Influencer marketing is a great way to build your brand using social media. Along my social media career, and more recently working with food influencers for my agency clients, I’ve noticed a few recurring issues when influencers and brands come together to work on a campaign. Here are 3 common influencer marketing mistakes and how to fix them.
Are you making any of these influencer marketing mistakes?
Mistake 1: Complete Content Control
You’re reaching out to the influencer for a reason – so let them have a say in your campaign! For certain campaigns it’s okay to have a little more control over content or messaging, but who knows the audience better than the person who has built it up? If you’ve hired an influencer because their content style caught your eye, it would be ridiculous to stop them from creating something in their vision.
To fix it: Ask yourself, why did you want this person as part of your campaign? Was it only because they’re based in the same city as your business? Or was it because they also happen to create gorgeous content – the kind of content you want to have to represent your brand? Certain campaigns, like ones that are concentrated on building buzz about a specific initiative can be more controlled, while if you are working with someone for their creative – stifling their process is counter-intuitive. Simply have a conversation with the influencer about your brand guidelines, or what you expect. Include them in the creative process so both parties can get the most out of the partnership.
Mistake 2: Expecting the Wrong Return
Did you have an influencer post about your brand and then…..[crickets]? Before you work with an influencer make sure that they are the right influencer for your campaign, and be clear and realistic about the results you want to drive before you work with them. This requires a deeper understanding of what kinds of content create what kind of engagement (for example, we notice how videos don’t drive as much interaction as photos that are tagged correctly). And what kind of content the influencer shares, and how the audience reacts to it. Back to my example about an influencer who creates stunning images. Let’s say you hire said influencer to post about your burger – but their feed consists of mostly of lifestyle photos of themselves and fashion. You also notice the food images don’t do as well as the fashion ones. All these cues indicate that when this person posts about your burger, don’t expect throngs of followers, but do expect that gorgeous image which you can now use and for your business to be exposed to some new eyes.
To fix it: Do you research and ask questions. Check out the influencer, what kind of content they typically post, what their audience is reacting to. If all falls in line with your goals, the next step is to decide what you want to get out of the campaign, or the specific partnership – beautiful content? followers? traffic to a landing page? You should also have an understanding of how the audience reacts to different types of content to understand what your business will get from the post or posts (for example we’ve noticed on Instagram tagged photos drive more engagement from our influencers than videos for our specific clients). Having realistic goals, simple communication and team work are the best ways to avoid expecting the wrong thing from influencer posts and extracting the most benefit from the campaign. Learn how to find the right influencers for your brand here.
Mistake 3: Not Capitalizing on Influencer Traffic
One of the worst influencer marketing mistakes you can make is to not capitalize on influencer content and traffic. Your account should be ready to make the most out of all the new eyes coming to check out your brand – are you giving them a reason to like your content and follow you? As for content – are you showcasing the wonderful videos and images your influencers are creating? If not you are missing out on opportunities to build relationships, and beautify your feed!
How to fix it:
- Making the most out of traffic: Think about your feed “overall” and what these new visitors are seeing when they check you out on social media. This means your profile view on Instagram, the quality of images you share etc. Give them a reason to follow you.
- Making the most out of content. Remember that influencer content can be repurposed, generating even more traffic and filling in posting gaps for you. Even if someone isn’t an “influencer” take advantage of user generated photos. People posting about your brand can provide really great quality content for your feed (the kids are so good at taking photos and videos! lol). Fans also like to see their content appreciated by the brands and businesses they love – giving them more incentive to create organic content and building relationships with your followers/customers.
Here’s a bonus tip that uses a combo of the above: Make it a point to publish a post on your social media channels while you have an influx of traffic – make sure it’s a great piece of content. A simple repost/retweet/share of what your influencer posted not only takes advantage of content, but now visitors coming from your influencer see something familiar on your feed. Watch the engagement roll in. Find a few influencer content ideas in this post.
Social media marketing can be tricky, and using influencers to help you grow your audience is a great way to build a targeted community. The main thing to remember is that you need quality influencers paired with great content (and strategy) to build a strong audience that converts. Are there any other influencer marketing mistakes that turn your wheels? Let me know in a comment below 🙂
This article was originally posted here.
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