Abby Papenfus

Flipping this prompt on its head ... Also think about how influencers can help you solve business challenges. Consider influencers as business partners and extensions of your team. They have a deep understanding and connection to your audience with a goldmine of data to guide decision-making. When you've found trusted brand partners, invite their perspectives on potential hurdles, product ideas, new messaging, etc. Influencers are incredibly attuned to customer sentiment and can anticipate reactions -- making them great sounding boards.

Treat the influencer as an extension of your in-house team. Consider them a business partner. Allow them to guide and make decisions based on: (1) their quantitative audience data, and (2) their qualitative insights that come from genuine relationships with followers. Influencers (and social) are rich sources of cultural, category + customers truths that can inform relevant campaigns that inspire action.

An engagement rate is only the tip of the iceberg when evaluating an influencer's credibility. Consider WHO is engaging with them and WHY - both bits of context indicate how authentic engagement is. You can typically tell if it's another influencer, or worse, a bot, spamming the comments section. This qualitative assessment can give you important insights into how genuine an influencer's relationship is with their followers -- and how the strength of that relationship could transfer to your brand. This assessment can also uncover potential shadowbanning -- which disproportionally impacts marginalized creators. This shadowbanning can affect engagement rates, which can cause deserving creators to miss out on opportunities.

Once you’ve set and communicated business goals and KPIs, let influencers do what they do best: create. At Belle, we like to give influencers’ creative guardrails so they understand the brand, campaign priorities and legally-off-limit phrases or visuals. From there, we let the influencer bring us ideas. They know their audience and the algorithm better than anyone. Let them make recommendations for what will perform. For example, we had a parenting influencer impersonate the Godfather to highlight the importance of protecting your family with insurance. We would have never thought of that idea, but the entertaining video had soaring engagement. You (ideally) chose the influencer for a reason. Trust their creative judgement.

Vetting right-fit partners is a science and an art. Influencer software platforms are great starting points for identifying influencers that match your demographic, geographic + psychographic needs. Once you have a wider list, narrow it down with hand-vetting. Ensuring authenticity and credibility requires a human touch. Look through their previous partnerships and ask: -Is every other post a partnership? Too many ads are a red flag. -Do the ads provide value to their followers or are they overly polished, hard sells? -How does their audience respond to their ads? Are they well received? -What type of engagement do they receive on their posts? Does it feel bot-like or genuine? -Have they partnered with a competitor?

Show that you understand the industry's growth and potential. It's a constantly evolving space that requires trend-watching, future forecasting and nimble creativity. Share ideas for how the company can stand out in the crowded space with fresh ideas or unexpected partnerships. Be prepared to discuss how you'd drive ROI based on the company's unique business needs, challenges or opportunities.