Influencers, Consider These 3 Things Before You Partner With A Big Brand On An Influencer Marketing Campaign

Justin Rezvani
Aug 22, 2017 · 4 min read

If you’re a social media influencer, then you know the value of your audience.

Building an Instagram page to hundreds of thousands, or even millions, of followers is no easy task. In fact, the majority of the top influencers today started their journey years ago, and were posting content on social media long before it became trendy or “cool.”

You have to remember that the term “influencer marketing” is only a few years old. And even though it has grown into a billion-dollar industry, it is still a very new form of marketing.

Over the past few years, I have executed many influencer campaigns with big brands. My agency, theAmplify, has worked with everyone from Lionsgate to Taco Bell, Nissan to CoverGirl, enlisting the help of some of today’s top social media influencers.

But here’s some advice for all you influencers out there: Whether you have a million followers, or you have ten thousand and are working hard to become a social media influencer in your own niche, here are a few things you should know before signing-on to your first big brand campaign:

1. Protect your brand at all costs.

It can take years to build a loyal audience. And it can take a week, or even a day to start losing those audience members you worked so hard to attract in the first place.

One of the biggest mistakes influencers make when they decide they want to start working with brands and sharing sponsored content, is in compromising their own personal standards and style. They say, “Sure, I’ll post that,” instead of really questioning how that piece of content will resonate with their audience — and more importantly, how that content will reflect upon them.

It happens all the time. Big brands will enlist teams of influencers, and force them to post extremely promotional content. As a result, two things happen: first, the influencer’s audience starts to call them out and label them a “sell-out,” and second, the big brand gains the wrong type of exposure.

Some people say, “There’s no such thing as bad exposure.”

Well, in influencer marketing, there is. And it’ll show in your metrics.

2. Pick and choose the brands you partner with carefully.

I really encourage influencers to do their homework. Before you sign-on to a campaign, you need to ask yourself whether this is a brand you really want to be associated with.

At theAmplify, for example, we’re fortunate to have worked with some really high-profile and well established brands. But as an influencer, especially when you’re first starting out, it can be tempting to work with whoever comes along and is willing to pay.

That’s not the mentality you should have. Remember, your personal brand is everything, so you need to put protecting your name above everything else.

The other reason I really encourage influencers to think hard about potential partners is because if they choose to be part of a campaign that doesn’t resonate with them or their brand, it will show. Followers will know. It won’t feel authentic, and it will end up looking more like an intrusive ad than a creative piece of content.

Pick and choose who you work with carefully. It might take some time to find the right fit, but when you do, it will be a much bigger win — both for you, and the brand.

3. Keep a 90/10 ratio between sponsored content and normal content.

If you look at the top social media influencers, their sponsored posts are few and far between. Sure, during a big brand campaign they might post about a brand more frequently, but all in all, they maintain a healthy balance.

Trust me, if these top social influencers wanted to, they could post sponsored content all day, every day. The demand is there. But if they were to do that, they would lose their audience in a heartbeat — because people didn’t originally start following them for ads. They followed them for a specific reason, and if an influencer stops providing that value, then their audience will leave.

When you start working with big brands, it’s important that you maintain a 90/10 balance between sponsored content and your normal, everyday content. Sponsored posts should be sprinkled in, and not replace the foundation of what built you into an influencer in the first place.

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Please comment below if this resonated with you, and reach out to me on Twitter or by email justin@theAmplify.com to tell me your thoughts.

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Justin Rezvani

Written by

n=1 sold my #ad company, now figuring life out. obsessed w/ ketones, meditation, sleep, food, fasting, autophagy, mindfulness, triathalon & longevity

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