Working with influencers in 2024: Act fast, be lucky, trust your gut
Written by Georgie Christopher, Consumer Account Director
Last month’s PR Week Influencer 360 event brought together the latest and greatest of the marketing world to discuss what it actually takes be cutting edge in the increasingly saturated (and often misunderstood) world of influencer marketing.
With speakers from the likes of L'Oréal, Cadbury’s and the Ministry of Defence, as well as leading agencies Porter Novelli, Havas Red and Brainlabs, there was plenty on the table to discuss, and dismiss, when it came to the future of influencers.
If I had to sum up one takeaway message, it would be ‘Act fast, be lucky and trust your gut’, but of course, that’s easier said than done when there’s increasing demand for elevated strategy and measurement. So, below I’ve broken down exactly what that takeaway message means and how we can all win with this motto in 2024.
BALANCE STRATEGY WITH INSTINCT
Brands who develop and lock-in year-long, 100-slide social strategy decks are going to be the ones who trip up and stay slow on social. An over-reliance on strategy can slow down reaction times and hinder innovation by distracting teams with overly curated KPIs and messaging matrixes.
There’s a place for strategy, of course there is, but there is the risk of being blinded by it. It needs to be balanced by instinct, and with this, allowing your team to fail.
The leaders in innovative social media are so because they aren’t afraid to act on instinct, trust their gut, and not overly rely on strategic reasoning to inform where they post a TikTok or not. They test. Some of it works and some of it doesn’t, then they learn, adapt and continue.
2. ACT FAST, BE LUCKY
Trend cycles used to take years and now they take hours, so teams need processes in place to help them act faster and be luckier.
Act faster
Encourage a ‘failure is OK’ and ‘not everything is going to work’ attitude with teams and clients alike to encourage innovation and experimentation
Encourage prioritisation of reactive content over other work where possible
Scale back internal approvals processes and encourage autonomy
Set up contract templates for reactive influencer content to minimise legal delays
Be luckier
Choose the trends you’re going to jump on by looking at the intersection of ‘How big is the conversation?’, ‘How fast is this conversation growing?’ and ‘What’s the engagement rate?’
Following this, you find an influencer who is over-indexing for content within that trend and brief them on reactive content to set live within 24-48 hours (ideally)
Testing as much as you reasonably can also makes you luckier as you learn more at a faster rate
Give creators their creative freedom. Minimise feedback and you’ll maximise ROI.
3. TEST, EXPERIMENT AND INNOVATE
Teams should be allocating budget specifically for testing on social.
Don’t wait for other brands to do something first so you can gauge risk. Do it first but manage stakeholder expectations – it might not work, but when it does, it’ll be worth it.
If you’re looking for a specific example of ongoing testing, one is to be editing captions, thumbnails and actual content differently for each platform, however minimal. This includes editing them once content is live, where the platform allows.
Algorithms between platforms now pick up duplicates and penalise content performance, so you can’t get away with putting the same edit out across them all. Neither should you want to, as paying attention to these specifics will pay off with audience engagement and longer term learnings.
4. NURTURE AND TRUST INFLUENCERS TO DO THEIR JOB
One of the most damaging things you can do when briefing in influencer content is to micromanage the process. Front-end work on aligning influencers with your brand should be enough to set up success, so that less management is needed further down the line.
Relationship management with creators is the best risk management. From the basics of paying them on time and check-ins on personal life moments, to managing appropriate levels of feedback and making calls to get to know them, it all pays off.
Where possible, speak to the creator on a call to brief them instead of sending a document, it shows interest and investment in their time. It’s also never been more important to pay influencers what they’re worth. Pay them more than they’re charging if it’s worth it and their stats support it. Also get to know your average rates by industry – the same size influencer will be different between the beauty and automotive industries. It’s the right thing to do and will pay off with the relationship further down the line.
5. LOOK TO THE FUTURE: LIVE, ENTERTAINMENT AND SNAP
You’ve got to look ahead to stay ahead, as I’m sure someone very famous and impressive once said.
Live and entertainment formats are booming and will continue to do so, somewhat due to reduced investment in traditional TV and film.
Brands have the opportunity to fund their own entertainment series, with the likes of Footasylum and Gymshark already doing so and doing it very well. This will be the future of how brands capture and hold the attention of their audience, so it will pay off to invest now.
Where TikTok is known for its ‘real’ content, Snap is a step beyond that, with the kind of content that wouldn’t be ‘perfect’ enough for other platforms, even TikTok.
While often thrown out by marketeers who either don’t understand it or think it’s only used by 16-year olds to chat to their mates (not completely incorrect), Snap is a platform with huge potential pay-off and is one to not only watch but to get onboard with this year.
Users expect closeness from creators on Snapchat like they would with their friends, and this, as well as the fact that it’s ranked the ‘happiest’ social media platform, means users are particularly open to and trusting of branded partner content.
So that’s it, simple hey? While rolling out all of the above at once would be somewhat challenging, we can all act on one of these suggestions this week to make our work incrementally better. Act fast, be lucky, trust your gut.
