On October 4, 2021, Facebook experienced likely the largest outage in its history, which also impacted Instagram and WhatsApp. We all refreshed…and refreshed our pages to no avail. Memes flooded the internet. While a break from the constant flow of information (the good, the bad and the ugly) was somewhat nice, it had a lot of brands in a panic. How would they communicate with their audiences with these giant networks down? Facebook and Instagram still reign supreme when it comes to social media. Facebook remains one of the most widely used online platforms among U.S. adults. And on average, influencers post 3.6 times a week on Instagram. But if those platforms go out again and suddenly you’re left scrambling, this presents an opportunity to rethink your social strategy and not put all your eggs into the Facebook basket.

Image Source: Gary Janetti 

 

Your Website

Your website is like your front door when it comes to the internet. It’s the gatekeeper to your brand and all of the essential information your audience needs to know.  In 2004, The Motherhood was born as a blog and our .com destination continues to be our homebase. We own our site and can control our messaging, user experience, design – you name it. While we love Facebook and the ability to run ads and boost influencer content for our clients, it’s important to not have to solely rely on Facebook in case another outage happens.

Keep it Pinteresting

Have you thought about your Pinterest strategy lately? Pinterest continues to be one of the unsung heroes of the social media world. One positive aspect of the pandemic was its growth, gaining more than 100 million monthly active users in 2020 alone. And while users have historically been women (primarily 25-34), 2020 also saw growth among its male and Gen Z users. Not to mention, weekly conversions on Pinterest grew by 300%, and the network is highly shoppable and easy to advertise on.

While its growth dropped a bit in 2021, many savvy influencers are using Pinterest in their overall strategy. Pinterest recently launched ways for them to earn money, including partnering with brands on sponsored content. Influencers are driving views to the platform and brands are taking note. For example, L’Oréal leveraged Pinterest creators to develop branded content such as beauty tutorials for several of its brands using the short-form video feature Idea Pins.

Incorporating Audio & Video

Speaking of video…it only continues to explode. Yes, a lot of that is happening on Instagram and Facebook (which now has reels), but other networks are gaining on them. TikTok has 732 million monthly active users worldwide and generated about $1 billion in revenue in 2020. And it’s only growing faster. And while teens say they mostly use Instagram, their favorite social media platform is actually Snapchat. And back to Pinterest, its users watch close to one billion videos a day.

Influencers are taking note of these other channels and their audiences are following them. In fact, TikTok creators with 15,000 followers or less have higher engagement rates. The time is now to engage on other platforms, understanding where the people you are trying to reach are and what they are doing there.

If you’ve been focused on Facebook and don’t know how to branch out, we’re here to help. Contact us today to rethink your social strategy.

As influencer marketing matures as a discipline, the decision is usually not if to implement it but how. One of the first decisions is whether to manage it in-house or through a network or agency. This common influencer marketing challenge is one nearly every brand faces.

Given the significant time commitment and exceptionally high attention to detail necessary to identify brand-right influencers, when departments are stretched thin or just need an extension of their team to manage, engaging a third party is often a natural choice. When researching a partner, marketers are faced with the prospect of evaluating dozens of organizations: large influencer databases or marketplaces, boutique networks, influencer-run collectives and numerous other operations.

As a social media marketing agency that has pioneered and executed hundreds of award-winning influencer marketing campaigns, The Motherhood understands the unique benefits of engaging a boutique agency.

High-Tech vs. High-Touch

Many large influencer networks tout their marketplace of tens or hundreds of thousands (even millions) of influencers who are available to brands at the click of a mouse. Campaigns are run through slick-looking dashboards with hands-off capabilities that are positioned as an advantage.

While on the surface a high degree of hands-off automation may seem like a benefit, the reality is that a high-tech approach can, at a minimum, fall flat without a high-touch element, or could snowball into a PR nightmare under the wrong conditions.

Connecting Humans with Humans (And The Secret We Love to Keep)

Considering 75 percent of professionals say identifying the right influencers to be the biggest influencer marketing challenge for a sponsored content campaign, it’s not just a significant time commitment but also an exceptionally detailed task. Reviewing thousands of prospective influencers within a database — even after extensive filtering, sorting and filing — doesn’t take into account the very necessary human element to the selection process.

A few examples of special circumstances that it takes a human to handle:

• A pharmaceutical company wants to engage influencers but their drug is not suitable for anyone who is pregnant or nursing, and there’s usually not a way to accurately screen for the latest information when filtering through a database (considering parenting status changes on a daily basis). So having a partner that has the latest information on-hand is a game-changer. (It’s very common for influencers to share their pregnancy status with us before it’s public news so we can confidentially consider that criteria for upcoming campaigns. It’s a secret we love to keep!)
• A leading manufacturer and distributor of lumber wants to connect with influencers in western states in the U.S. to showcase their high-quality product through unique, influencer-built projects, but doesn’t want “typical” DIY influencers.
• An influencer’s child was just diagnosed with lactose intolerance so we know to exclude her from a dairy campaign or target her for a lactose-free product launch.
• With the rise of CBD and THC product marketing campaigns, we know if a creator is open to CBD-only products, hybrid products, medical marijuana, and other special considerations, including the legalities of each person’s geography.

Avoiding “The One That Got Away”

We understand the frustration that comes after prospective influencer partners undergo multiple layers of review within an organization, only for the brand to then learn that the influencer they’ve jumped through hoops to get approved isn’t interested in a partnership, is out of the available budget range or is about to launch a campaign with a competitor. Then it’s back to square one.

Influencer marketing is a relationship business, and specialized influencer agencies typically maintain ongoing relationships with creators. This personal connection leads to a higher campaign acceptance rate when extending an invitation, as well as a knowledge of past, current or upcoming partnerships that may be considered conflicts of interest.

Keeping the Spark Alive

In an average campaign, account directors have many dozens of hours of communication with influencers – and that number rises to the hundreds for longer-term ambassadorships. There are numerous touch points with prospective and confirmed influencers, including:

• The initial program request
• One or more rounds of negotiation
• Contract signature or request for tax-related documents
• Briefing the participants on the messaging, theme and approach
• Copy review and approval
• Coverage monitoring and reminders; monitoring for disclosure and FTC compliance
• Legal, medical and/or regulatory compliance oversight, if relevant
• Follow-up to request corrections
• Results collection and reporting

We view influencer marketing as a very human, very personal discipline. Each communications touch point is an opportunity — person to person, not person to dashboard — to endear an influencer to your brand and generate long-term affinity. By creating a human connection and putting a face behind the network and the brand, the influencer knows they are heard, valued and appreciated. We know this to be a powerful incentive to build lasting partnerships and to produce high-quality content that moves the needle.

To discuss ways our boutique agency can deliver value and help overcome this influencer marketing challenge, email contact@themotherhood.com.

What’s new in the world of social media? A lot!

Hackers are helping Twitter, Instagram is launching a version for kids (controversy!) and Clubhouse is unrolling the red carpet for everyone (no invites needed). Check out our cheat sheet of updates by platform which, of course, will continue to evolve week by week. But let’s live in the moment and see what everyone’s been up to:

Pinterest

has seen a decrease in followers after a usage spiked in the early months of the pandemic, but that’s not slowing them down.They recently rolled out new monetization features for creators as they continue to make Pinterest more of a shopping platform. They’re also continuing to lead the way in terms of their diversity, inclusion, and accessibility initiatives. 

Twitter

turned to hackers to find biases in their algorithms by launching a (paid) competition and giving teams access to its code and image cropping model. The goal: to find ways that the algorithm could be harmful. They’re also jumping on the shoppable content trend by testing an e-commerce feature on brands’ profiles. 

Facebook

is ready for the future. They’re partnering with Ray-Ban to make smart glasses, and while very few details have been shared yet, they say it’ll rely more on audio than AR. How Facebook responds to the rampant spread of misinformation across its platform, however, remains unanswered. 

Instagram

is really leaning into safety features. They’re moving forward with Instagram for kids, despite very mixed opinions. They’re also increasing safety features for teens and testing a new feature called Limits that aims to be an anti-harassment tool. Last but not least on the safety features front, they’ve added a sensitive content filter. While some users are grateful to have the extra control, many creators feel their content is being censored. But some good news for creators, Reels can now be up to a minute long! 

TikTok

is looking more and more like Twitch everyday. They’re really pushing live videos, and are giving creators new live features such as multiple hosts, integrated Q&A functionality and are starting to test a Stories feature. TikTok also recently partnered with Vimeo to integrate more creative tools that are aimed at small and medium businesses.  

Clubhouse

opened up to everyone and is no longer invite only. But the open access didn’t see a big influx of downloads, and while many are keeping the party alive on Clubhouse, people are equally as interested in testing competitors such as Spotify’s Greenroom (which is a separate app from regular Spotify). And just as quickly as Clubhouse got direct message capabilities, people are asking “how do we turn it off?” 

Have a question about how to use these new social media functions for your business?  Send us an email! And make sure to check out our other articles about influencer marketing, such as The 6 Ways Influencers Make Money. 

Our team recently had the opportunity to speak to a group of senior-level media relations professionals – including many former journalists – about the tenets of influencer marketing. Going into this session with Michael Smart, we knew we’d be facing an eager but tough crowd. To some traditional PR pros, paying influencers can be negatively branded “pay for play”.

We don’t see paying influencers in that light – at all. The Motherhood’s origin story is one for another post, but after nearly 15 years in business and hiring upwards of 10,000 influencers to create content for blue chip brands, start-ups, service organizations and everything in between, you learn a thing or two about the power of paid influencer partnerships.

✅ Paying influencers is non-negotiable.

In the early days of influencer marketing (before it was even called that), we weren’t just fighting to prove that working with bloggers deserved a place in the marketing mix, we were also making the case to our clients that those bloggers needed to be paid for their time, creativity, the equipment and overhead necessary to create content, and, most importantly, the loyal community and trust they’ve worked hard to build and earn. Paying for content was a radical concept at the time. We didn’t just advocate for paying influencers, we insisted upon it. For several of those early years, it was an uphill battle and took a lot of convincing.

Influencer compensation is now table stakes. However, the form of that compensation is still a discussion we have from time to time. Influencers should be paid in money for their time, creativity and community, full stop. Brands have seen the light and we’re (mostly) no longer fighting for fair compensation.

✅ Everything else is negotiable.

We get asked all the time about how much it costs to work with influencers, and the answer is an accurate, albeit frustrating, “it depends.” We negotiate fees based on the social platform, niche, creative parameters, client review process, exclusivity, usage, ownership, whitelisting permission, turnaround time, and much, much more. We’ve paid relatively small fees for a single piece of content from micro influencers and as much as five-to-six figures for long-term macro ambassadorships.

There is no standard rate and each and every element of a campaign must be identified, priced and negotiated accordingly. A seasoned pro will know about commonly overlooked hidden fees and ensure they’re wrapped up into the contract so there are no surprises later.

✅ What’s old is new again.

When you’ve been in business since the beginning, you have the opportunity to witness trends rise, fall and come back around again. In this case, I’m talking about blogs.

When we first started hiring influencers, the content almost always included a blog post. Then, when the visual and video boom happened, the focus was IG content, and influencers’ rising fees proved the demand. We were hiring more influencers at higher rates to produce fewer pieces of content.

For a period of a few years, blog posts were all but an afterthought. Blog posts evolved from a standard ask to a mostly absent medium and now to a value-added extra. Today, some of the savviest brand marketers are rightly acknowledging their place in the content mix and asking for blog posts to be included.

The time investment in creating a creatively written blog post that tells a story, skillfully integrates brand messaging and delivers genuine value to readers – and don’t forget the beautiful, original photography – cannot be underestimated. Marketers should be prepared to pay a premium for longer-form content, but think about the long game. The SEO value of a blog post (and the Pinterest pins that continue to drive traffic to the post for years after the publish date) is undeniable. You may pay more up front, but the value appreciates over time.

✅ Content value is changing.

The lifespan of a tweet can be as short as 15 minutes, Facebook is slightly longer than that and the half life of Instagram posts can be about a day. Considering all of the behind-the-scenes work that influencers put into creating their content – hours of photography, writing, editing, revising, publishing and engaging – not getting more mileage out of those posts is a missed opportunity.

Think of influencers’ social media posts as building a content library. When brands broaden their use of UGC – particularly influencer content – they find it frequently outperforms their owned content on many measures, including return website visitors, digital ad CPC and CTR and email CTR.

When creating a campaign, think about the kind of content that would be useful for a particular moment in time (things like spring cleaning, holiday or a launch) as well as more evergreen moments, and build an influencer brief around those content needs. Having access to on-brand, high-quality images and copy can greatly enhance nearly every part of the marketing mix.

❗ Important caveat: Influencers must be aware of the ways in which a brand will potentially use their content, both during the campaign and after. Again, being crystal clear on the content parameters up front and the negotiation of usage rights is essential to make sure the partnership is equitable and valuable to all parties. While expanded usage rights can cost more initially, being able to reuse high-performing content time and time again is often more time- and cost-efficient than starting from scratch.

✅ Diversified income streams = more selectivity. This is good!

In the beginning, the majority of influencers’ income was through sponsored content for brands (#ad). That arrangement often worked hand-in-hand with affiliate income (most commonly seen through “swipe ups”) and ad placements on their blogs, YouTube channels or podcasts.

But we’ve seen a shift in the ways influencers monetize their content. Today, income streams include followers subscribing for premium or exclusive content, tipping or gifting content creators, merchandise, book deals, monetizing live content (example: Clubmarket on Clubhouse), and creator funds where platforms pay based on post performance.

With influencers having more income streams than ever before, we’re seeing increased selectivity in the partnerships they choose to accept. Brand exclusivity has become self-selecting and this is a good thing. When influencers choose to accept only the campaigns that feel most authentic to them, their “seal of approval” makes that brand stand out in a big way.

💰 Since we first engaged bloggers for brand campaigns starting back in 2008 (yes, really), there were skeptics who said, year after year, paying bloggers or paying influencers for content would not last. Well, here we are, 13 years later, influencer marketing is now a full-blown industry and an established piece of the marketing pie. The discipline has grown every single year since the first bloggers we paid and we don’t see that changing.

Do you have more questions about best practices for hiring influencers? Let’s chat: contact@themotherhood.com.