How To Have An Ethical Approach And Effective Influencer Relations

As part of your brand's PR programme, influencer relations can help you to achieve really great results. But, how do you go about having an ethical and effective approach to influencer relations in this developing area of brand communications? Here are some top tips…

Approach

There are quite literally millions of bloggers, vloggers and social media content creators out there. So how do you sort the wheat from the chaff? Ensure that you’re putting your brand in front of the right people, who have the potential to help you reach a highly-engaged audience? And who share an affinity with your brand, its purpose and products?

There’s no short answer. Take the time to look up these influencers online and make sure you do your homework. Don’t be dazzled by big follower numbers if the target audience is all wrong and engagement figures are low. Otherwise, it’s just vanity metrics and ultimately won’t help you to achieve your objectives.

Then look at the influencer’s Domain Authority – this shows you how much Google and other search engines trust the site. Ask to see the influencer’s media pack and really interrogate the data to whittle down your list. Above all, ask yourself is this influencer that you want your brand to be associated with?

Pitch

Keep your pitches simple, short and straight to the point. This is your opportunity to show the influencer that you know their channels, content and editorial style, as well as clearly being able to demonstrate how and why that influencer is the right fit for your brand.

Remember, influencers ultimately create content – whether it’s a blog, YouTube video or Instagram post – for their audience. Make it clear in your pitch why their audience would be interested in what you have to offer and in turn, why their channels are the right fit for your brand placement.

Also, be clear about payment too. Content creators are not the same as traditional media. Many will be expecting to be paid for the collaboration.

Work

It’s not only a legal requirement for you to get influencer relations right, ethically, it’s in everyone’s best interest to ensure the integrity and trust in your brand too.

When working with your influencer, clearly outline your expectations – what you want, deadlines, budgets and so on. This includes following the regulations set out by the ASA, CAP Code, CMA, Google and the different requirements of each and every social media platform this branded content will appear on.

Any content should be clearly marked as an advert when paid for, or when receiving product or experiences in kind, and there has been some kind of editorial control – even just asking for a post, inclusion of a specific link or hashtag is a form of editorial control according to the ASA.

The nature of your brand’s relationship with the influencer should be clearly marked in the title at the top of any piece of content, so as not to be misleading to the audience and run the risk of unethically influencing followers, therefore potentially damaging your reputation as a result. If the influencer is receiving payment or payment in kind by being gifted a product in order to fulfil their end of the contract, all links back to your website should be no follow links. To be totally transparent, this should also be very clear on any social post linking to the article too.

Anne-Marie Lacey is Managing Director of Filament PR. She is collaborating with Debbie Sharratt, an award-winning PR & Marketing professional who is also now a successful blogger, to deliver a number of courses to help businesses, brands and communicators work more effectively and ethically with bloggers and other social influencers. For more information, visit www.nesma.co.uk.

A version of this article first appeared on www. vuelio.com co-authored by Anne-Marie Lacey and Debbie Sharratt.