Are You Working with a Truly Influential Influencer?

Influencer marketing is one area that has forever disrupted the whole marketing landscape. The past years have seen quick adaptation and reliance on this new form. Brands have been really quick on the draw to experiment and learn as they go through trial and error. Their common objective of garnering as much attention and engagement on social media platforms has forced them to put influencer marketing in their big plans. It wouldn’t be wrong to call influencer marketing as the byproduct of social media marketing.

As per the reports from Mediakix, this industry is going to be much mature now and is expected to become a $5-10 billion market in the next five years. Not denying its popularity, but marketers still face the challenge of identifying the right influencer that will work the best for their campaign. And it is quite natural since coming in the spotlight is easy as long as you have a smartphone in hand.

With millions of followers trusting these influencers, finding the right and authentic one can be a difficult task. You ought to ensure their relevance and effectiveness to create a successful campaign. Commenting on the same, Ashutosh Harbola, Co-founder of Buzzoka says, “Influencer Marketing is an art and science at the same time. The art lies in being creative and the science lies in understanding who influences whom. Major brands fail to marry both sides of the coin. While influencer marketing is a buzz word across the globe, only 1% brands know how to crack the right metrics and have been truly successful in doing so. For example, a brand like SPN Sports has truly nurtured a successful algorithm. It is not just about engagement or reach but it is also about the quality of content that you create. Like a great piece of content requires a media push to reach masses, similarly, a great media push also requires a great piece of content. I think it’s very similar in the influencer marketing space.”

So, here’s how you can ascertain that you find the right influencer for your next campaign:

Do not Ignore the Metrics

An influencer’s engagement rate speaks volumes about his relevance and effectiveness. This factor also busts the myth that the influencer with the most followers is more influential. While having a high number of followers is a positive sign, it does not necessarily indicate that people are actually paying attention.

An easy way to find this out is- your influencer may have thousands of followers but barely gets any likes or comments on his posts. This is a clear signal that indicates that the engagement rate is poor. In order to check the success rate, go through that influencer’s last 20-30 posts, add the number of likes, comments, shares on each post and divide by total number of followers.

Scrolling through the Instagram profile of Nick Bateman, a Canadian actor and model, he has a whopping 64 lacs followers. However, observing the engagement on his latest posts, they lie between 2-4 lacs only which is below average in my view, owing to his popularity and worth.

Perhaps, the definition of ‘good engagement rate’ is subjective, but considering these measurement metrics can help anticipate sales and conversions from a campaign.

Consider their Followers List

This will speak a lot for itself. To identify fake engagement, check if the influencer’s large proportion of engagement is coming from outside their follower list. If the two don’t match, it is likely that that the influencer is using an engagement app or bots to show fake engagement.

Additionally, his follower base should reflect his niche to be able to compliment your brand’s goal. For example- Shah Rukh Khan may have millions of followers on all platforms. But would he be the right choice for a women’s jewelry brand like a niche blogger with fewer fans world? Probably not!

Sharing his views on the same, Sumit Bhansali Marketing Manager KKCL (Killer Jeans) says, “While choosing an influencer, we analyze on the basis of influencer’s audience set and the engagement he/she has with the people who are following them.”

How Well do Influencers know their Followers?

An effective and intelligent influencer would rather turn down an offer than endorsing a mismatched product to his followers. Marketers too look for honest influencers who are true to their work and the ones who know their follower list well.

In case of Nick Bateman, he has been an ambassador for Bulgari perfumes for long now. I have been a follower of his posts and see him true to the brand’s products and honest to his audience. I see him posting about the products on a regular basis.

To be able to gauge the relevance of an influencer in their community, a marketer must pay heed to the following:

1. Type of posts- In simple words, an influencer’s posts should resonate with his followers. The content must be interesting enough to incite conversations.

2. Demographics- Observe the audience’s age, gender, employment, etc. and offer them a product accordingly.

3. Location- Factor an influencer’s impact across geographies before picking one. The one who is relevant in India might not be in America and vice versa.

4. Emotional Appeal- An aware influencer will post content complimenting his follower’s goals, beliefs, ideas, etc.

Tap Authenticity

Demonstration of authenticity in an influencer’s work is essential and a pre-requisite for any marketer. This authenticity ensures trust and drives engagement since honest influencers reflect transparency that further attracts genuine recommendations.

In order to understand how an influencer is perceived, skim through his feed. Observe the flow of conversations, style of communication, etc.

With personalization at its peak, influencers too communicate at deeper levels with their audiences by allowing them in their homes, conveying their likes and dislikes and so on. Such authenticity leads to higher engagement. To check the degree of this connection, evaluate the frequency of personal stories he shares, along with the engagement it garnered.

In case of Nick, he has been quite active in talking about his home and family life. I am sure this makes his followers adore him for more than his professional achievements, and that includes me as well.

Another factor to watch out for is the quality of comments. In case they are meaningless, repetitive or mismatched, it can probably be a bot. However, you may find a dwindling quality with some genuine influencers too. But if the percentage is low, you can probably ignore.

Is there a Sudden Spike in Engagement?

This is a key factor to watch out for. In case you observe questionable or sudden spikes in engagement, it may be a red signal. This may stem out from an influencer getting an exceptionally high level of engagement out of the blue, signaling a concern for the marketer.

Building a strong connect and relation with your audience requires a significant time and effort. Such sudden spikes typically tend to get followed by inactive users who don’t have a profile picture and use spammy usernames. Upon checking the comments on their posts, you will most likely notice low levels of interaction.

Take Help of Auditing Tools

While measuring the above parameters manually can be tedious and time taking, taking help from an auditing tool can be a great idea. Here are some of the ones that you can try:

1. Google- Make the best use of Google search by typing the influencer’s name. If they are authentic, their names will be easily shown up with a few other related searches like their website and links to social media profiles. You may also find some interviews on other websites. 

2. Instagram- Make use of the app’s in-built feature ‘About the Account’ for your big influencers. This helps you verify the influencer’s country, check their joining dare, other usernames, etc.

3. FollowerWonk– The free version of this enables you to compare up to three Twitter accounts. This can be helpful in identifying influencers who aren’t following you but are following your competitors.

Ready to Identify Real Influencers?

Believe you or not, an influencer activity can make or break the impact of your campaign. It can affect your work in unimaginable ways, for better or worse. Hence, it is critical to make the right and informed choice, to be able to garner the maximum impact and reach your goals.

Sumit adds here, “Influencer marketing does helps brands to communicate with the right set of audience or to the relavent audience. Our influencer marketing campaign helped us to put forward communication to the defined audience with the right approach what social media generation understands. We were feeding them what they were looking at while browsing on social platforms.”

Look beyond the idea of approaching influencers with high followers. They may not necessarily guarantee the expected results. Examine them on the above parameters before freezing because he is going to make a big impact.

The Present and Future of Influencer Marketing

One thing is for sure, Influencer marketing is the next big change that the industry is experiencing and will continue to do so at an exceptional speed. With social media game getting strong, the influencer marketing game is getter stronger.

Talking about the future of Influencer Marketing, Sumit adds- “Experiment, Connect, Relevance, Trust, and Authenticity are few factors behind the success of any influencer marketing campaign. As long as marketers are able to serve the above elements influencer marketing is here to stay. From my point of view, going forward innovation and technology will play a major role in the success of futuristic marketing. Use of AR and VR with influencer marketing will help to improve performance and engagement.”

Raveena Udasi Mathew, Group Head – Paid Media, Performics.Resultrix also comments on the occasion saying, “We’ve come a long way in the influencer marketing business. When a brand comes to us with objectives to increase brand authority and association, it is a given that influencer marketing will play a key role in the fulfilment of brand KPIs. With such important indices, it becomes imperative for a media planner when it comes to selecting the right influencers. More often than not, as individuals we’re constantly on our social feeds so we’re already aware of the top influencers or bloggers in the specific genre.

But when that’s not the case it is important for us to deep dive into what choices we are to make because after all, it’s about selecting brand advocates. In order to ensure we’re selecting the right set of influencers there are a few basic checks – the type of content, background authentication, past brand associations, etc. And when it is about a specific category say BFSI then things like demo, geo and psychographic profiling also play an important role. Given the plethora, even the platform selection plays an important role.

Do you want influencers on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, TikTok, Through Blogs/Vlogs..?  In my experience of influencer marketing campaigns which has been across Entertainment, Pharma, BFSI & FMCG categories; each time the approach has been very unique. While most brands often consider it to be hygiene and healthy to have influencers during key launches it is further more crucial to ensure the value these influencers bring in through their content and how it will impact the brand in the long run. From what I’ve learnt mere trending activities barely scratch the surface.  Recently, there have been some wonderful success stories of how brands have leveraged influencers for their campaigns. The medium is definitely lucrative for marketers if seen from the perspective of long term investment in the brand. As opposed to earlier, we are getting more and more seamless with the associations which helps build a higher consumer engagement. Lastly, with the way we’ve been growing on digital over the past couple of months and of course with the advent of newer platforms influencer marketing is going to be essential in marketing mix to drive word of mouth. After all, nothing beats the human touch!”   

Hope this helps in your next campaign!