Not all social influencers offer the same value, so understanding what qualities to look for will go some way in ensuring beneficial commercial relationships among your staple of social content creators. 

Influencer marketing is not a new phenomenon. Prior to the coining of the industry phrase, brands hadd already recognised how individuals can independently influencer brand sales and awareness. TV stars, actors, athletes and members of high society have been used to help sell products since the Victorian times, lending likenesses to hand-drawn posters or fronting global TV commercials. The advent of the Internet has only intensified how brands aligned themselves with people of influence and social media is now the first point of call for almost any brand entering the market looking to shift a few units.

Influencer marketing in its most literally sense , refers to the leveraging of specific social media users, with associated followings or audiences to help sell products and services. The specific social platforms themselves vary widely depending on popularity and the type of content consumed across it. Generally speaking, Facebook, Instagram and YoutubeYouTube are the most common platforms used when it comes to influencer marketing campaigns in Australia, followed by Twitter and LinkedIn which also have their own niche markets.

But how to ascertain the quality and credibility of an influencer regardless of the platform they operate on? The team at Snackable have pooled their knowledge from working on hundreds of social influencers campaigns, using talent agencies like Scrunch, IMG and The.Right.Fit and creating content for over 80 Australian brands, to come up with 14 qualities every brand manager needs to tick off when choosing influencers to work with.

This is by no means an exhaustive list but a great starting point for any brand manager looking to ensure at least a base line level of quality and authenticity and decrease the chance of exposure.

Authenticity

Influencers that have skills and expertise in a particular area or niche are regarded as more authentic by their audience. This means their thoughts and opinions are believed to be genuine or truthful and come from a place of truth honesty and accuracy. A 2017 report from Splendid revealed 43 per cent of social media users questioned felt that influencers are inauthentic and work with brands they don’t believe in.

Likability

Some influencers have huge followers but have low likability, which negatively effects engagement and conversion rates. Doing market research and tracking likability over time helps brands get a better understanding of a social influencer’s reputation online. After all, this will be passed onto your brand should you choose to work with them.

Engagement

Brands work with social influencers to tap into their audience so it is important to make sure that the audience in question is active and engaged. Organic posts are boosted and receive increased visibility if the post receives likes and comments. An account with low engagement will make it harder to generate additional reach even when compared to highly engaged account with a much lower following. According to one survey, 1 in 5 US consumers have purchased a product after seeing it recommended by a social influencer.

Passion

Working with social influencers that care about their work will increase the chance of that work being of high quality.  Passionate people take the time to ensure work is the best they can offer. They care about the outcome and the end product more than those that do not.

Communication

An open and clear dialogue between brand manager and social influencer makes for more effective campaigns. Brand managers should be looking to work with people that are open to collaborating, listening to ideas and iterating between campaigns. Likewise, brand managers should look for influencers that can impart and use their own knowledge to better campaign outcomes. If the social influencer is tardy, misses meetings and doesn’t reply to emails in a timely manner, perhaps their communication skills aren’t up to the level your require. . A 2018 report from Mediakix found that only 36 per cent of brand manager felt their social media marketing influencer have been effective in past campaigns.

Authority

Authority is linked to authenticity. It is often the by-product of being knowledgeable in a given field. Authority is a ranking metric and some people are more authoritative than others when it comes to genres or subject matters, especially when that field is considered a speciality. A doctor will have higher authority in health than a food blogger. Knowing what type of authority is your required will help brand managers choose the right influencer for their product or brand.

Visibility

How big is the influencer’s audience? Is that audience the right audience? A good social influencer knows how to be seen and they know how to get their message out in the best way possible organically. They can help advise on content types and posting times to best leverage their audience. They can also help advise on how to stand out against competitors.

Brand Fit

Social influencers can have a broad range of appeal and brand managers need to ask themselves if broad is necessarily the right approach with regards to their product or brand. Brand fit is extremely important. Not only does it create relevance for a campaign but it also increases the chance of conversion or a user taking a specific action. Ask yourself ifs the social influencer embodies the brand ethos as well as using the products that are being promoted on the day.

Ethical

Dig into the social influencers back catalogue and get an understanding of their ethics and moral code. What causes do they support? Who do they follow and which products and services have they previously advocated for? Understanding what code the social influencer lives by will benefit long tail sales conversion and help build more meaningful relationships.

Strategic

Is your social influencer strategic in their thinking? Often brand managers work with third parties to glean insight and/or leverage content, making credentials to serve a larger campaign purpose. Brands should be looking for influencers that offer more than not just an audience but strategy too.

Professional

Partners should hold themselves to a high account. They should be punctual and polite, trustworthy and timely. In short, they should hold themselves to a high professional standard and treat their position and audience with the respect it deserves.

Growth Mindset

Influencers that have been in the market for some time, only maintain their status if they have a growth mindset. They understand that they need to constantly change and iterate to maintain relevance in their field or on their platform. Brand managers should be looking to forge authentic and lengthy relationships with social influencers. It’s the best way to ensure brand alignments and nurture real customer relationships with their audiences. Ask yourself… is this influencers here today and gone tomorrow?

Business Brain

Social influencers should work as part of your wider brand team. Of course, we don’t mean this literally but they should understand at least the basic principles of brand marketing and what you are looking to achieve out of your relationship. This will not only ensure better brand alignment but also benefit the production and creation of content as it will be is created with clear objectives.

A True Ambassador

Social influencers often work with many brands and in some instances instances, can be perceived to be a gun for hire when it comes to selling products to audiences rather than advocating for a brand. A true ambassador is selective about their partnerships and will want to forge meaningful relationship with their partners and their audience. This will only reflect positively on your brand as a whole.

Looking to work with quality social influencers on an upcoming campaign? Speak to a Snackable team member today and find out how we can help create an influencer marketing campaign that delivers.