As social media continues to grow, brands are catching on to the fact that partnering with popular social media users can help them reach a wider audience. According to a report from the Pew Research Center, over half of American adults now use at least one social media platform. That’s why many businesses are turning to influencer marketing strategies to help them reach more customers and boost their bottom line. Some even choose to buy instagram followers to get additional reach.
But while influencer marketing can be a great way to increase sales and attract more customers, it can also be a potential minefield for your business. If not carefully managed, influencer marketing can do more harm than good. Here are a few ways in which an ill-conceived influencer strategy can backfire and ruin your business.
Lacking Mutual Understanding With the Influencers
So you’ve found the best influencers for your brands, and you believe that they can resonate with your message and reach more people. But before you get too excited, it’s important to ensure that both parties are on the same page with regard to goals, expectations, compensation, and other issues. If there is a lack of mutual understanding between the influencer and your business, it could ultimately lead to conflicts or misunderstandings down the line.
Focusing Too Much on Reach Over Content
Let’s face it. We want an instant way to measure the success of our influencer marketing campaigns. While reach is an important metric to consider, it’s not the only thing that matters when it comes to influencer marketing. What’s just as important (if not more so) is your influencers’ content. Quality content will resonate with followers and lead to more engagement and higher ROI than a campaign focusing solely on reach.
Not Aligning With Your Values and Brand Image
If the content generated by your influencers doesn’t align with your brand’s values or image, it can have devastating effects on your business. People are becoming increasingly aware of brands’ ethical stances and values, so it’s important to ensure that the content your influencers are pushing out is in line with what your company stands for. Working with influencers who don’t share your values can lead to a public relations disaster as people become aware of the mismatch.
Not Engaging With Your Followers
Even though you’re working with influencers, it’s still important to ensure that your brand is engaging directly with followers. Not only will this help build relationships and trust among customers, but it can also lead to increased loyalty and loyalty from your customers. If your influencer marketing strategy doesn’t include engaging your followers, it could lead to a disconnect between your business and its customer base, ultimately hurting your bottom line.
So what’s the bottom line? Influencer marketing can be a great way to reach more customers and increase sales, but it’s important to ensure that your strategy is well thought out and managed properly. If not, you could end up doing more harm than good for your business in the long run. Following these guidelines will help you get the most out of influencer marketing without running into any unnecessary problems.