How can you avoid risks when working with influencers?

Being a small business founder, influencer, and a social media marketer, I have so much to say on this topic. 1. Research deeply: Don't just look at their number of followers and shortlist. -Look at the engagement rate -Do they have the target audience you're looking for? -Is the quality of their content good? -Does their community trust their recommendations?

A lot of people think finding someone with the most followers will get them the right ROI. It's important to look at the full picture, followers are great, but is their engagement number low or high? Do they interact with comments and create a dialogue or not? Is their brand or tone in alignment with yours? Are they able to articulate genuine interest for a product or are they just paid to promote a name and move on. It's also good to look at the type of products they sponsor as well.

Many influencers reach out to brands they believe in and have a desire to work with. If an influencer is coming to you and already has content that displays your brand in a positive light, then that is a good indicator that they are a good fit for you.

When choosing the right partner you have to dive deeper than their content. How is their audience responding - have they build a positive community? Look back through old content and search them online. Make sure who they are showing up as is who they truly are. You don't want to connect your brand to any ongoing issues, opinions that differ from the brands, or past scandals that may still top of mind for people.

Dodging influencer campaign pitfalls requires savvy, like navigating through a maze. Do proper vetting with contract checkpoints for red flags. Maintain compliance oversight for disclosures. Build in review and approval workflows. Diversify partners to mitigate reliance on individuals. Remain flexible for course correcting when needed. With preparation and care, you can forge successful partnerships while avoiding dead ends. Now grab your map and compass - it’s time to conquer this influencer maze!

Remember that you can’t expect someone to know or adhere to something if they weren’t told. Don’t be afraid to add clear cut guidelines regarding morality, content topics, and profanity, etc., if necessary. Have clear communication regarding your brand and expectations. While you don’t want to interfere with natural creativity and authenticity, nor micromanage, consider requesting to review/approve content. Several recent incidents have revealed influencers sharing videos in partnership with brands that resulted in negative PR for the brand have occurred. Lastly, consider creating a PR plan for how your brand will respond should an issue arise. Ex/ content is negatively received, a scandal (not already known) occurs with influencer, etc.

Communication is the key to a successful brand campaign. If you want it to be executed right- provide the right information to them. Construct a detailed document stating all the necessary details of the campaign and circulate it to them.

The best influencer marketing initiatives aren't one-off projects but rather ongoing campaigns. Savvy marketers start with a broad pool of potential influencers and narrow down the list to those that best meet their criteria. From there, they'll engage an initial batch of influencers and measure the results to see which influencers best delivered against the campaign goals. Based on that data, they can allocate additional budget to create more sponsored content with the top performing influencers. They can also identify new influencers that share similar characteristics to those top performers. By constantly analyzing and optimizing for performance, you can maximize the success of your influencer campaign.