Influencer Marketing: Don’t Pay-And-Pray
When Companies End Up Paying More For Less
The Influx Of Influencers
The influencer boom erupted quicker than most platforms could have anticipated.
Social media started out as a place for friends and family to connect and share, but this quickly evolved from sharing to selling, as social media celebrities were on the rise.
How Some Influencers Found Followers
Influencers grew their platforms with a variety of techniques. Some of them used harmless strategies like:
- Sub4Sub
- Like4Like
- Commenting on other peoples posts and asking people to check out their page
- Follow-UnFollow
- Competitions
I say these are harmless because they take a lot of time to do. It requires dedication and effort. It is almost like a direct-sell to gain new followers or subscribers. People are fickle, they may follow you in the short run if you ask them to, but that does not guarantee engagement. As a company you are able to quickly identify just how authentic the audience really is. If an influencer on Instagram has 20 000 followers, but 100 likes and 20 comments, then it is clear that their audience is not engaged.
However, up until 2019, social media platforms were not able to identify influencers who were purchasing followers. Bots would add to followings overnight and as a result a pandemic of new influencers erupted.
Red-Flags
Here-in came to some problems. The influencers who purchased their followers also figured out how to purchase likes. So, companies who did not do their research would, on face-value, deem an influencer more valuable than they really were and overpay as a result.
Engagement Pods
In addition, when setting up influencer marketing campaigns, you need to be aware of engagement groups. A group of influencers may team up and commit to commenting heartfelt comments on each other’s posts.
This can cause companies to think that the influencer has an authentic following, but as you can see, it’s more of an unwritten commitment between a group of people to show each other support and mutually beneficial, as a result.
Failing to be aware of the above can lose you a lot of money. Getting caught up in the hype of what influencer marketing campaigns can be, could set your campaign up for failure.
Is There Any Hope?
That’s the ugly part- done and dusted. It is not all doom and gloom.
There is a reason that companies say they make $6.50 for every $1 invested in influencer marketing campaigns. However, if these companies don’t do their homework, they are opting in for a serious case of the pay-and-pray influencer marketing approach.
Conclusion
Influencers see the value in Influencer Marketing campaigns. They know, if they show vanity numbers, then, for the uneducated company, they will have larger bargain power.
Find influencers that align with your business goals. Vet them by following the first for a while to see just how valuable their content is.
Set yourself up for success by keeping your focus, and doing your homework.
