Business Insider recently reported brands are planning to spend $15 billion on Influencer Marketing by 2022. With Influencer Marketing growing quickly, micro-influencers in every industry are emerging.
In the HR community, it’s been really neat to see people start their own blogs, talking about topics they are passionate about, and connecting on levels we’ve never seen. But, it can come at a cost.
When companies get Influencer Marketing wrong, they can actually lose money. In fact, that’s the case roughly 25% of the time. Additionally, CBS News reports Influencer fraud will cost companies $1.3 billion this year alone.
Being an Influencer isn’t all glamorous. It’s actual people making actual business decisions that can impact organizations – and the billions of people those organizations touch – every day.
As active participants in the HR Influencer community – whether as an Influencer yourself or an HR marketer looking to partner with Influencers – we have a responsibility to the larger community to build strategic programs and relationships that help us improve our businesses holistically.
Micro-Influencers Must Be Authentic
As an Influencer, that means we must position our Influence in an authentic manner. There are so many kinds of influencers. Some are content marketers (i.e. your bloggers, social media influencers), there’s also some who are mostly dedicated speakers, some go in and consult on business or product strategy, some conduct and write research. There are so many kinds of influencers today, and there’s room for all of us.
Influencers Know When to Say No
Part of being authentic and knowing your strengths means also knowing your weaknesses or your knowledge and experience gaps. With that, it also means saying no to requests that aren’t right for you.
For example, if you’re an influencer who is great at content and writing, take up all the work on topics you like to write about. But, perhaps you recommend a fellow influencer who focuses on the business and product strategy piece if a project like that comes your way.
The issue is that HR products support the HCM needs of billions of people worldwide. When they get it wrong, it becomes a problem for billions of people.
HR Influencers Stay Up to Date on FTC Regulations
Did you know that Influencer Marketing is a regulated field? In the U.S. there are governing bodies that work to ensure these rules are followed by both brands and Influencers. The rules are generated and regulated by the Federal Trade Commission (FTC), and are posted on the FTC website.
So what are these rules? In a continuing effort to improve social media endorsements, the FTC requires that brands and Influencers publicly display paid relationships in all content. That means all Influencer blog posts need a sponsored disclosure message above the fold and all social media posts must include a note about the sponsorship.
Read more about these regulations on the FTC site here.
Now, my goal in sharing this is not to scare anyone. It’s not to prevent HR marketers from moving forward with Influencer Marketing efforts. It’s also not to prevent micro-Influencers from entering into this awesome field.
My goal is to make sure that the HR Influencer community is seen as a positive force, and that means making positive improvements for the businesses we work with.