The rise of creators and influencers has opened the door to a new opportunity for brands in the sports media industry. True to their name, influencers have some of the most powerful pulls when it comes to building and attracting audiences, and brands are finding new ways to capitalize.
Audiences have never been more immersed into social media than they are now, and influencers are the presence to whom audiences flock. Many influencers exist as epicenters for interaction in their respective fields, and their personal brands become centers for community growth.
It stands to reason that intertwining your brand with the right influencer, or placing your product front-and-center, can yield tremendous results — but how do you manage influencer relationships?
How to Effectively Manage Influencer Relationships
1) Connect with Creators Whose Brands Align With Your Mission
The first step is finding an influencer whose brand aligns with your vision. You’ll want to first isolate influencers who have a connection to your company brand through the topic you cover. If your company covers a broader scope, you’ll have a wider array of influencers to choose from.
From there, you can use influencer databases to learn more about the types of content that each influencer produces, content engagement data, and their previous works. Have your mission in mind as you peruse the options, and connect with the ones who check the most boxes.
This is the phase where you should also work to validate influencers’ credibility as you consider options. While most influencers are legitimate, it is possible for an influencer to fabricate follower and engagement numbers.
2) Clearly Communicate Your Goals and Expectations to Ensure Synergy
Once you reach out to an influencer of interest and get a response, you can start to set the foundation for a partnership agreement. At this point, you’ll want to make clear your goals and expectations through this partnership — not only to hold parties accountable for their work, but also to ensure that both sides have synergy as you move forward.
Put in writing what your parameters are for the partnership to be fulfilled — maybe it’ll be one sponsored post a day, or a branded episode, or a select amount of custom promotions — and allow the influencer party to do the same. Also keep in mind that, based on the level of influencer, the scale of the deal may vary.
3) Be Transparent About Compensation and Partner Agreement Terms
In the same vein as clear communication regarding goals and expectations, also be transparent about compensation within the partner agreement terms. The influencer is counting on this to be a mutually beneficial arrangement. Thus, there can’t be any confusion regarding financials.
If payments are to be based on certain metrics, make the conversion rates clear and easy to calculate. If payments are centered only on submission of sponsored posts and specified materials, make these conversion rates easy to extract as well.
4) Track Progress and Continually Collaborate
Once the agreement is finalized and the partnership is put into motion, you can track the influencer’s progress. Stay keyed in on their social media activity, their growth, and the performance of your branded posts.
This is where you can not only monitor return on investment, but also stay ready for quick-response collaborations, if trends turn favorably toward relevant content, or if your influencer-branded content itself starts to trend. The world of social media is constantly fluctuating, and those constant fluctuations demand careful attention and proximity, if you want to capitalize.
5) Actively Express and Affirm an Influencer’s Value
It’s entirely possible that it’ll take time for you and your influencing partner to find common ground, or achieve total synergy. Along the way, you should be open and constructive with your feedback, and you should also seek out opportunities to affirm the influencer’s value.
It’s easy to forget at times in the digital space, but the relationship between a brand and an influencer is still, in fact, a human relationship. By being constructive and affirmative with your review, you can bring about a positive experience in a high-pressure environment, and further motivate influencers to work for your brand.
6) Be Patient, But Also Be Willing to Divert Course Upon Review
You’ll want to be constructive no matter what — that’s always the best way to act when dealing with human beings. At the same time, however, it’s also possible that an influencer might not be as good a fit as they were initially envisioned to be. Perhaps their brand vision doesn’t align as well with yours in action, or perhaps they’re not delivering on their targets.
Be patient — results won’t always show up right away — but also be willing to change course if an influencer partnership isn’t delivering on its terms and potential. In those scenarios, thoroughly communicate why a change is being made, and thank the influencer for their time and effort.
7) Maintain a Feedback Channel and Encourage Creative Thinking
As you’ve likely noticed by now, communication is a common theme when building and managing influencer relationships. You should have a steady stream of communication throughout the process, and that communication should be two-sided, back-and-forth — always.
By maintaining a constant feedback channel and encouraging creative feedback from your influencers, you not only free them up to do the best job they can on current projects, but you also open pathways to sustain relationships and start new projects down the road.
Playbook
- Contact creators with brand alignment
- Clearly communicate goals and expectations
- Be transparent about compensation and terms
- Track progress and continually collaborate
- Activity affirm your influencer’s value
- Be patient, but also willing to divert course
- Maintain a constant creative feedback channel
