Influencer Marketing: Is It Worth Your Money?

It was time to plan for my son’s birthday party and I began to review my options. I chose a particular play farm where I have attended previous parties of other children in our local community. This was the first time that I was planning to invite my son’s school friends as well. However his choice was different from mine. Out of a bunch of kids in his class who generally qualify in the top 1 percentile of the class a couple of them had their parties in a different venue. My son wanted his party to be organised in the same place. He thought as his “smart” friends have had them there then it must be the best place to host his party as well.

Although Influencer marketing is the coined word for it, basically a testimonial from somebody perceivably successful determines the consumer’s choices. This whole concept of Word of Mouth (WOM) is core of Influencer Marketing. It could just be trend-setters in other words. It has been an age-old phenomenon as we have influencers in our lives at various stages in different avatars for choices of products and services we opt for or in fact even greater things such as our career choices. But sometimes it can go wrong. Especially when you are in a position of influence integrity and responsibility is an underlying assumption. Therefore the pressure to be true to what you market is high on the person even though they may be paid for the job.

With the increase in the platforms available in the current business environment and the use of social media influencer marketing has become one of the most important and successful methods of communication reach. Ethical implications can be serious if the whole platform is misused. It can result in fraud and in extreme cases imprisonment and huge fines.

When people trust the influencer and purchase a product, not keeping up with the promises or if the product does not meet expectations then it can lead to anger and outrage in consumers. Sometimes the whole thing can be a scam. It is very important for consumers to make a well researched and informed decision of choices for following influencers can potentially end up being dodgy.

Sometimes it can even be the other way round. Brands or Marketers can chose the wrong influencer. You have to abide by the Advertising Rules and Regulations prevailing in your country such as the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA).

According to Andrea Coscelli who is the Chief Executive officer of the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) “Influencers can have a huge impact on what their fans decide to buy. People could, quite rightly, feel misled if what they thought was a recommendation from someone they admired turns out to be a marketing ploy”.

The CMA has formally secured commitments from 16 celebrities to make sure they will now say clearly if they have been paid or received any gifts or loans of products which they endorse on social media platforms.

Celebrities, who have acted in response to the CMA’s concerns include Ellie Goulding, Rita Ora, Alexa Chung, Rosie Huntington-Whiteley, Michelle Keegan, Millie Mackintosh, Megan McKenna and few others.

Transparency is very critical in what you communicate to your target market especially while choosing ambassadors to deliver it. The problem today is that smart phones, apps and all other available social media we have a very informed audience. People are intelligent and aware of the available options and then there’s Google for everything else. That makes influencer marketing all the more challenging.

There have been many fiascos with companies who did not get it right. A few to mention could be the British baking company Warburton that used people who were dressed up as anthropomorphic cartoon animals and accidentally used a furries hashtag on Instagram without checking if the tag was already being used. The most recent fiasco of the Fyre Festival is another classic example of Influencer Marketing gone wrong. It all turned out to be dodgy and the organisers were punished with a few years of imprisonment for fraud.

Use of social media platforms such as Youtube, Facebook which recently tweaked its Social Media strategy for business content, can all contribute in a big way to influencer marketing. It is the equal responsibility of these platforms to sure marketers and business do not misuse their availability to reach out to consumers, as we have to shift towards responsible selling even if it means a cut on the ROIs.

*Complygate is an HR Tech Startup based in Birmingham. The Complygate solution is used to attract, hire, retain and maintain talent, support workforce administration, and optimise workforce management.