Let's be real, everyone and their mom wants to become a social media marketer, AKA a social media influencer. Why? Because you can make lots of money & get free product for having a large following of people that are engaged with you or your brand. There are many upsides to being an influencer, but there is also a dark side that most people don't talk about; especially when it comes to being a business & finding the right influencers to work with. Here are some of the Pros & Cons entrepreneurs & business owners should look out for before hiring an influencer.
Pros
1. Affordable For Business / Brands
If you have a brand or you sell products online & you'd like to reach more people and make more sales, it's a good idea to hire some influencers to spread the word about your product or service. With that being said, if you use smaller influencers some will even advertise your product or service for free if you send them the product for free & give their audience a discount. How sweet is that? Often times the smaller influencers have a more targeted audience and more trust & credibility with their audiences. Also, they should have a following in the same or a similar niche that your brand is in. So keep that in mind when choosing influencers.
2. Big Brand Recognition
If you're a smaller brand or just starting out, it can be really powerful to use influencers to help boost buzz around your product. With that in mind, you can build instant celebrity by using others platforms. Not only does this introduce you to the influencer & their following, but also if people take to it, they may share it as well. Creating the domino effect!
3. It Works
Last year over 54% of people bought a product after seeing an influencer show it, or use, or even just refer it. These number prove that you should be investing in the time to work with more influencers.
While these 3 things are great, we've seen a lot of things go wrong in the influencer market as well. In fact, when you use influencer marketing you're basically putting your brands reputation into someone else's hands, and if things go wrong (which they will if they can) and you have to be well prepared to handle that. We've seen it all, from influencers flaking on content creation, to them lying for free product and never delivering content. So, what are the cons & how can you make sure that these things don't happen to you?
Cons
1. The Personal Life Of The Influencer
All influencers are not created equal & what an influencer does in their personal life can effect your brand (negatively or positively). So, you need to make sure when you work with an influencer their posts, morals, even ethics aline with your target audience. Because if they don't the influencers post won't resonate, and it could be a waste of a campaign.
2. They Don't Always Follow Directions
We all make mistakes, but when social influencing is your job these things should happen less often. So make sure you as the business owner, gets through to your team or the influencer to make sure they are getting the captions & details right when it comes to your post. In fact, you can even ask for a preview before they go live! This ensures that you & the influencer won't be coming across as inauthentic, and you won't lose your audiences respect.
Example Of An Influencer Fail
3. Fake Followers & Engagement
With everyone wanting to get into the space you need to be able to make sure that the influencers you're looking to hire have real engagement, likes, and follows. I hate to say this, but there are countless websites where you can go & buy followers, likes, and even comments. This makes it hard for entrepreneurs and businesses to distinguish real influencers from the fakes. So, we use a tool called Socialblade.com . This will help you get real figures on an influencers social media accounts. So, take your time when choosing influencers, make a spreadsheet, and get their numbers before reaching out.
Have you had any experience with Influencer Marketing? If so, tell us your thoughts on it, in a comment below!