Social media vs socialite media: Try to get it right

With the recent news of the US Federal Trade Commission’s crackdown on celebrities who promote unlabeled sponsored content, the rise for regulation in the social media advertising market is becoming more prevalent.

Holding talent accountable for what they post will make it tougher for brands to control content and potentially further complicate the influencer posting market.

Here are some altered cliché metaphors to help handle your social media/advertising spend with talent acquisition:

Make sure it’s true love

Influencers now risk potentially being fined/sued in some countries, where if they knowingly promote a product that does not work and their testimonials are not genuine or truthful, the #ad will not protect them.

For brands this means a greater need for synergy between the talent and their product. In choosing to endorse a product, influencers must believe in the brand or have a genuine connection to the product. Make sure its true love before the grand union.

Put your money where mouth is

Using platforms to understand brand engagement can help calculate ROI and more accurately depict a pricing chart for influencers. Using followers as a metric for purchase is no longer the only measure, as platforms now allow brands to measure how many people are engaging with posts and their content. Effectiveness of posted content can now be measured and influencers can be paid per engagement rather than for their overall following. Put your dollar bills on where the chatter is.

Count your chickens

Influencer marketing in its founding stages was measured in value of mass following, dominated by socialites who were popular on social platforms because of their social/celebrity status.

Now as the market becomes more educated, with the use of social media analytics, brands can measure the effectiveness of posting through socialites versus social

using platforms to understand brand engagement can help calculate ROI and more accurately depict a pricing chart for influencers media users. Micro influencers often have a high engagement when it comes to product reviews and recommendations, while celebrities have a higher reach and fan based engagement.

Using celebrities to develop a cult following around a brand is quite measurable. One can even gauge the level of negative or positive conversation around a campaign using the right analytics.

Using the data, create a social media strategy to utilise both celebrities and influencers in a way that complement one another. This will allow key messaging to reach the masses whilst still having an element of quality content to back it up. Do the math till it adds up.

Hire your standards

Knowing the profile of celebrities and influencers is detrimental to a brands strategy. While analytics are a strong indicator, the importance of understanding the personality, willingness and nature of talent in deciding on whether to permanently associate them with your brand is key.

Hire talent according to the standard of your brand’s integrity and always be transparent with your followers. Remember that consumers are equally educated on the realms of social media. Ensure talent creates content that connects and appeals to your customer rather than content that manipulates them.

The evolving doors of social media market trends are continually turning, steer away from common unexplained market trends, take strategic turns driven by the math and prioritise your brands identity to get back into the driver’s seat.