Everything is not rosy about influencer marketing. One has to dig deeper into the numbers of followers flashing on any post basis which businesses hire micro influencers or other types. There are several backlashes that influencer marketing has faced in the recent times on the grounds such as:
- Too much staged feel of a post
- High number of bought followers
- Mindless comment promoting racism
- High chances of fraud fueled by fake social media accounts
- Poor conversions despite high pay made to the influencer
- No homework on the audience done by the influencer
- Approaching clients for freebies in lieu of promise of exposure
All these reasons point at the possibility of influencer marketing popularity reaching its saturation. Despite this hinting, there is not denying to the fact that businesses are still keen to find YouTube influencers, Instagram influencers, and Twitter influencers owing to the outreach and conversion capacity of these agents. This in turn can prove to be an obstacle in the effectiveness and profitability of marketing campaigns.
So, a little of investigation by businesses can still help them pick influencer marketers who are actually sincere and result-oriented. And on the influencer part, better homework and deeper involvement into the post can be a game-changing strategy. One such way to involve deeper is to encourage two-way conversations.
What are two way conversations?
Two way conversations are nothing but a dialogue between the brand stakeholders or its ambassador and the end users. This tool is bringing that much needed personalized touch to marketing campaigns. It is also allowing businesses to fathom the reality behind the follower base and improve the success rate of influencer marketing by going interactive way. Most importantly, it is allowing brands to make themselves more accessible to the customers, address the consumers’ needs real time and provide them with quickest possible solutions earning loyalty in return.
Ways two way conversations help in fixing the backlash
Two way conversations are enabling better response management. Whenever there is a kind of mood building up around any post, with the help of two way conversations, brands can work towards steering that mood in their favor. By directly interacting with the audience, the brands are adopting a more human approach and also learning about the customer expectations in the process. They are also using the platform to clarify issues instantly before they blow up out of proportion and backfire. It is done by:
- Replying to comments to thank, suggest, clarify and even express regret: This interactive way of using influencer marketing has driven the loyalty in positive direction. Not only the businesses are able to find about the authenticity of the follower or visitor, but they are also being there with the customers and addressing them with human touch solving the matters almost instantly.
- Inviting followers for live sessions: By adopting more systematic approach, brands conduct live sessions to interact with customers using influencer as an agency in between. 80% of this session is only about experiences, storytelling and sharing, and 20% is focused on promoting the product, idea or service. Live sessions help tell real users apart from robots and fake IDs as latter actually cannot chat. Thus, if any propaganda-based backlash is happening, live chat conducted with caution and tact can be the fitting reply to the nuisance creators.
Positive effects of two way conversation leading to fixing the backlash
With the human approach of dealing with consumer sentiment and expectations, the two way conversations are creating a positive experience for the businesses. These are helping effectively in fixing the backlash by bringing in:
- More transparency: The relationship between the influencer and its followers cannot afford to have a casual tone. The influencer needs to be clear about the post that is designed to share information, create awareness around any issue or simply to delight the customer by making them a part of experience. Once the relationship is established, occasional paid content for marketing purposes can be created. Clarity of intention becomes better with two way conversations.
- Helps know audience better: Why people are following the influencer? It is a million dollar question. The answer coming right from the horse’s mouth is nothing but pure gold. Many influencers do not invest time in profiling the followers on the basis of their motives, wants, expectations. They simply are delighted by the numbers. This strategy of adding numbers mindlessly backfires when the promotion fails and people back out as soon as something business-focused is served to them.
Influencers have the power of numbers with them. Bringing in the quality in those numbers becomes possible by understanding the psychological profile of people that becomes easy to draw through two way conversations. One such platform that gives rise to strong connection between brands and influencers through productive marketing campaigns across all social media channels is Influence4u. The platform provides complete support for two way conversations that have the ability to assess, track and develop consumer response and help influencer marketers deliver the value expected from them. The key aim of the leading name in the industry is to bring influencer 4 u with a deeper sense of understanding.
