3 Issues That Brands Should Consider When Working With Influencers - BrandBase (2023)

Three issues brands should consider when working with Influencers...

Written by Lusiyana Dimitrova

I guess all of you on some level follower aninfluencer, celebrity or a famous person on your social media accounts, likeInstagram. An influencer is someone who can change or affect the way thatpeople behave, through their social media presence with blog posts, videos, pictures, tweets, and so on(Cambridge Dictonary, 2018).

But why are social media influencersrelevant? Why are they so attractive to online marketers? Studies have shownthat credibility lies on the factors of trustworthiness and experiences. Wetrust what people tell us to buy, we listen to them and specially if they havea lot of followers, then they must be relevant!

This type of marketing can becategorized as subconscious marketing, since brands are trying to shape ourthoughts, attitude and behavior, without us being aware of it (Medium, n.a). How can we beprotected from this subconscious marketing? The ICC: International Chamber of Commerce (2018) actually protects consumersby making influencers write ‘’Incollaboration with …’’ when doing sponsored posts by brands, so that we asconsumers are aware.

Today 75% of marketers are using influencer marketing to targetconsumers (Veirman, Cauberghe, & Hudders, 2016). It’s very important that brandsfind the right influencers suitable for their brand image and identity.Otherwise the massage that they want to send will be irrelevant and they willnot achieve any profits. However, there are some obstacles that can misleadbrands when choosing influencers, which can be critical for the company.

Here are three important issues thatcompanies should be aware of:

1. Anyone can become an influencer
2. Fake followers and likes can bebought
3. Influencers are creating a FAKEreality

Those problems will be explained more deeply in the following sections.

‘’Incollaboration with…’’ – Anyone can become an Influencer!

Intoday’s society anyone can become an influencer, if they have as little as 1000followers on Instagram. They just have to apply to an intermediary agency, thatserves as a network that connects different brands with influencers. As soon aspeople enter this agency, they are called influencers or ambassadors, and can startdoing sponsored posts for brands (Boostified, 2018). Social media influencers (SMIs) areseen as third-party endorsers and become a part of a brand or organization topromote their products or services (Freberg, Graham, McGaughey, & Freberg, 2010).

Theinfluencers definitely get paid, they can directly get money from the brand orthe network agency that they are in. They can also make money if someone opens alink that they are sharing and get commission on sold product from that link(Adviral Media, 2018).

Isn’tthat disturbing? How anyone can become an influencer and start making money ofits followers? Depending on the number of followers that they have, the morepower and money they possess. There is a law of network externality that can beused to explain the statement, that the more people that participate in anetwork, the more others are likely to join(Jan van Dijk, 2012). In this case itlooks like that there is a pressure to connect and become an influencer.Everybody wants to join the network of influencers and start doingcollaborations with brands.

However, the fact that it’s so easy to become an influencer today, makes it difficult for companies to find influencer that will be truthful, relevant and a good representation of their brand. They should try to avoid influencers that just want to be a part of the network community, and not really care about the products or the brand. Brands should really take the time to try and find the perfect influencers for them!

Crossing the line – Fake followers & likes

Influencer marketing has become themost popular and mainstream marketing strategy in the recent years. The successbehind a social media campaign lies’ in the right message and photo created bythe influencer and communicated to the target group. Furthermore, high numberof followers can potentially result in larger reach of the marketing campaignand massage (Veirman et. al, 2016).

It’s tempting for brands to chooseinfluencers with large number of followers, but this may not be the bestoption! Unfortunately, a lot of influencers on Instagram have fake followers.They can easily purchase them on the internet, for instance you can buy 2,500followers on Instagram for as little as 15 dollars (Buzzoid, 2018). In this way influencers scam thebrands that they are working with, which leads to long term problems for bothparties. Because of this problem brands are losing money, considering that theyare paying the influencers to spread a campaign to followers that are not real.Additionally, buying fake followers gives a very unbalanced social media account,since thousands of fake followers, result in low engagement on the photos ofthe influencer (Influencer Marketing Hub, n.a). Another thing thatinfluencers can buy is fake likes, and it works exactly the same way as withthe fake followers.

So, let’s brake down the math and talkabout engagement! The percentage of engagement on influencers’ photos is thething that distinguish them from a normal persons’ Instagram account. A normalperson has between 1-3% engagement rate, which is calculated on the percentageof followers. For example, if you have 10000 followers, 3% engagementwould be 300 likes on photos. The level of engagement for influencers isnormally between 3-6%, above 6% engagement rate is considered to be very rareand hard to achieve (Scrunch, n.a).

Consequently, when influencers buyfake likes and achieve 30-40% engagement rate on photos is totally fake! One ofthe laws of the internet states, that there is a limit to attention because ourtime to read, listen or view is limited (Jan van Dijk, 2012). The more people and influencersproduce content and post it on Instagram, the smaller there is the chance tosee their photos. Instagram’s algorithm is in sync with that law, isconstructed in a way that only a small percentage of the followers actually seethe posted photo (The Digiterati, 2018). This is why it’sunachievable to reach 30-40% engagement rate, brands should have knowledge ofthat information.

Brandsand network companies have to be aware of those dilemmas! Solution for those problemscould be to use analyzing tools when recruiting influencers. Unfortunately, theexisting platforms can only identify limited information about influencers suchas number of followers and engagement percentage. The platforms are unable todetect fake followers and likes (Veirman et. al,2016). This insight indicates that the high number of followers does notguarantee success. Brands should consider choosing the influencers based on thetopics that they post and the reach in term of interests and activities.

Fake beauty standards – This hasto STOP!

Brands have to be aware of the fact that some of the influencers on social media are struggling with mental health and are promoting unsustainable beauty standards, creating a fake reality! Throughout the recent years some of the most famous influencers on Instagram have done plastic surgery, lip injections, botox, lash and hair extensions, and so on. They have totally transformed their faces from their original ones and are now totally different people! Furthermore, even all their photos are heavily edited with editing software’s such as photoshop. Those influencers continue to have millions of followers and brands still use them to promote beauty products and clothes.

A study conducted of women in the age group 18-35, showed that frequent use of Instagram is correlated with depressive symptoms, self-esteem, general and physical appearance anxiety, and body dissatisfaction (Sherlock & Wagstaff, 2018). This study could be interpreted as how those negative impacts, are based on the fake reality that influencers are creating! The study doesn’t take into consideration the young girls under 18, which are the ones right now that are growing up with social media and thinking that this is ‘’real’’. When clearly influencers are creating fake descriptions of their life’s where everything seems perfect.

Are those influencers even relevantto the brands? Doesn’t their fake image ruin the brands reputation? If thebrands’ products are beauty and skincare, doesn’t their brand value decreasewhen they use fake influencers? In the short run the brand will make sales, butit will not be sustainable in the long run! It’s unhealthy for everyone, for companies,influencers and specially for all the followers that consider this fakeness assomething normal, and something that they have to follow!

HealthyMind leads to Healthy Life!

To conclude, companies should thinkabout the society and all of those issues when choosing to work with different influencers.If companies connect their values and vision with the right influencers, they cancreate stronger brand identity and build meaningful relations with their targetgroup. The campaigns will be relevant to their customers and a positive imageabout the brand will be created. Brands can contribute to society by workingwith influencers that inspires’ its followers to live better in every aspect oflife trough positive messages and truthful photos.

References

Adviral Media. (2018). Retrieved from http://www.adviralmedia.com

Boostified. (2018). Retrieved from www.boostified.se.

Buzzoid. (2018). Retrieved from https://buzzoid.com/buy-instagram-followers/

Cambridge Dictonary. (2018). Definition.

Freberg, K., Graham, K., McGaughey, K., & Freberg, L. (2010). Who are the social media influencers? A stufy of public perceptions of personality. Public Relations Review, 90-92.

Influencer Marketing Hub. (n.a). How to Spot Fake Instagram Followers. Retrieved from https://influencermarketinghub.com/instagram-fake-follower-bot-checker-free/

Instagram. (2018). Account of Nikoleta Lozanova. Retrieved from https://www.instagram.com/nikoleta_lozanova/

International Chamber of Commerce. (2018). Retrieved from http://www.iccwbo.org

International Law Office. (2018). Retrieved from www.internationallawoffice.com

Jan van Dijk. (2012). The Network Society. London: SAGE Publications Ltd.

Loesq. (2018). We are all celebrities today – the right of publicity & commercial value social media has created. Retrieved from https://www.loesquire.com/thoughts/2018/5/29/right-of-publicity

Medium. (n.a). Under the Influence: The Power of Social Media Influencers. Retrieved from https://medium.com/crobox/under-the-influence-the-power-of-social-media-influencers-5192571083c3

Scrunch. (n.a). What is a Good Engagement Rate on Instagram? Retrieved from https://blog.scrunch.com/what-is-a-good-engagement-rate-on-instagram

Sherlock, M., & Wagstaff, D. (2018, April 12). Expoloring the Relationship Between Frequency of Instagram Use, Exposure to Idealized Images, and Psychological Well-being in Women. Psychology of Popular Media Culture.

The Digiterati. (2018). Retrieved from https://thedigiterati.com/instagram-algorithm/

Veirman, M., Cauberghe, V., & Hudders, L. (2016). Marketing through Instagram influencers: the impact of number of followers and product divergence on brand attitude. International Journal of Advertising, 36(5), 798-828.