By Leslie Celestin Created using Shortly.ai.
Social media influencers can ruin a company’s reputation as fast as they can create brand awareness. These slick personalities can bring a company to its knees through a series of costly scandals. Or it can leave one company on top by taking advantage of influencers’ lack of accountability.
It’s important to be aware that there are bound to be negative consequences when you rely on an influencer for your marketing needs. It might not always be worth it in the long run, but your decision is still ultimately up to you. Either way, this article provides a guide for how influencers operate and the do’s and don’ts of influencing.
Most influencers are successful by being themselves. If they’re not, it’s likely because the company isn’t allowing them to express their personalities. Businesses want personality, but also want their influencers to be themselves. If the company doesn’t consider that an important part of their marketing strategy, then there is no room for influencers to flourish. People naturally grow with age. How can they possibly be genuine to their followers without exposing their natural behavior on their platform.
Viewers are attracted to others who live in a not so perfect world. So much of what is shown on television is not the reality that most of us can relate to. This includes reality shows on networks like Bravo in which people are filmed to live their natural lives in front of a camera. Unfortunately, reality shows are not so real. The stars are actually provided with lines written for them, and the camera crews are trained to be attentive to all the details of their lives.
Influencers have the opportunity to showcase their own realities without any written scripts. This is what makes them so relatable to viewers. The number of followers can increase just based on an influencer’s life events. Getting married, having children, getting a promotion, learning a new craft, and other life-changing events tighten relationships between influencers and viewers.
The most successful influencers can be profitable, which makes them alluring to companies who are looking for a new way to reach customers. There is no right or wrong way to advertise through influencers. However, there are unwritten “rules of engagement” that can easily have this marketing strategy backfire and leave a negative stamp on the company.
Some of the top influencers are celebrities, However, Influencers can quickly become famous if they aren’t already. Viral videos that are viewed by millions can make you a celebrity in your own right. The behavior expected by a celebrity has many conditions. People want you to portray an image that is entertaining yet agreeable. The “cancel culture” is brutal. You do one wrong thing in their eyes and they crucify you. The relationship you’ve built with your followers can be out the window in an instant.
Influencers have no direct incentive to follow ethical guidelines because they can’t make money by doing so. However, they must realize that their words and actions can harm a brand. We are living in a world that is becoming increasingly sensitive to political topics. Now that social media provides a glimpse into the lives of individuals that may represent a company, these businesses are held to a higher standard. What was once accepted as minor mistakes or errors in judgement can lead to the downfall of a whole brand.
With all of this being said, I have some advice for you if you are considering entering the world of influencing. Here are my top five ways of gaining more followers on your road to influencing and, of course, I have to also give you my top five ways to lose them.
TOP 5 WAYS TO GAIN FOLLOWERS:
- Be Yourself
Showcase your talents and your flaws. Be the best version of yourself and the worst version of yourself all at the same time. Transparency goes a long way in social media. People will follow you based on your reality. They can go to reality television for the fake displays of affection and emotions. If you’re relatable, companies will reach out to you to assist in expanding their brand. If you are an entrepreneur, even better for your business!
- Be socially conscious
Be aware of your social surroundings. Do not promote activities that would be harmful to your neighborhood or community. No one expects you to be picture perfect, but being considerate is a valuable trait that others are attracted to.
- Blend
Blending your followers by introducing diversity into the lives of others is also attractive. A great way to blend your followers is to interact with them. Show them that your friendship is not conditional.
- Entertain
Whether you are posting professionally or personally, people may scroll right past your content if they find it dull. Being humorous is the way to go if you want viewers to keep checking in. Being dramatic is also entertaining. The point is, post content that can grasp and hold the audience’s attention.
- Have a great cause.
Businesses know that in order to achieve sustainability, they need to be associated with others that support great causes. Doing charitable deeds can gain the respect of your followers. What’s even better is that you can encourage others to join you in efforts to help with a great cause.
TOP 5 WAYS TO LOSE FOLLOWERS:
- Discriminate
You can lose a whole group of followers by making discriminatory remarks. Be aware of the words you say and how it can affect others. Does being yourself means that you are not kind to everyone regardless of their ethnicity, age, gender, etc? Hope not!
- Body Shaming
Know that you will have followers of all different shapes and sizes. Regardless of weight and other physical characteristics, you must be sensitive to your audience if and when speaking of this. Body shaming is not okay. You can count on losing followers if you choose this type of violence.
- Decreasing content
Your followers want content… constantly! Sure, they can watch the same video 100 times, but what they really want to see is your next post. Waiting too long to engage with your customers is a sure way of letting them know they can go right ahead and unfollow you. After all, you’re not giving or adding anything to their lives by waiting days, even weeks to catch up with them.
- Technology Issues
You can lose followers by being unable to take care of technological issues such as posting videos and photos, replying to comments, and uploading photos. Sometimes these problems can happen out of the blue. If your followers don’t hear from you for a long time, they may not even know whether you’re still alive. Hopefully, your technology issues will be resolved quickly so that you can once again focus on content creation! I recommend using Apple as a reliable brand for your tech needs.
- Faking It
Don’t lie to your audience. It’s like lying to friends, makes no sense. This means promoting businesses you actually want to promote. If some company approaches you about a new soda to introduce to your audience, try it first! Your opinion really does matter to them. Don’t have them try something that you don’t even like the taste of. Also, your audience can spot fakeness from a mile away, so don’t even try it!