What are the most common influencer performance measurement mistakes?

Relying on vanity metrics is a common pitfall in influencer performance measurement. Don't be fooled by large follower counts or high engagement rates alone! These metrics can be misleading and don't always translate to real business results. Instead, focus on metrics that directly impact your bottom line, such as conversions, sales, and ROI.

Avoid measuring influencer performance solely by popularity measures like likes and followers. Instead, prioritize metrics that match your business goals, such as engagement, website visits, and sales conversions. By focusing on relevant data, you can accurately assess influencer campaigns and optimize them for better results.

"Vanity Metrics Feed Your Ego, Sanity Metrics Feed Your Family!!!" Not all metrics are equally important in social selling, 'likes', 'views', 'shares', are all great metrics to track, but are not as meaningful as 'leads generated from social selling activity', offline conversations, etc

By engaging your employees as brand ambassadors, you're tapping into their natural credibility and authentic connections, achieving significant reach with less investment than required with popularity-measured influencers. This strategy boosts trust in your brand, as recommendations come from reliable and familiar sources. It also fosters a sense of belonging and pride among your employees, turning them into passionate advocates for your mission. Thus, you're not just optimizing resources, but also building a loyal and committed community around your brand, which is much easier to measure and track compared to using campaigns with third parties who are less involved with your brand.

?? Not setting clear and realistic goals is a major mistake in influencer performance measurement. Without specific objectives, it's impossible to accurately measure success. Start by defining your key performance indicators (KPIs) and aligning them with your overall marketing goals. This will help you effectively track progress and optimize your influencer campaigns for maximum impact.

Use of the SMART goal framework is essential to 'Social Selling Success', the SMART goal setting framework becomes more meaningful if it is combined within a closed-loop planning process. A simple five-step, closed-loop planning process for your social selling program is a surefire way to sales success. Step 1 - Set a long-term SMART goal for your social selling program (Eg. To achieve $2 Million in sales through social selling activity in FY2024) Step 2 - Set smaller, shorter-term SMART goals that line up with your overarching SMART goal in step 1. Step 3 - Set Daily and Weekly Activities which will help us to achieve our goals in Step 2. Step 4 - Evaluate performance against the goal Step 5 - Reset and Upgrade the Plan

Using the wrong measurement tools can lead to misleading data and poor decisions in influencer marketing. Marketers should invest in specialized influencer marketing analytics tools that accurately track important metrics. By using the right platforms and tools, marketers can effectively measure influencer performance and refine their strategies for improved outcomes.

Many businesses focus on surface-level metrics like likes and followers when evaluating influencer performance, but this approach overlooks influencers' impact throughout the customer journey. It's crucial to track metrics at different stages, from awareness to conversion. By analyzing this journey, marketers can determine which influencers excel at driving engagement, guiding purchasing decisions, and ultimately boosting revenue. This comprehensive approach provides a deeper understanding of influencer effectiveness and allows for better strategy optimization.

Don't just focus on what happens on the influencer's platform. Track how people interact with your brand after seeing the influencer's content. Use UTM parameters or unique discount codes to understand how the influencer campaign contributes to website traffic and sales.

Not communicating with influencers your influencers is social media’s version of a medical device sales marketing team not communicating with it’s key physicians - You’re setting yourself and your campaign up for failure. Instead, get as much feedback as you can from what they see: -Pain points & complaints -Suggestions & upgrades -Questions & comments Social selling isn’t about using all of their feedback, but taking it in and then following up later is a great way to build the relationship and strengthen the brand.

Turning employees into brand ambassadors means conveying your brand's values more directly and authentically, without the need for lengthy external meetings. They already understand and live these values, naturally bringing your message to the audience. This approach is not just efficient; it also strengthens trust and has a more significant impact than working with external influencers. Internal synergy ensures a consistent and powerful message, showcasing a genuine commitment to what your brand stands for.

Many marketers fail to enhance their influencer marketing strategies by avoiding testing and experimenting. Instead, they rely on outdated metrics and methods. By not exploring new approaches or adapting to industry shifts, marketers miss chances to optimize campaigns and boost performance. Testing different tactics, platforms, and campaign elements helps them discover what works best for their target audience, pinpoint areas for improvement, and refine strategies for optimal outcomes. Fostering a culture of experimentation and testing unlocks valuable insights that ultimately drive more successful influencer marketing campaigns.

Social selling requires marketing expertise. Expert marketers will use split testing where they will make single, small adjustments to their online campaigns and measure the effectiveness of the change. These small refinements (experiments) allow salespeople to identify the types of content that provide them with the greatest returns through data analysis and split-testing.

Using Vanity metrics and KPIs Demotivated team members Poor planning Using the wrong tools and channels Setting unclear and unrealistic goals Lack of measurement, review and analytics etc