Influencer marketing is one of the latest social media trends. In short, this is when you get an influencer in your niche or industry to share your brand’s blog posts, retweet your tweets, or otherwise promote your product or service.
This is helpful because awesome influencers can put your brand in front of a new audience in your niche. Even more importantly, your influencer’s audience already trusts them, and some of this trust is passed on to your brand when said influencer shares your content.
But influencer marketing isn’t without its quirks and legalities. In this article, we’ll show you five things to keep in mind when designing an influencer marketing plan for your brand. These tips are meant to keep your brand’s influencer marketing initiative engaging and out of legal mishaps.
Let’s dive in!
1. Your Influencer’s Problems Can Become Your Problems
Let’s start on a frank note: your influencer’s problems can become your problems. In 2017, we saw a number of influencers be outed for discriminatory or otherwise off-color behavior that occurred in years past. Not only did this tank the influencer’s reputation, but the brands they worked with took a reputation hit, too.
On that note, be sure to always fully vet your influencer before working with them on a marketing campaign. As unnecessary as it may seem, going through old tweets and Instagram posts can protect you from backlash later down the line. As a general rule: if you see something you wouldn’t Tweet, don’t partner with them.
2. Don’t Limit Yourself to One Social Network
Have your influencer post your content across all of their social channels. This ensures you hit all of their audience, and gives you opportunities to share different types of content. For example, have your influencer post candid product shots to Instagram, links to your blog posts on Twitter, and product video demos to YouTube.
3. Try Not to Don’t Overdo It
Influencer marketing only works in moderation. If your influencer shares your content too much, their audience will get sick of hearing about your products and associate a negative/forced connotation with your brand. To combat this, create a reasonable posting plan with your influencer and limit their posts about your product to two or three times a week on each social channel.
4. Disclose If You’re Paying Your Influencer
The FCC—or, Federal Communications Commission—requires influencers to disclose when they’re being paid by a brand to promote its products. Make sure that your influencer knows this and properly discloses that you’re sponsoring them. If he or she doesn’t do this, you and your influencer can end up in serious legal trouble.
5. Avoid Using #Ad
While this may seem counterintuitive to the previous point, have your influencer stay away from using #Ad in their tweets and Instagram posts. This looks spammy and can give you and your influencer a bad reputation.
According to the FCC, Tweeting a hashtag like #XPartner (with “X” being your brand name) suffices as disclosing paid marketing. So, if we paid an influencer to promote our content, they could Tweet #SocialReportPartner instead of #Ad. This looks more professional and keeps your brand front-and-center.
Now, Start Reaching Out to Influencers!
There you have it: four things to keep in mind when creating your influencer marketing campaign. If you’re sold on influencer marketing, read our post on the best ways to get influencers in your industry to share your content and start reaching out!
