By Kenna Rathai, VP Public Relations, broadhead
Some of my teammates work with consumer-targeted social media influencers. They have national databases. They have software-supported identification search tools. They have influencer opt-in platforms. While the agriculture industry way of identifying influencers is pretty different — scouring our own connections and who knows whom, building our own grassroots databases — how we work with them isn’t all that different.
Influencer marketing has been around for decades, it’s just taken different forms. Think Michael Jordan. Just as you would hear an endorsement from a radio or TV show personality, influencer marketing is a digital endorsement. And 59% of internet users say they’ve learned about a product/service from a social media account (Mintel/Lightspeed 2019).
These dynamic social media users are influencing your target audience. Partnerships with them can boost your brand to their loyal followers, so let’s talk about what’s important when you decide to tackle the effort.
Scope: what types of influencers are out there?
There are all sizes of influencers that range from nano with a base of 1,000 on up to the mega celebrities (different sources will provide different ranges). Ag influencers are generally in the nano to micro category, but I’ve seen some on the high range of nearly 50,000 followers, we even have one with more than 230,000 followers on Instagram!
What’s more important than size is relevance to your message and engagement with their audience. As you incorporate influencer marketing into your strategy, here are a few things to keep in mind:
Alignment: what’s good for you and the influencer?
When you’re working through the identification process, ask yourself these questions as you research their social media pages:
Is the influencer’s content and tone aligned with yours? Example: there is an influencer whom a lot of cattle producers follow. Understandably, a client was interested. But the client’s goals were to promote a cattle production product and the influencer only covered rodeo topics. That’s not a good fit.
Do the influencer’s followers align with your target audience? Example: there are a number of dairy producers who are social media influencers. But many of them are targeting consumers. Dig deep on who is following and engaging with an influencer’s content to make sure their posts will reach your goals.
Will the partnership be authentic? Example: I heard an influencer speak at an AMS session once and she noted that she had to turn down a very lucrative offer by a major soda company because she drank the other stuff, and she knew her followers knew that. Check to see what other partnerships they’ve engaged in, and if promoting your brand will be authentic and credible.
Are they truly connecting with their audience? Example: You could have an influencer with 100,000 followers but if their fans aren’t engaging with their content, then are those followers really listening and is the influencer actually reaching them?
Contract: be clearer than mud
You should know your influencer well by the time you reach out to connect and gauge their interest. Have your ducks in a row beforehand, but talk through a potential partnership over the phone first — get to know him/her, adjust your vision if it makes sense, negotiate a bit and come to agreements before putting it all to paper.
Overcommunicating has never been more important. A contract should include the following:
Terms: how and when you are engaging with the influencer.
Deliverables: provide clear expectations, now is the time to dig deep into the weeds; for example: X posts on each platform within X days of each other; one post should be static image + text, the other video; deliver by X date for client review.
Payment: don’t expect to get anything for free, not even free product will cut it these days. Influencers work hard to produce quality content that is authentic to their brand and yours, and helpful/interesting to their followers. Most contracts specify a payment schedule, i.e. 1/3 up front, 1/3 after content is drafted, 1/3 after content is posted. Fee benchmarks can be based on several things: number of followers, history of engagements with target audience, past partnerships, etc.
Messaging: give them the right tools to do the best job
Have I mentioned that communicating expectations is key? Providing the influencer with a brand brief or key message guidelines document is critical. Whether they are very aware of your company and/or product or trialing a new product or covering an event of yours, they want to be prepared. The best outcomes are your messages in their voice, style and tone.
- Key messages
- A list of what they cannot say
- Call to action
- Important URLs, hashtags
- FTC guideline adherence
Measurement: was it a success?
Just like any other social media campaign, or any marketing communications project for that matter, measuring success is critical to managing future projects. Pull together metrics that you can see on your influencer’s page, and also ask them to provide results that you can’t see. Specify this in the contract, including a deadline. Typical measurement includes:
Impressions — number of times your post has been seen; contributes to brand awareness
Engagement — likes, shares, comments; how does it compare to similar posts on your influencer’s pages
Click through — if applicable, number of people who performed a link click
Sentiment — evaluate comments for positive, negative, neutral tone; be sure to request any private messages
A closing thought: be transparent
Our ag industry is small. One bad experience with an influencer can hurt your reputation among the social savvy. If a project is delayed or canceled, or if they haven’t heard from you in a while, let them know. Be respectful and be transparent.
If you want to chat more, contact me at [email protected]. Happy influencing!