NG Gordon
Former pro tennis player, micro influencer and influencer marketing speaker, creator of Dear Mishudad
Where to hear and read about NG Gordon1 episode or test
NG Gordon is a former pro tennis player turned micro influencer, conference speaker on influencer marketing and creator of Dear Mishudad. The most useful thing to learn from him is a manual method: find the leaders of niche hashtags, watch them for two weeks, then interview them before any deal.
the best way to influence is to create a community around a niche topic
Influencer Marketing: How to Decide Who is a Good or Bad Influencer
NG Gordon: the story and the lessons
1Who NG Gordon is and where his method comes from
Gordon moved from pro tennis to micro influencer and conference speaker. He is a former pro tennis player who now works as a micro influencer. He speaks on influencer marketing at conferences around the world.
He walks through his vetting steps one by one in those talks.
Gordon learned how influence works by building his own influencer, based on his dog. Running the Dear Mishudad account taught him that the best way to influence is to build a community around a niche topic.
He applies that lesson to apps, because app developers usually already serve a niche.
Gordon invented the 'chase the hashtags' approach to finding influencers. The hack starts from the idea that people on Instagram, Twitter, Pinterest or even LinkedIn have built communities around niche topics.
2How Gordon finds influencer candidates with niche hashtags
Gordon starts with a broad hashtag and drills down to niche ones. For a game developer, he searches a general tag like iOS games, opens the top result, and follows the related hashtags to narrower ones such as mobile gamer.
He builds a list of several niche hashtags. In his words: "you start with something very general and you drift down from there".
Gordon's candidates are the people who dominate each niche hashtag. In each niche tag he looks at who leads the top posts. These community leaders talk about one narrow topic all day, like pumpkin pancakes or red shoes.
The list of top posters across the niche tags becomes his candidate list.
Gordon trusts niche community builders over brands, because people believe people. Brands that talk about and recommend themselves are believed least. Partners who built a community around a niche carry more trust.
He says partnerships should start slowly, not be rushed.
3Gordon's vetting steps before signing an influencer
Gordon watches each candidate for about two weeks before reaching out. He reviews their content quality and their language, checking for religion, politics, gender topics or cursing he would not want tied to his brand.
His advice on rushing: "don't marry yet hold on your horses". Waiting means much less trouble after a deal.
Gordon checks whether an influencer can start new conversations. During the observation weeks he looks at whether the influencer sparks discussion around a topic, not just collects reactions.
Some influencers have followers who do not actually listen to them, so the ability to create conversation shows real influence.
Gordon interviews the remaining candidates with about five questions. He treats the interview as pre-screening, much like interviewing a software programmer. It comes after the observation period and before any partnership.
The goal is far fewer problems later.
4What Gordon says about metrics, tools and content value
Gordon says no exact metric can identify good influencers. Social platforms give outsiders only a limited API, and access became even more limited recently because of privacy issues. With little data, tools cannot give a reliable score.
Tools can build a matrix, but they must be backed by manual work. As he puts it: "it's hard to crunch the data when you don't have much data".
Gordon judges engagement quality, not follower count. A high follower or like count does not mean someone can influence an audience. He looks at how much real attention and conversation their posts get.
He notes more people now know this, but many still do not.
Gordon values an influencer's reusable content, even without big reach. An influencer who brings only great content is worth it, because shareable, repeatable, scalable content can be reboosted and repurposed for months if not years.
He says this value is hard to put in metrics. He also calls hiring an influencer once a common mistake.
Influencer Marketing: How to Decide Who is a Good or Bad Influencer
Teaches how to find and vet influencers for an app by hunting niche hashtag leaders, watching them for two weeks, then interviewing them before any deal. It stresses that engagement quality and reusable content matter more than follower counts or fixed metrics.
Gordon moved from pro tennis to micro influencer and conference speaker. He is a former pro tennis player who now works as a micro influencer. He speaks on influencer marketing at conferences around the world.
He walks through his vetting steps one by one in those talks.
Gordon learned how influence works by building his own influencer, based on his dog. Running the Dear Mishudad account taught him that the best way to influence is to build a community around a niche topic.
He applies that lesson to apps, because app developers usually already serve a niche.
Gordon invented the 'chase the hashtags' approach to finding influencers. The hack starts from the idea that people on Instagram, Twitter, Pinterest or even LinkedIn have built communities around niche topics.
Gordon starts with a broad hashtag and drills down to niche ones. For a game developer, he searches a general tag like iOS games, opens the top result, and follows the related hashtags to narrower ones such as mobile gamer.
He builds a list of several niche hashtags. In his words: "you start with something very general and you drift down from there".
Gordon's candidates are the people who dominate each niche hashtag. In each niche tag he looks at who leads the top posts. These community leaders talk about one narrow topic all day, like pumpkin pancakes or red shoes.
The list of top posters across the niche tags becomes his candidate list.
Gordon trusts niche community builders over brands, because people believe people. Brands that talk about and recommend themselves are believed least. Partners who built a community around a niche carry more trust.
He says partnerships should start slowly, not be rushed.
Gordon watches each candidate for about two weeks before reaching out. He reviews their content quality and their language, checking for religion, politics, gender topics or cursing he would not want tied to his brand.
His advice on rushing: "don't marry yet hold on your horses". Waiting means much less trouble after a deal.
Gordon checks whether an influencer can start new conversations. During the observation weeks he looks at whether the influencer sparks discussion around a topic, not just collects reactions.
Some influencers have followers who do not actually listen to them, so the ability to create conversation shows real influence.
Gordon interviews the remaining candidates with about five questions. He treats the interview as pre-screening, much like interviewing a software programmer. It comes after the observation period and before any partnership.
The goal is far fewer problems later.
Gordon says no exact metric can identify good influencers. Social platforms give outsiders only a limited API, and access became even more limited recently because of privacy issues. With little data, tools cannot give a reliable score.
Tools can build a matrix, but they must be backed by manual work. As he puts it: "it's hard to crunch the data when you don't have much data".
Gordon judges engagement quality, not follower count. A high follower or like count does not mean someone can influence an audience. He looks at how much real attention and conversation their posts get.
He notes more people now know this, but many still do not.
Gordon values an influencer's reusable content, even without big reach. An influencer who brings only great content is worth it, because shareable, repeatable, scalable content can be reboosted and repurposed for months if not years.
He says this value is hard to put in metrics. He also calls hiring an influencer once a common mistake.