Lessons in Influencer Marketing: 5 Red Flags to Avoid
I started my journey into the social media profession as a blogger. My side hustle was running a career blog for ambitious young professional women. During my five years as a blogger, I had the privilege of partnering with lots of big brands as a creator / influencer. Years later, in January of 2017, I co-founded an influencer marketing practice at my advertising agency where I recruit and oversee influencers who work with us on brand partnerships.
As a former blogger, I champion influencers. I respect the work they do and I recognize how time consuming it is. I also understand how hard it can be to put yourself out there and open your life up to the world day after day to keep the bills paid.
Therefore, when I call influencers to discuss a brand partnership, I find myself advocating for them and empathizing with them. If I get the chance to give the influencers more time, more creative freedom or — in some cases — more money, I do.
I fight to avoid passing along crappy scripts, guidelines that are laden in legal watch outs and unnatural “reasons to believe.” I ask the influencers what’s best for them and their audience. I provide any info that might be scary for them up front.
My approach usually works pretty well. Contracts are followed and sometimes friendships are born. The influencer delivers, and we all hope to work together again.
But every once in a while, there’s an influencer who doesn’t deliver. This is a HUGE pain in the ass.
As a result, I’ve put together 5 red flags you should definitely pay attention to if your brand or agency is doing influencer marketing.
I’m hoping that if you’re reading this article as a marketer, you can save yourself from the troubles of delayed timelines, shortened relationships, breaches of contract, disappointed clients/colleagues and reduced results next time you decide to work with influencers.
If you’re reading this as an influencer, these five things will most certainly prevent you from growing your business.
5 Red Flags to Watch For When Partnering with Social Media Influencers
1. Lack of response.
Influencers have brands reaching out to them several times a day, every day. I get it: their inbox is way backed up, they’re busy creating content, traveling, having a life…. I also get that not every brand is appealing or even CLOSE to a fit.
But after a week or two, influencers should respond to you as the brand or agency — even if it’s a hard no.
And when you hear back, the influencer and/or their team should be willing to get on the phone, talk things through, give feedback, ask questions, make suggestions, negotiate costs, etc.
If more than two weeks has passed, move on. If you do hear back but getting a call set up is near impossible, start working your back up plan.
2. Inexperience with the business side of influence.
This is scary AND surprising to me all at the same time. I’m surprised to hear from the occasional influencer manager who gets an Instagram post confused with an Instagram story... or one who doesn’t understand the concept of promoted posts… or one who doesn’t understand why the client doesn’t want other logos in the sponsored content they paid for. They don’t ask any questions about the shoot or usage rights.
If you get the vibe that the influencer or their team doesn’t get it, be sure to take a long pause and do some education. Then do it again. Then recap it all in an email. That is of course, if you can get a hold of them in the first place.
Beware: confusion on Influencer 101 could lead to lots of re-shoots or even a breach of contract later.
3. Missed timelines.
IMO, its sad times starting off a business relationship with a lack of respect. But my experiences says “if it starts out this way, it continues this way.” When one influencer is late, it can create a domino effect which delays the entire campaign.
As the person recruiting and overseeing influencers on behalf of a brand, be sure to provide a clear, easy-to-follow timeline via email and provide progress updates on that same thread regularly.
I always start every influencer relationship with the goal of building a mutually beneficial long-term partnership. But when an influencer brushes off all of our timelines repeatedly, I’m not calling them again in the future.
4. Ignoring the contract.
News flash: contracts aren’t actually just for fun. They are business agreements. This is ESPECIALLY true if you’re working with a large, more traditional brand or agency.
Influencers and their teams should read, understand and respect your contract before signing it. If you’re in a role like mine and your gut is pinging you, make sure you review the contract with the influencer on the phone and ask them to repeat it back until you feel like they really get it.
Without this review, crazy ass things can happen, leaving everyone involved totally disappointed.
5. Unwillingness to accept feedback.
Client feedback can suck, especially when it leads to having to completely re-shoot. I try to avoid re-shoots if at ALL possible. I even try to put a re-shoot cap into influencers’ contracts. But sometimes, we need to re-shoot. Because sometimes, the things influencers say/do in their posts are a LEGIT legal risk for the brand and the influencer.
If you’re dealing with a diva influencer who doesn’t want to re-shoot or edit all I can say is, I’m sorry. You’re almost done!
I’ve had some influencers threaten to pull out of the contract (that they already signed and got partially paid for) over this one… Hopefully your relationship will pull you through to completion!
Ironically, influencer marketing is an industry completely built on TRUST. In many cases, the trust an influencer has earned from their audience is the type of trust that most brands will NEVER have with theirs.
Therefore, it’s tempting to assume you can trust all influencers with your business too. Unfortunately, that’s not always the case.
I hope these five red flags help you avoid delayed timelines, broken promises, shortened relationships, disappointment and reduced results next time you decide to do influencer marketing.
