Navigating Brand Safety in the World of Influencer Marketing

Increasingly, influencer marketing has become an effective tactic for brand promotion as it reaches an established market demographic through a person the audience trusts. Influencers can easily give a face to your brand and serve as third-party advocates. While this can be beneficial, it’s important to fully vet any potential partner.

As time has shown, when a celebrity or public figure makes a mistake, personally or professionally, they face scrutiny from the media and their fans. Anyone associated with an influencer faces the same consequence of being viewed negatively in the public eye. So, how do you keep your brand safe in a world of influencers?

Choose Your Influencer Wisely

Picking the right influencer can potentially protect your brand down the road. Take the time to get to know your influencer and look at their follower base. The demographics which your influencer reaches should align with the demographics of your target audience. The influencer might be a male in his early 20s, but his follower base might not be similar to him.

In addition to knowing the demographics, taking a closer look at engagement rates is important. Unfortunately, click fraud is common even amongst influencers with a high follow count. As we mentioned in a previous blog, the ideal engagement rate is between 1.64 percent and 3.48 percent. Huffington Post provides some questions to ask when choosing an influencer:

• Are the influencers real people?
• Are they a good match for your brand?
• Does their niche fit with your brand?
• Does their type of content match your marketing strategy?
• Are they demographically a part of your target audience?
• What stories have they posted about in the past?
• Is their geographical location a good match for your product or service?
• Who is their audience—is it one you’d like to engage?
• Has their content engaged audiences in the past?

Brand Safety Online

Issues with brand safety is not only limited to influencers. Sites like YouTube can also be troublesome when an ad is placed in an undesirable spot. Because marketers can’t completely control the context in which their ads appear, some ads may be placed before controversial videos which fall under the same category as the ad. According to Mediakix, some ways to avoid being associated with negative content are to pay attention to your social channels, act quickly if your ad is associated with an offensive video, and utilize the brand safety tools YouTube offers.

Although influencer marketing does have potential risks, there is an upside to working with an influencer on YouTube. Sponsored content almost always warrants the approval of the brand before it is posted. This way, an advertiser can ensure that everything said in the video aligns with the company’s values and brand image.

With 60 percent of brands using influencer marketing, it is as important as ever to maintain your own brand image and not let your brand be defined by an influencer’s image. Choosing the right influencer and being vigilant of where your ads appear will help you to stay out of negative news. Audiences are more likely to remain loyal to a brand who can stay true to themselves and to their customers.

Searching for an influencer and monitoring ads can be a time-consuming task. Let our team of experts share our resources and keep your brand safe. Contact or stay social with us! We’re just one call, like, follow, retweet, favorite and DM away.