WHEN GDPR MEETS INFLUENCERS
Initiative’s Mazher Abidi on tracking campaigns.
It is unlikely anybody reading this will not have had some recent exposure to news about (and formed an opinion on) GDPR – the General Data Protection Regulations that the EU is bringing in to give citizens more control over the use of their personal data by corporations.
In light of the approaching compliance deadline and reported misuse of social media data, the platforms have been hastily implementing enhanced privacy features to placate lawmakers and users concerned about the treasure trove of personal data people have been sharing online over the years.
Yet an unfortunate side-effect of the GDPR regulations and these extreme measures is the removal of any sort of accountability around the one area of social media that almost every brand has been trying to get on board with for the past year and a half: influencer marketing.
The phenomenon must be a curious one for an outsider looking in to the modern marketing landscape: organisations giving individuals free reign to promote their brand, product or service, often with very little regulation or verification.
The landscape is chaotic at best, and in the absence of any true measurement or regulatory framework for effectiveness, the highly subjective measures of ‘quality’ of an influencer’s content and ‘reach’ of their audience are often enough to secure them a contract worth tens of thousands of dollars.
This is why we have been using a suite of tools for well over 18 months now to track the influencers we’re working with and assess their suitability for our clients. These tools return data on an influencer’s effectiveness at engaging and mobilising audiences as well as that crucial conversation point: ‘fake’ followers.
This is where the crux of the conundrum with GDPR lies.
The tools rely on the public data streams provided by the platforms to return results. Almost overnight, these data streams have been cut off and without this kind of information we all lose the ability to objectively report on influencer effectiveness or activity.
It feels like a step forward before taking the same step back. If we can’t prove the value of influencer marketing to clients beyond the number of followers and nice-looking pictures, how can we expect it to be truly taken seriously?
But influencer measurement is not over. Not at all. It has probably only just started.
Lawmakers in our region have rightly been looking at making influencers more accountable with the UAE’s recent announcement regulating promotion of products on social media through licences.
Nevertheless, there is more than can be done, and there is a role that each of the three key stakeholders involved can play to help the industry out of the impasse.
The platforms must devise a method to allow the tools to return data from public profiles and personalities without compromising on privacy and anonymity.
The tech partners need to build and cement trust with the platforms to demonstrate that they will use the data in accordance with the relevant regulations, perhaps through their partner and certification programmes.
Finally, regulators need to police the entire ecosystem in a credible yet non-disruptive manner. The incoming influencer licences are a great first step that the entire industry is bound to be looking at with keen interest, but they remain just that: a first step in the process.
Nobody marks their own exams, so independent monitoring – be that through regulation or technology – can only be a good thing. Because the way influencers establish a powerful and legitimate connection with their audiences, lending credibility to their voice and opinions, is too powerful to ignore. There is no reason why these teething issues around monitoring can’t be addressed.
There is a whole suite of new tools coming into the market claiming to have partner certifications and access to API (application programming interface) data. It is an exciting time, and there is definitely a first-mover advantage up for grabs for anyone able to develop and implement an effective framework.
If the industry can collectively crack this issue, influencer marketing will truly start to deliver real measurable value and advocacy for brands.
The platforms must devise a method to allow the tools to return data from public profiles and personalities without compromising on privacy and anonymity.