A Mega Social Influencer On How Brands Get Influencer Marketing Wrong
Call Mick Batyske a DJ, an investor, an entrepreneur, a producer, a marketer, a content expert- just don’t call him an “influencer”.
The man with 47,000 real Instagram followers, who has spun private parties for Kanye West, LeBron James, Jay-Z, and Will Smith says his “influence” online followed him making his mark with impressive accomplishments in the real world. He was DJ in residence at Hyde Bellagio in Las Vegas and has collaborated with artists like Eminem, Busta Rhymes, Jazzy Jeff and others. “Today, people are staging and posting tons of pictures to try and create this following online- but oftentimes they haven’t actually done anything influential or tangible in the real world. They should start there instead, ” Mick commented.
@Mick has collaborated with brands ranging from sneakers to books to art and was generous enough to sit down with me for my upcoming book, “Digital Persuasion: Master Your Social Influencer Marketing.” He offered some candid, clear advice for brand marketers looking to engage with this emerging, powerful marketing channel.
Intern Outreach
Mick shared that many times, “19 year old interns” are reaching out and reading a pre-scripted set of “how to approach influencers” questions from a PDF. When he asked questions back about creative ideas and concepts, they didn’t have the authority or expertise to be able to go off script and engage in a meaningful, exploratory dialogue about the potential partnership. Besides wasting everyone’s time, the message this sends to the influencer is that they aren’t important enough to warrant an actual conversation with someone important from the team. Ensuring that whoever is reaching out from your brand has the power and experience to engage in a dialogue to explore possibilities and answer questions about bigger picture objectives is key. Collaborations are relational, not transactional. Just like in the DJ world- a collaboration requires more than just one creative mind-or an intern- at work.
Absurd Campaign Concepts
Mick tells stories of people reaching out asking him to endorse products that make absolutely no sense, like the woman who is hounding him to promote a newborn bottle brand even though his son is three and has been off a bottle for some time now.
Other times, campaigns don’t speak the language of the audience, instead trying to force influencers to push through brand stories or verbiage that audiences can immediately tell are engineered. The message doesn’t stick or resonate, and communities make their distaste known instantly in the comments. Influencers themselves will share these types of carefully constructed “collaborations” internally with each other as jokes and humorous eye-rolling examples of what NOT to do.
One time, Mick followed the exact directions of a brand at a live event on a post using their guidelines, instructions, their requested hashtag, and everything else outlined in their contract. Then the next day, he did his own post from the same event that was unpaid, unscripted and organic-with zero brand restrictions or requests- but still mentioning the brand. The second post completely crushed the first one in terms of engagement. In the reporting discussion, Mick showed the big brand marketers the difference in the metrics of the two approaches. When I asked if they seemed to really grasp what this meant for their strategy, he said, “Kind of. It still seemed to go right over their heads.” Yikes.
Absent Professionalism
Mick says he has people emailing him just asking to send things, without treating the exchange like the business discussion it is. He talks about being thankful his influencer promotions are not his full-time gig like other influencers, so that he has the freedom to turn down most of the embarrassingly ill thought-out ideas and insultingly low, can’t-even-buy-dinner-with-that-fee offers. Oftentimes, there isn’t a project manager leading discussion around collaboration ideas, timelines, reminders, etc- which makes the entire process very disorganized and increasing the chances it will not be the success the brand is hoping for. While many agencies and brands complain of influencers perceived lack of professionalism- it seems there are two sides to listen to on this soundtrack.
Erin Gargan King is an an Amazon #1 best-selling author, former World Champion Irish Step Dancer, and digital persuasion expert. She sold her first two companies, Jump Digital Media and PMS.com before the age of 30. In 2010, she founded Socialite Agency, a social media firm whose clients include The Oscars, ABC/Disney, VISA, Target, Siemens, Hitachi and others. She is the author of Digital Persuasion: Sell Smarter in the Modern Marketplace and Digital Persuasion: Master Your Social Influencer Marketing (March 2019). Erin helps sales, marketing and event professionals attract attention and increase influence by becoming more effective digital communicators. To learn about booking Erin to speak at your next conference, meeting or event, visit: www.eringarganking.com.