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There are many social media monitoring tools that discover the brand influencers on the blogosphere. Many brands use this to identify these influencers and invite them to either review thier product, their services, or invite them to an event so they can review it.

Thus, I found this very interesting blog post by Steve Rubel about the New Influencers. Its a good read.

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This thread started the right conversation about who counts as an influencer and when they actually move the needle. As introduced the topic and flagged the niche-product nuance, the missing piece is a practical, low-risk way to test influence before committing budget or brand reputation.

Start with a short pilot and a vetting checklist:

  • Define the single objective (awareness, trial signups, demo requests, purchases).
  • Check audience alignment (topical relevance and overlap with your buyer persona).
  • Measure engagement quality (ratio of comments/conversations to likes; look for on-topic replies).
  • Ask for corroborating metrics (link clicks, swipe-up completion, historical CPA) and recent content samples.
  • Run a basic fraud check (spot follower spikes, repeated comments across posts, generic engagement).
  • Insist on tracking: unique UTM links, promo codes, or a campaign-specific landing page.

A simple workflow for niche or high-end offerings:

  1. Run discovery and shortlist 3–5 creators with direct audience fit.
  2. Offer a paid trial/pilot: send product, include training or spec sheets, and agree on a clear brief.
  3. Launch a single-format test (one video or long-form post) with unique tracking.
  4. Measure over 30–90 days for conversions, assisted conversions, and sentiment.
  5. Scale only on positive CPA/LTV signals or deepen with a long-term ambassador.

Legal and troubleshooting notes: require clear disclosure in every post and a written agreement on deliverables, usage rights, and KPIs (see the FTC guidance on endorsements for disclosure rules: ). If reach is high but conversions are low, check the landing experience, creative CTA, and tracking fidelity before switching creators.

Member Avatar for MktgRob

I think that the importance of the new influencers is determined by your product offering and target audience. If you are targeting real niche markets with very high-end products and services the new influencers will be less of a factor than limited use version of your product or service so that the potential end-user can determine the value of the offering. But I am coming from the perspective of niche markets/nich products so I am skewed in my view.

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