Influencer Marketing is a subset of social media marketing, in which brands collaborate with influential people on product placement and endorsement. If you’re on social media (Instagram, Snapchat, Youtube, TikTok, etc.), you’ve probably seen a sponsored influencer post for a cute dress, a new iPhone app, or a beauty product! You may have even purchased the sponsored product if the content resonated. If you love social media, working with tons of creatives, and working on content, Influencer Marketing might be for you!
I had a taste of influencer marketing for a young fashion company and really enjoyed the projects. I was able to meet and work with so many wonderful people from all over the country who each put their own twist on their sponsored content. Influencers are so creative. We’d give 20 influencers the same set of new seasonal items, and they’d come up with amazing, distinct ways to style and layer. Sometimes influencers that are a really good fit can turn into something more, like a long-term partnership or fashion line collab.
One interesting quirk about this space is that influencer marketing is not regulated very well. Brands and influencer partners need to disclose any sponsorships so that consumers can be informed about the incentives when they make buying decisions, but this isn’t always enforced. Sometimes influencers ghost you after signing the contract or don’t follow the brand guidelines. In this field, you need to have a lot of patience and be willing to constantly learn and play it by ear.
Main Responsibilities:
- Stay updated and active on social media platforms – engage, follow creators, and learn
- Read the news! You need to know what’s hot and what’s not, whether it’s from a cultural or political standpoint
- Research the landscape and compile lists of great potential partners
- Keep an eye on other brands in your industry and how they’re engaging with influencers
- Strategize creative ways to delight influencers during your partnership, such as sending a beautifully personalized box of product
- Organize content and make sure that the influencers’ work are stored properly in Google Drive (or other database) so that you can reuse it for throwbacks or other marketing platforms
- Always be on the lookout for emerging influencers that you can “discover” while they’re still new
- Make inspiration guides for campaigns so influencers can have examples of your brand vibe
- Monitor the analytics (clicks, conversions, likes, comments) and come up with ways to improve
For example, if you’re an Influencer Relations Manager for a wellness beverage brand, you might work on:
- Design an influencer campaign strategy for the launch of the new matcha latte product line
- Finding wellness influencers who love matcha and analyzing their audiences whether they’d be good partners
- Reaching out to influencer candidates and asking them if they want to work together
- Sending out contracts and the brand/product inspiration (e.g., ways to use the matcha latte in smoothies, brownies, or yogurt)
- Providing examples of great sponsored posts, such as recipe videos or ingredient flatlay posts from previous influencer partners
- Answering all of the influencers’ questions promptly and approving their posts
- Monitoring and reporting back on each campaign’s engagement
- Keeping track of the best-performing influencers so that you can keep partnering next time
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