While influencers do have their benefits and place in some marketing strategies, not everyone feels the love for influencers. According to AdAge, several direct-​to-​consumer (DTC) brands have begun pulling their ad budgets away from influencer marketing. Should you be doing the same when offering social media management tips to your client? Let’s take a look.

Social Media Management Tips: When to Avoid Influencers

When Their Content Does Seem Authentic

Paying someone to promote your client’s products or services doesn’t mean that the person is going to love them. That’s a problem the DTC brand Stix encountered with a few of their influencers. AdAge quotes one of Stix co-​founders. “After some trial and error and looking at what works, those organic influencer relationships – when people just love the brand and want to share it – those are the ones that do well. I think it’s really hard to pay for that and have the same results, because people can read authenticity and understand what feels real versus what feels like a paid campaign.”

One of your next social media management tips to your client should be to take a look at their influencers. Really analyze the content they’ve been creating. Are they genuinely excited about your client’s products or services? If not, it may be time to save some ad dollars.

And if your client is looking for influencers to work with for the first time, they should try to find ones who are already excited about their brand. Search hashtags to find people posting about their brand. If one is an influencer with a genuine love for the brand, reach out and see if they want to take that love to the next level.

When Oversaturation Effects ROI

Lots of brands are using influencers nowadays. In fact, according to AdAge, the influencer market grew to $16.4 billion in 2022. And influencers’ rates are raising. When it comes to determining whether or not your client should keep working with influencers, take a look at their ROI. Ask yourself a few questions before determining whether your social media management tips should include cutting ties with influencers:

• How far over budget are influencers’ rates pushing your client?
• Can you prove their ROI?
• How many influencers are promoting how many of your client’s competitors’ products/​services?

At the end of the day, you need to determine if your client’s influencers’ content is getting lost in the fray of other industry influencers’ content. If their content isn’t providing a solid ROI, their rates simply aren’t worth paying.

When Diversity is Limited

You can’t put all your client’s advertising eggs in one basket. There’s no such thing as one platform or media type that reaches all of your client’s target customers. When influencer marketing’s share of your client’s advertising budget starts limiting what’s left over to invest in other media formats, it’s time for a change.

AdAge says that the president of one media buying agency has noticed that DTC brands are beginning to realize that they’ve overinvested in influencers. One of the best social media marketing tips you can give your client is to take at least some of their influencer marketing budget and allocate it toward diversifying their media mix. Whether that means covering more social media platforms or branching out to other media formats in general, that’s up to you and your client. Of course, a little help never hurts.

To see which ad media types your client’s target audience took action after seeing or hearing within the last year, look up their audience profile on AudienceSCAN on AdMall by SalesFuel. With that information, you’ll have a better idea of where your client’s ad dollars should go.

Photo by Fausto Sandoval