual battleground where brands compete for limited audience attention. That’s where Twitter influencers can help your brand win.
How so?
Twitter Influencers can help your brand cut through the noise and reach targeted audiences. They can improve reach and sales for your brand by aggressively promoting it. But the biggest win is the customer trust that influencers help you foster.
For all of these reasons, Twitter influencers are much in demand. They have A-list brands with big budgets lining up for collaboration. Your brand needs out-of-the-box ideas to catch your target influencer’s attention and get them on board.
In this article, I’ll explain three influencer outreach strategies that can make influencers sit up and notice you.
Let’s get started.
How to Approach Twitter Influencers so that They Can’t Say No
Influencer outreach is one of the trickiest parts about working with influencers.
If you’ve ever attempted influencer marketing, you’ll know that approaching influencers for collaboration is not easy. You can’t exactly drop your collaboration proposal in a message and expect influencers to notice it. One wrong move can diminish your chances of impressing your target influencers.
Below, I’ve compiled outreach tactics that work with most influencers on Twitter. Take a look.
1. Create Twitter Lists of Influencers
Before you propose a deal to influencers, you need to build a relationship with them. This will help you beat the competition when influencers are comparing proposals.
Build a foundation for the relationship by engaging with influencers on your radar. But it’s hard to keep up and interact with the right people in overcrowded feeds.
If you think you can aggressively bulk-follow influencers, think again. Last year, Twitter shut down Crowdfire and many other scheduling tools for violating their stringent following rules. So, entering your potential influencers’ follower list is not so straightforward.
The solution?
Twitter Lists. These are curated user groups that you pre-set. By creating a List of influencer accounts, you get custom feeds with posts from the specified influencers only. Lists make it easy for you to find and engage with the content of your target influencers, without any distraction.
Here are the steps to create and engage with a Twitter List of influencers.
Step 1: Create Twitter Lists
After logging in to your Twitter account, click on “Lists” in the side navigation panel.
Click on “Create a List.”
In the pop-up that appears, type a name and description for your List. Select the “Make private” checkbox. It’s advisable to keep your Lists private so that people are not notified when you add them to your Lists. After populating all the fields, click on “Next.”
Step 2: Add Influencers to Your List
After creating your List, you will be asked to add users to the List.
There are many ways of finding influencers for collaboration. But the best two ways are by using influencer discovery tools and Twitter Advanced Search.
How to Find Influencers with Twitter Advanced Search
On your homepage, type a search term, which can be popular hashtags in your niche.
You can use hashtag finders like Hashtagify for finding the best hashtags. For this demo, I’m using “beauty” as the niche. I’ve selected the “Popularity” filter to find the most popular hashtags related to the beauty domain.
Image via Hashtagify
Check out the ratings for each hashtag displaying in “Related Hashtags,” and the influencers who tweeted most about them. Select Hashtags with maximum popularity and relevance to your brand/campaign.
You can either pick these influencers or head over to Twitter and use Advanced Search to find influencers. I recommend the second option since it’s more effective.
Go back to your Twitter page and type the hashtag you selected in the search field on the right.
On the search results page, click on “Advanced search” on the right.
The Advanced search window will appear in which you can specify filters for your search results. You can scroll down to the “Accounts” section and add your competitors’ accounts in the “To these accounts” field to find influencers who your competitors are targeting.
Another way is to specify engagement rates to find accounts that are getting good engagement for your chosen hashtag.
After selecting your filters, click on “Search.” On the search results page, click on “People” at the top.
Your search results will show people in your niche getting good engagement on their content. These are your potential influencers. You can add them to your Twitter List and start following their feeds.
How to Find Influencers by Influencer Marketing Platforms
Influencer marketing tools make the influencer discovery and research process efficient and resultful. Using the same tool, you can search Twitter influencers, compare them, and check out their latest content.
That’s not all. The best thing about these tools is that they show only verified influencer accounts.
This is what an influencer search on a tool like Followerwonk looks like. Most tools in this category have similar features. You can search popular hashtags and type them in the search field, and then, order the results by relevance. 
Image via Followerwonk
You can also follow these accounts by clicking the “Follow” button instead of adding them to your Twitter List.
Step 2: Engage With Your Twitter List
Once you find and add influencers to your Twitter List, start engaging with their content on a regular basis.
But how?
Like and retweet their content and make insightful comments on their posts. Become their loyal fan and influencers are bound to notice you. By nurturing relationships with influencers, you get a top-of-mind advantage. That can work in your favor when you pitch a collaboration deal to them.
2. Create Viral Posts Featuring Target Influencers
Everybody likes the spotlight. Influencers are no different. A great way to earn a soft spot with your target influencers is by creating viral posts featuring them. Once your posts start getting traction, you can give shoutouts to the featured influencers and catch their attention.
Take a look at the steps you need to follow.
Step 1: Find Share-Worthy Topics
Social listening can help you stay on top of trends in your niche. Tools like BuzzSumo identify relevant topics that are getting a lot of engagement on Twitter. They can also find the most viral content on topics that interest you.
For example, this search on “fashion tips” showed the top 200 posts that are going viral on different platforms. You can pick posts that have high Twitter numbers.
Then what?
Then, you need to search Twitter influencers who are creating great content on this viral topic. Head over to the “Influencers” tab and check out the influencers displaying in the search results.
Then, you can create listicle-type posts featuring these influencers on the content topic that was ranking. Give it a catchy name like “Top 15 Fashion Tips for Plus-Sized Women According to Experts.” Feature your target influencers in the post and link to their blogs or accounts.
Since the post topic is popular on Twitter, there’s a good chance that your post will get a lot of attention on the platform.
Step 2: Give the Featured Influencers a Heads Up
After all the effort you put into creating a viral post, it would be a gross waste to not capitalize on it. You can bring the post to the notice of influencers that were featured in it. Here is an example of how to pull this off:
That ought to bring a smile on even the most seasoned influencers. They are bound to remember you when you send them your business proposal.
Need a pro tip from social media experts?
To make this outreach tactic a sure success, boost your online presence on Twitter.
How will that help?
Influencers are focused on building their personal brands alongside the brands of their clients. They are always looking for opportunities to team up with brands that can add to their followership and reach. So try to increase your follower count and engagement rates.
If your brand has a strong presence on Twitter, the collaboration can be a win-win for all stakeholders. That can be a strong incentive for influencers to say yes to your proposal.
3. Send Personalized Emails
Most influencers prefer brands to approach them through emails. Serious brands also prefer to communicate with influencers through emails so that they can keep track of the conversation.
Well-crafted, personalized emails can stand out in overcrowded inboxes of influencers. Emails give you more room to introduce your brand and elaborate on your proposal. Plus, you can create email workflows to send reminders and follow-ups to influencers on your shortlist.
But first, you need to find official email addresses of your potential influencers. Not all influencer bios mention comprehensive contact details. Use reliable email finders for this purpose.
Once you have the addresses, compile a great outreach email. Here are the points you need to cover:
- Keep the email copy and subject line crisp and personalized.
- To break the ice, start by referring to your past interactions with them.
- Include an enticing offer in exchange for their services.
- Conclude with a strong call-to-action.
- Personalize the signature.
Don’t spam the influencers if you don’t hear back from them. Just send a gentle reminder after a week or two.
Over to You
Twitter influencer outreach doesn’t have to be a stressful activity. And it won’t be if you follow the killer tactics I’ve explained in this article.
Do you need any more tips on influencer marketing? Leave your questions in the comments below. I’ll be happy to help.
