Managing the relationship with digital influencers

Establishing a healthy relationship with a person who has thousands or even millions of subscribers is essential for the success of an influencer marketing campaign.

They will be your brand image throughout the influencer marketing campaign and the guarantee of success.

Some advice for successfully managing the relationship with digital influencers.

The right offer for an influencer depends on the choice – relevant or not – of digital ambassadors. The one that hits the target will be the one that responds to several decisive criteria:

• It is in keeping with the values and universe of the influencer.
• It falls within a fair price range for the company and the influencer.
• It contains a detailed brief, particularly on the methods of posting, the types of post or videos requested, through an influencer marketing contract.
• It respects the influencer’s past and future work.

During the entirety of the campaign, whether a “one-shot” campaign, recurring or long-term, the influencer works in some way for the brand.

They are in any case their faithful representative. A real ambassador.

Real trust is therefore required.

Influencer marketing – also called Influence Marketing or digital influence – requires a key concept: trust.

This trust is engaged on several levels:

1. Trust between the influencer and the brand.
2. Trust between the influencer and their audience.
3. Trust in the very choice of the influencer.

Not all influencers are relevant for all brands.

The choice of influencer for a digital influence campaign is therefore crucial.

Kolsquare has put in place tools for better determining the profile that corresponds to your brand, on the basis of several criteria:

• the coherence between your brand’s community and that created by the influencer. Asking EnjoyPhoenix to speak about football risks being a failure and she herself would probably refuse “betraying” her community.
• the theme of the campaign must coincide with the subjects generally tackled by the digital influencer. Surprising campaigns can be carried out in a quirky way and surprise people but are always in keeping with the overall strategy of the influencer.

And we can never mention too often the importance of paying and entering a contract with the influencers.

During a campaign, the image of a company brand is at stake.

The reputation of the influencer is also at stake.

There is nothing worse than seeing collaborations that fail because they were poorly calibrated, poorly defined or because the – unpaid – influencer has not been able to demonstrate their commitment to the brand.

Influencers work hard to make a living. A premium campaign requires real reflection in advance and real mutual trust.

This is the role of the contract. The more an influencer takes a brand to heart, the better they will play their role of ambassador. They will therefore be more reliable, engaged and hard-working.

A post will only be effective if it is authentic. It mustn’t merely appear authentic.

The users of social networks – whether Instagram, Facebook, YouTube, Twitter or Snapchat – are not easily fooled.

They know what is true and what is false.

So, get rid of posts that obscure #Ads or advertising messaging in a post.

Also get rid of posts that go against the creativity of the influencers.

Finally, get rid of influence campaigns that do not reach the influencer’s core target.

With 1 million influencers on the Kolsquare platform, there is bound to be an influencer in each sector, even each niche.

This is how to avoid poor choices and upsetting communities that may respond very quickly… for better or for worse.

Trust in the influencer is essential. It’s been said.

You achieve it through perfect harmony in the influence strategy, including on an operational level.

You also achieve it by making the right choice of influencer for your influencer marketing campaign.

How do you choose the right influencer? The choice has to be made using cutting-edge tools, based on rational data, and not only on vague opinions or options taken at random.

Digital influence is vast. We often talk of it as a jungle.

Depending on the objectives of the influence campaign – strategic pivot, re-brand, product launch, promotion of an event –, the choice of influencer will differ.

You must also flush out those who have a high number of fake-followers, a real problem for engagement levels.

You also need to think of checking the influencer’s geographical data: do they really reach the target market of the brand that wants to use them (geography, age, gender etc.)?

Influencer platforms, supported by experts dedicated to influence programmes on social networks, facilitate this identification.

It’s an opportunity to boost trust in the campaign. And to prepare a return on investment that meets the highest expectations.