If you’ve ever engaged with Influencers for a brand campaign, you would understand the amount of effort that goes into this form of marketing. As we are working with humans, there are so many other factors that need to be considered, unlike activating Google Ads or OOH marketing where we are certain we will attain x amount of results. Working with Influencers, on the other hand, requires attentiveness to the relevance of the content that is curated by the Influencers to the audience’s interest. Usually, our influencers are aware of this. It’s their job to know what their audiences like hence why they’re in the position of an influencer.
But what happens so often is that branded campaigns are going to simply have branding – which online users despise. Allow me to paint you a picture. As social media users, we’re already being targeted for so many ads on all platforms, and now even the influencers we like are pushing more products down to us! As a user, feeling as if I’m being bombarded with ads, I refuse to interact with the influencers’ posting for fear that I’ll be targeted by the brand more often. Now, from the perspective of the influencer, with so few people interacting with their posts, they archive/delete them so that it does not interfere with their account’s overall health. In the place of the victim – is the brand. Have you ever had this experience?
Influencers who archive or delete branded campaign postings happen more often than you would expect. We’ve spoken to some influencers to get their personal view on the matter and here are some of the things that you should pay attention to, to avoid KOLs from archiving your branded postings.
There are a few reasons besides why one would actually archive their posting. One of the main ones is that the content is overly branded or too hard-sell. Hard-sell postings can be in the form of big branding that can be seen in the posting, frame template, or poster provided by the client. Having big branding or templated postings would actually affect the aesthetic of the KOLs feed. As some KOLs prefer to stick to a certain theme/tone throughout their feed, having a branded posting that contains a certain logo or template overlay disrupts the image they’ve created on their platform and is an overkill for their audience.
Secondly, we know you guys have probably heard this a million times over but – timeline. A short campaign timeline hinders the KOLs’ ability to create interesting and engaging content. This results in a domino effect of generating bad engagement for that particular branded posting. Hence, from the eyes of the influencer, it’s not worthwhile to have a poor-performing post on their profile.
Another factor that may affect an influencer’s decision to archive a posting is the potential for engaging with a brand’s competitor. Say you purchase a posting from an influencer and did not invest for an exclusivity period, there is a high chance that when the influencer is approached by your competitor that they will agree to the deal. This means that your posting is removed to allow them the ability to post for your competitor. It’s ruthless but inevitable.
The good news is that the removal of sponsored content from an influencers’ profile has no major impact on your brand. Most social media postings have a lifespan of a maximum of 2 weeks before it becomes irrelevant as audiences will skew their focus towards the influencer’s newer posts. In terms of value, 2 weeks is more than enough to leave a posting up on platforms like Instagram or TikTok.
It is, however, a different story when it comes to boosted content or YouTube videos, mainly because these types of content can be searched and have a longer shelf life which increases their probability to be discovered. Nevertheless, if it’s important to your brand that the posts stay live on the influencer’s platform, it is best to make sure that your influencer contract reflects this.
Aside from just paying the influencer to keep the posting up for x amount of time, what you as the brand can do is to ensure that the influencer loves the content curation so much that they don’t want to remove it. This can be done through an open mind, plus close communication with the influencer, or through your preferred vendor. By communicating with the influencers and collaborating with them to curate your content, you can establish a middle ground to ensure the content is suited for both your brand while gelling well with the influencer’s usual approach. With the influencer’s involvement in the discussion, it shows your respect for their creativity and in turn, receiving a similar sentiment from the influencer. Hence, archiving or deleting the content is no longer an option for the influencer as it is equally their creative asset as it is yours. Instead of them abiding by a strict brief, the content is now a collaborative piece with a brand with whom they’ve established a relationship.
At the end of the day, it is all about a brand’s approach. Sometimes, we do have those always-on campaigns where we can’t avoid rushed timelines but what we’re trying to say here is to always keep in mind that working with influencers is not a one-way street. As much as possible, take the time to build your relationship with them because with relationships comes loyalty. Trust us, influencers prefer working long-term with a brand that they love and who loves them back. So, try this out in your next influencer-driven campaigns and let us know how it works for you!
