COVER STORY
relationship with detailed briefing documents, agreements, deliverables and contracts. ‘Treat an influencer as you would a journalist.’ Guthrie offers similar guidelines. ‘Follow a
systematic process for working with influencers and by creating long-term mutually beneficial relationships with them. It starts with the 4SFilter: Search, surface, screen and select.’ Firms should ‘search for influencers according to
strategic insight into who you are trying to influence and how you plan to measure the influence. What are your various stakeholders’ motivations and interests? What type of content do they consume? Where do they hang on online?’ he advises. Then ‘surface’ a long list of potential influencers to
work with based on mapping their audience on to the particular brand’s audience. ‘Are their audiences the right age and gender? Is where they live relevant to your cause?’ Whittle down this list by screening each of the
potential influencers. ‘This combines hard measures and softer ones,’ Guthrie says. ‘Has the influencer bought followers or engagement in the past? Have they worked recently with one of your competitors? Have they mentioned your brand’s name in past content? If so, was the sentiment positive or less than glowing? Does the influencer share the same values and world-view as that of your brand? Is their tone of voice commensurate with that of your brand? ‘Within the ultimate selection phase you need set
out expectations for the relationship through a creative brief and contract – written documents. This is where you lay out content deliverables, remind them about disclosure regulations and explain what the content approval procedure is.’ The final stage involves the mechanics of payment. ‘This is where you include a cancellation, or takedown, clause. This can be activated on the basis of non- performance, poor performance, or breaking brand rule guidelines or disclosure regulations.’
MARKETING PARTNERSHIP For Jackson, there is a simplicity working with social influencers: it is essentially another form of marketing partnership, and needs to be managed in the same way – by humans. ‘If you have identified the right influencer, completed the due diligence in terms of background checks and validations against the brief, have a water tight contract that outlines expectations, have final approval of content prior to posting then
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that’s all the control you need,’ she says. ‘What’s needed is a mindset shift, moving from
treating influencers as just another tag-on marketing channel to a programme of sustained, validated relationships. Developing meaningful partnerships between brands and influencers that make sense requires a smart, strategic and professional approach.’ She adds: ‘Problems arise when companies use
influencers for a one-off activation, such as a product review, which are now increasingly met with cynicism from social audiences who have grown tired of this and lost trust in this type of endorsement. Long-term relationships with the right influencers can deliver significant value for companies.’
SOCIAL INFLUENCERS VERSUS ADVERTISING The complexities of working with influencers may make it appear that advertising is essentially less risky, but such a view is misguided, says Jackson. ‘Advertising is messaging to the masses, written and created by humans and then consumed by them. Often new advertising regulation is created off the back of an epic fail,’ she says, ‘The advertising rules and regulations have evolved
tremendously over the years due to new legislation and consumer feedback – complaints – and yet advertisers, to this day, still take risks with their messaging.’ Putting the rise of social media and influencers
in perspective, Jackson adds: ‘I remember the days when social media was seen to be a risk to companies due to the fear of negative backlash from consumers. Companies responded to this ‘reputation risk’ by having clear strategies, understanding the of role social, audience profiling and having stringent community management measures to negate unfavourable consumer comments. Companies need to adopt the same smart and strategic approach to influencer marketing.’ Guthrie adds in a similar vein: ‘Influencer marketing
is a reaction to traditional forms of advertisings. Like antibiotics, legacy advertising is becoming less effective year-on-year. Influencer marketing, done well, achieves far greater results.’ ‘Working with influencers is a dynamic process’, he adds. ‘The relationship doesn’t begin and end with using algorithms to identify online creators based on reach, relevance and resonance alone. Instead, brands need to continually validate and measure influencers’ fit against the company’s values – both at brand and corporate levels. CC
CorpComms | February/March 2020
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