When Instagram announced that it would no longer display likes, many applauded the platform for making a decision that would help improve its users’ mental health. Others, especially those who work within the social media industry, asked themselves what would happen or how it would affect influencer marketing since likes are a popular metric used to determine the value of an influencer’s influence and content. If you are amongst those that asked themselves this question, or you are a brand that is looking to collaborate with an influencer in the future, we are giving you three tips on how to navigate influencer marketing on Instagram in today’s like-less age.
Many problems within the influencer industry exist because metrics are not verifiable and influencers are taking advantage of this. In some cases, it’s come to the industry’s attention that because of a lack of metric verification, influencers have come to photoshop their metrics to make them seem more favorable in order for brands to collaborate with them. With visible metrics, like vanity metrics including likes and followers, it was somewhat easier to verify with ones own eyes what engagement metrics and rates influencers had. Now, without visible likes and awareness of the fact that influencers manipulate their metrics by buying fake likes and follows, brands will need to resort to new alternatives to obtain influencer data and assure that they are choosing the right influencer to invest in.
In order to make sure of this, the first suggestion consists of doing collaborations with influencers that have verified accounts. Before, having a verified account was a struggle for many, but now Instagram has facilitated this possibility for pages that are worthy of verification. The benefits of collaborating exclusively with these accounts are many, the main one being that advertisers will have direct access to the account’s metrics, without having to rely on the influencer as a middleman, putting in danger the number’s authenticities.
According to Digiday, in the last six months, the amount of verified accounts has increased from 13% to 23%. In these same six months, there was a 73% increase in collaborations between brands and verified accounts. About 52% of the total collaborations within this set of data consisted of collaborations with verified accounts.
Another way in which advertisers can take data matters into their own hands is by diversifying their metrics by evaluating campaigns based on metrics that would be used in non-influencer campaigns, always keeping in mind campaign and business objectives. By doing so advertisers or brands will be able to use data tracking methods such as tracking pixels to obtain the information they need in a direct manner. Apart from having reliable data, this will provide access to other insightful sets of data like how users take action on posts, as well as what users go from being leads to converting.
Last but not least, it’s recommendable to establish a good relationship with your influencer of choice. Now more than ever, it’s important to be able to establish an authentic relationship with influencers due to the multiple benefits a mutually understanding relationship brings. On one hand, developing a strong, authentic brand-influencer relationship will incentivize influencers to provide access to real data. On the other, this will assure that the collaboration is based on aligning values.
Little by little, likes will be disappearing from the user’s screen as this feature becomes available in more countries. As this happens we’ll be able to see how the industry truly adjusts. For now, it doesn’t hurt to be prepared and to enjoy the likes while we have them.
source: www.digiday.com