In the Market for Influencers? Check These Three Quick Tips!
A topic of discussion for marketing companies is the cost/benefit of doing a sponsorship with an influencer. As I’m sure the reader already knows, influencers are celebrities born on social media who can bring awareness to a brand. How much exposure can be gauged by different metrics like how much an influencer brings in per dollar spent on marketing? Since most readers are probably familiar with the influencer phenomenon, I want to show whether it matters which influencer one goes with.
Since influencers are everywhere on social media, it can seem easy to pick the biggest name and request their services. Picking any influencer might work short-term, but long-term one risks reaching out to the wrong influencer, which becomes a waste of money. To show the reader what I mean, there are three brief points I should mention.
The first point to remember is that influencers aren’t always who they say they are. Imagine a company gives their brand over to a celebrity like Logan Paul and he does something inhumane in a video. That companies brand is now seen with what turned out to be a bombshell. As a result, the company’s brand will be associated with Logan Paul’s content, which YouTube will only have banned after millions of viewers have seen it!
The second reason for being selective with one’s influencers is because a company needs to know which influencers are reliable. Negotiations are necessary to keep content within boundaries, but who’s to say the influencer won’t take the money and run! What I mean is creativity is subjective and the influencer can poorly edit content that may overshadow a company’s brand. The best solution to offset a lack of exposure is to be comfortable reaching out to the influencer based on their skills, rather than follower count.
The final point that I think is worth mentioning to the reader is that there are fake followers on social media. These followers can be intentionally used by an influencer to receive sponsorships from companies. These accounts don’t contribute to the brand’s overall reach, as the content isn’t going anywhere. As a result free publicity through the reposting of influencer content will be lower too.
Now I know influencers can seem like a mixed bag of people after explaining these three points but I swear that the benefits are worth the extra scrutiny. While these three points are just a glimpse into the world of influencers, I think they are important to know for companies just starting to consider working with an influencer. As for the next blog, I’m going to talk about the different types of influencers, which will reveal common misconceptions that are sure to help companies pick the right influencer. Stay tuned for that!
