Influencer fraud is when an ‘influencer’ artificially increases their following and engagement to seem more influential. This has recently become a hot topic after some of the world’s biggest spenders like Unilever, L’oréal and Samsung, have been calling for an “influencer marketing ecosystem clean up”.
Battling influencer fraud and preserving the effectiveness and integrity of influencer marketing demands three things from media organizations and advertisers.
First, and foremost, this requires understanding measure beyond reach. Treating influencers as ad-buys and using metrics based on absolute reach and engagements creates an environment where brands’ KPIs are heavily focused on reach and engagement metrics, which forces them to work with those with the highest figures. This leads to content creators skewing their numbers artificially to ensure they work with those brands.
As part of its promise to advertisers to move beyond “reach and frequency”, The Fifth isn’t segmenting the influencers they work with based on their follower size. Instead, it has identified nine ‘’faces of influence’’ to help brands connect with “credible storytellers” each with their own tone and format.
The nine categories of influencers they defined are as follows: the artist, the humourist, the collective, the enthusiast, the tastemaker, the journalist, the expert, the host and the cosmopolitan.
Second, influencer identification, vetting and human due-diligence should be of vital importance to battle influencer fraud. In fact, News UK had carried out an audit to identify the most influential people among the columnists, editors and others from across the publishers’ suite of titles, including The Times and The Sun. They then selected who clients might want to forge a commercial relationship with on social media.
For example, Times food critic Giles Coren was among the first to be signed and his brand deals will not only touch food-related topics, but include content he posts about his day-to-day life and fatherhood.
Lastly, working with influencers who are part of a publisher’s payroll requires making sure the integrity of journalists or media executives isn’t compromised by sponsored brand deals. In this regard, News UK Lewis said that won’t be the case for the publisher: ‘’we’re only going to be working with these journalists on their social channels, this is about the individuals themselves and the social influence they’ve built up themselves on channels like Instagram. So we won’t be blurring the lines of integrity within our own titles in that respect, they’ll be very clearly separated.’’
Media organizations should keep in mind that true influencer marketing combines paid, earned and owned influence. Creating a long- term, sustainable strategy means activating all including brand advocates, nano, micro, macro and celebrity influencers, as they all have a role to play. Having a process and technology in place is crucial to review, flag and vet content for brand fit.
