Finding an influencer with impact

Partnering with local influencers enables news outlets to reach highly engaged, trusted voices within specific communities to foster greater trust. These influencers play a key role in bridging the gap between journalism and local communities, offering newsrooms the chance to connect with relevant audiences in ways that traditional — or transactional — engagement can’t.

You may be wondering where to find local influencers that might be a good fit for a partnership with your organization — those that are in alignment with your list of ethical questions. Even if some names come to mind, how do you know whether they’ll have the impact and reach you’re looking for?

In this guide to finding an influencer who’s a good fit for your organization, Adriana Lacy details different types of influencers, the platforms and tools they use, and some avenues to start your search. She also outlines three ways to think beyond the follower count to identify influencers with impact.

Finding an influencer with impact

Newsrooms need to assess influencers based on a combination of audience alignment, content style and engagement quality to ensure that their partnerships truly align with journalistic goals and resonate with the community. Here’s what to look for:

1. Assess audience alignment. Your instinct may be to identify local influencers with the largest number of followers, but if those followers don’t care about your content or live in an area that’s not relevant to your campaign, the partnership won’t work. Consider these metrics alongside follower count:
   • Demographics: Understanding the age, gender, location, and income levels of the influencer’s followers is key.
   • Psychographics: Consider the interests and behaviors of the influencer’s followers. Are they engaging with other local cultural content?
   • Location: Many influencer marketing platforms offer geographic insights into an influencer’s audience, helping you assess whether their followers are located in the areas you’re targeting.
2. Evaluate the content style. This step goes beyond just assessing the tone of an influencer’s posts — it’s more about making sure they adhere to ethical standards and communicate in a way that aligns with your newsroom’s voice. Take these aspects into account:
   • Tone and messaging: An influencer’s tone must match the type of journalism you do. Do they use humor, serious commentary or a more casual approach?
   • Ethical alignment: How does the influencer’s presence align with the values that represent your organization’s journalistic integrity? Investigate the influencer’s history of content, the kind of topics they promote, and responsible practices like transparency.
   • Reputation: Influencers are often public figures within their communities. Do they encourage respectful, thoughtful conversations, or are they known for engaging in drama or controversy?
3. Measure other metrics. While follower count can be a quick way to evaluate an influencer, engagement truly reflects the depth of an influencer’s influence. Here’s how newsrooms can evaluate the quality of engagement.
   • Engagement rates: Calculate the percentage of followers who like, comment on, and share an influencer’s content by using this formula: (Total Engagements (Likes + Comments + Shares) ÷ Total Followers) × 100. Higher engagement rates often indicate that the influencer’s followers are genuinely interested and invested in their content.
   • Shares: When followers share content, it means they find it valuable enough to distribute it within their own networks. This is particularly important for newsrooms, as shared content can spread awareness of your stories beyond the influencer’s immediate audience.
   • Find ways to set metrics goals here.

Have you found an influencer you might be a good fit? Here are some tips on reaching out and talking compensation. Additionally, get on the same page and mitigate risk with a contract — find some templates here — and make sure you think through work agreement additions.

What others are doing

When it was time to pick influencers for a particular collaboration, some newsrooms interviewed by Ariel Zirulnick made decisions based on their audience and messaging goals:

• When Kansas City Defender was choosing influencers for Black Feast Week promotion, they debated whether to work with non-Black influencers as well. They ultimately decided to do so because the project’s goal was to bring as much attention to Black-owned restaurants as possible and working only with Black food influencers in the area might undermine that.
• When CoinDesk collaborated with influencers to grow its new TikTok account, they prioritized geographic, gender and racial diversity to set themselves apart from the white, male voices that traditionally dominate the crypto space.

Dig deeper

A lot is being written right now about influencers — whether they’re called creators, news influencers, trusted messengers or something else. Here are some reports and breakdowns you may find helpful as you consider who to partner with.

• From ‘Trad News’ to AI: The evolving journalism landscape
• The future of the internet is likely smaller communities, with a focus on curated experiences
• State of Create: What’s here, what’s possible and what’s coming for creators in 2025 and beyond

Adriana Lacy contributed to this installment.