Influencers who purchase
followers are now being blacklisted by the marketing community. As the
importance of transparency increases, giants such as Unilever have been
announcing that they will no longer work
with social media influencers who buy followers.
Unilever
Chief Marketing Officer Keith Weed called for more transparency from
influencers in a speech at Cannes.
“At
best it’s misleading, at worst it’s corrupt,” Weed told The Wall Street Journal ahead of his
announcement. “For the sake of a few bad apples in the barrel, I believe there
is risk in the area of influencers.”
P&G pulled
more than $140 million in digital advertising in response to frustrations over
transparency and brand safety, in what turned out to be a mostly symbolic move in that the company
barely missed a beat in meeting its revenue goals.
While influencer
marketing can be a powerful tool, it is important for companies to validated
who they are partnering with. Here is a 3 basic point checklist you should
ensure every influencer can pass.
1. Organic Comments
Any organic
influencer will create conversation and have their followers interacting with
them. Browse through the comments on various content pieces and see the types
of conversations taking place. If there are too many that seem fake, for
example comments with only emojis or saying something along the lines of “Very
cool”, you may want to look at different influences. Now every content piece
will likely contain these types of comments, though make sure there are some
organic conversations happening as well.
2. Like to Follower Ratio
Arguably one of
the most important stats to look at, seeing how many Likes a content piece
receives, in relation to the accounts followers. This would be the number one
point to look at, though Likes, similar to followers, can be purchased as well.
There is no
baseline ratio number that validates an influencer in this area, though use
your own discretion and best judgement. Generally, if something does seem or
feel right, it likely isn’t.
3. Number of Accounts Following
Related
specifically to Twitter and Instagram, look at the amount of accounts the
influencer is following. No strong influencer will be following more accounts
then their own followers or simply following thousands of accounts.
If you’d like to
see the full article on Unilever’s decision, check out the article at Marketing Land.
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