How to work effectively and ethically with online influencers.
As well as the traditional press release, many businesses and brands are turning to influencer relations to engage with their target audience. But, working with bloggers, vloggers and other social media stars can be a minefield, with a lot of rules and regulations to follow. Here, AnneMarie Lacey, Managing Director of Filament PR, discusses what you need to be aware of to protect your business and brand reputation.
The term influencer’ is a bit of a buzz word at the moment and the field of influencer relations is certainly a hot topic in the media. It’s being debated on a national scale, with the ASA announcing a review into how paid-for influencer and native advertising is signposted online, saying that misleading posts damage consumer trust in advertising, and that filters back to the brands participating in this bad practice too.
Some people think of influencers as what might be described as the old-school opinion leader; you secure a piece in a national newspaper for a spokesperson to talk about a topic of relevance to that sector. Alternatively, a third-party with considerable clout may mention your brand as a point of authority in a wider piece about a specific industry issue. This endorsement is clearly earned no cash, goods or other deals of a monetary value exchanged hands.
But, if talking about bloggers and vloggers in terms of influence, often the story can be quite different. Of course, some bloggers will write about things that have been brought to their attention, and they may share the content your brand has created. However, there are a growing number bloggers, vloggers and social media stars who request payment for their work in helping a brand reach their audience with its key messages. This is not earned but paid media, and as such, any work in this area should be disclosed following the rules and regulations set down by the ASA and CAP Code.
Influencer relations is a minefield. As a relatively new and emerging discipline, there are very few businesses and brands who fully understand the rules for ethical influencer relations when working with bloggers, vloggers and the likes.
These influencers receive numerous pitches from PRs and comms teams on a regular basis offering payment for non-disclosed posts and paid follow links in a bid to boost what appears to be a brand’s organic SEO, but this clearly flouts the ASA regulations, the CAP Code and not to mention Google’s Regulations too.
I firmly believe it is our job as professional communicators to ensure that it is our responsibility to get it right when we are engaging with bloggers and vloggers as part of an influencer relations programme on behalf of our clients and the brands we represent. That’s following the ASA guidelines, the CAP Code, the regulations of individual platforms and of course, as a Chartered PR Practitioner of the CIPR, that’s following the Code of Conduct too, to ensure that me and my team are best-serving the brands we represent and their reputations we work so hard to protect.
There’s no doubt engaging with bloggers strategically can be great in helping to achieve your strategic business objectives, but please heed this word of warning: use their expertise and tap into their audiences but also ensure you are not asking them to engage in unethical activity. Ultimately, the responsibility and potential repercussions lies with us all.
Anne-Marie is collaborating with Debbie Sharratt, an award-winning PR and 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 nesma.co.uk.
