Before choosing an influencer for a marketing campaign, it is essential to carefully screen the influencer’s social media presence to ensure that their values and beliefs align with the brand and that their audience fits into the business’s target market.

When it comes to digital marketing, one of the most effective methods to promote your brand, products, and services and one which has a proven ROI, is influencer partnerships. The results are usually worth the challenge of identifying the right influencer, but they can also have dire consequences if not managed carefully.

Although there is a multitude of reasons for social media screening, one of the most common is to do with the avoidance of PR mishaps, and mitigating online risk. Influencers are well-known for sharing their personal opinions on social media, and if these views contradict that of your brand, it could result in reputational damage.

A prime example is a case involving Kanye West, otherwise known as ‘Ye’, who had a long-running partnership with Adidas. Ye was recorded saying that Adidas would ‘never drop him’… until they did. West has been banned from a range of social media platforms due to the Anti-Semitic content that he has posted, which demonstrates the point of this article very clearly.

These kinds of events cause huge negative publicity for the brands backing the individual, and the important thing is that they can mostly be avoided through the integration of social media screening and assessing an influencer’s full digital media history to ensure that it is in line with your brand values and messaging.

Another example involves Fyza Ali, who yields 1.3 million Instagram followers and had brand partnerships with the likes of Missguided, Pretty Little Thing and Shein. A video which appeared to be a screen recording of a voice note from Ali was leaked and featured what appeared to be Fyza’s voice making anti-Asian comments, racial slurs and even threatening violence. Needless to say, the influencer had all influencer brand deals terminated and has taken a ‘social media break’ to reflect on her behaviour.

The true power of this marketing strategy is reflected in the results of the most mentioned brand on Instagram in 2021. Surprisingly the winner was Zara, with a gobsmacking reach of over 2 billion people and over 300,000 mentions, beating even Instagram itself!  

It is important to consider not just the type of influencer and their audience, but also the size of their audience. This may seem counterintuitive, but as the number of followers grows, the rate of engagement decreases. Data says that users with 10K – 100K follower range have the best combination of reach and engagement.