Is influencer marketing the death of PR?

By Damien McCartney | Content and Client Executive, Telum Media | [email protected]

CONSUMER PR isn’t what it used to be, and it’s a dying art thanks to the rise of the influencer. Or at least that’s what a lot of people in the industry say.

However, the data doesn’t necessarily support the theory.

While it’s not a perfect measure, analysing the Google searches over the past five years for “public relations” and “influencer marketing” in Australia shows searches for information on the PR industry are still far ahead of those looking how to use influencers as a marketing channel.

No one can deny influencers are becoming a must-have in the arsenal of PRs– both in-house and agency.

But exactly how should they be used, and will their slow rise ultimately lead to the death of PR as we know it?

The short answer, at least according to UTS School of Communication discipline head Professor Jim Macnamara, is no.

“Influencer marketing is just marketing – targeted rather than shotgun or mass,” he said.

“It is not really a new field of practice. It is a way of doing marketing and communication (by) targeting key influencers rather than everybody.”

Professor Macnamara said the definition of PR was also blurry and was altered by which side of the PR fence – in-house or agency – you sit.

Neon Black Co-Founder SorayaCalavassy said her agency uses influencers on an ad-hoc basis, and carefully curates which influencers to engage with.

She said they tend to treat higher-tiered influencers as paid media channels, while using their middle and lower-tiered influencers for “product-seeding” and product launches.

Product-seeding refers to the old-school art of gifting product in the hope of gaining organic coverage. Once upon a time, the recipients were journos. Now, they’re mostly influencers.

Soraya said Neon Black chooses its influencers by examining their engagement, rather than just followers.

And engagement is a fickle number.

“There’s a focus on what high engagement actually looks like … and anything over 2 per cent for an influencer with two million followers is amazing.

“But going beyond that, it’s not about the reach and the volume, it’s also about what’s the right fit for the client or for the brand.

“What’s the point in having an Australian product, that only ships in Australia, being promoted by an influencer with half of their followers located overseas?”

Soraya said another reason to invest in influencers is the smart ones see themselves as a brand, and the good ones won’t want to tarnish it.

Professor Macnamara said influencers are just another new tool for PRs and marketers to get used to – much the same way digital and electronic advertising hasn’t killed billboards and newspapers.

“Influencer marketing will not replace PR, and it won’t replace advertising. It is a specialised way of doing marketing and corporate, organisational and political communication.”

Telum asked Straight Up PR, who also own influencer-management brand Straight Up People, for five things you should know about engaging influencers

1. Engage with ‘micro-influencers’ over ‘macro-influencers’. It’s not all about the numbers and these influencers, with roughly 5-25k followers, often have a more authentic and engaged following than those with larger amounts of followers.
2. Work with influencers that are relevant and have a genuine interest in your brand or business and take the time to build relationships with these individuals. This will make each collaboration more genuine.
3. Gain a true understanding of who influencer's followers are. Are they based in Australia? Are they male or female? Aged 25-40 or older, or younger? These insights can be requested when working with an influencer or via an influencer authentication platform such as Q83. Gaining these insights are key to understanding audiences. 
4. Be prepared to allocate budget at the beginning of your campaign for influencer activity, and understand when it’s necessary to pay an influencer to promote your product or service. At the end of the day it’s their livelihood and collaborations do take time.
5. Check out the like to follower ratio to ensure an influencer is getting enough likes on each post corresponding to the amount of followers they have. Also make sure the comments on their posts are genuine and not from spam accounts.