Media

Bigger isn’t always better

Social Circle

March 21, 2017 | 7 min read

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Social Circle, we’re always keeping track of social talent. We’re watching who’s going up, who’s going down, who’s the biggest, what’s trending – you name it, we’re tracking it. This month, we’re taking a look at the world’s biggest influencers and were unsurprised to see that, despite recent events, PewDiePie is still at the top.

Bigger isn’t always better

Online advertising has been getting a right old beating recently. The Times published an investigative piece on brands’ ads appearing next to inappropriate videos and content which has caused quite a stir in the industry. Given that the world wide web is extremely broad, and programmatic advertising targets audiences rather than context, this shouldn’t come as a surprise. However, why should brands put up with this?

Obviously, brands shouldn’t get involved with politics and extremist views, and they need to be careful who and what they associate with. But backlash is inevitable in today’s society, especially at a time when everyone can voice and amplify their opinions easily online.

The latest bashing concerned influencer marketing — a way of reaching audiences in an authentic and targeted way. After initial concerns about brands paying incredible amounts of money to the influencer stars to endorse their products, this has now blown over and the industry is moving towards a more considered approach when it comes to utilizing influencers.

Felix Kjellberg aka PewDiePie caused a stir (rightly so) for posting videos with anti-semitic messages and was consequently dropped by Disney’s Maker Studio as well as YouTube Red and Preferred. However, the strange thing is how long it took for brands and agencies to realize what was going on. Whether he intended to create a platform for antisemitism or not, the by-product ended up being a forum for racist comments. Brands need to do their due diligence when working with an influencer, including looking closely at their audience’s behavior too – it’s called research.

At Social Circle, we’ve put our heads together to come up with some top tips for advertisers and their social influencer campaigns.

Do your due diligence

It amazes us how many people don’t watch the content of the influencer they’re considering or are currently working with. While having access to platforms such as Social Circle is good place to start, to identify influencers and measure campaigns, you also need to do more initial research.

It’s not uncommon for us to get creative briefs from brands that want to work with a specific influencer, while clearly not knowing what they do, or the nature of their content. For example, don’t ask someone that does pranks to suddenly deliver earnest interviews. Also, check all their social media platforms. What they might be doing on YouTube doesn’t necessarily translate to all other platforms.

Ensure a cultural fit

PewDiePie might have considered his content to be satirical but others (rightly) didn’t. As a brand, you need to understand the content of the creator but more importantly their attitude. Working with influencers requires a cultural fit, not just a commercial relationship. If all their videos feature pranks or comedy, then you need to think if that style fits in culturally with your haircare product range - probably not. And obviously stay away from anything inappropriate, even if it is said to be satire - it’s not worth it.

Consider the audience

The unfortunate by-product of PewDiePie’s videos was that it created a forum for racist and anti-semitic comments from his audience, and obviously no one wants a comment feed of racist remarks. You need to look at the audience following the influencer, not just the influencers themselves. In cases like this, the audience has serious ramifications - often they further publicize the video to a wider audience.

Tight briefs

Working with influencers is often far from getting the influencer you work with to name-drop your brand. It’s about working closely together to create an engaging piece of content and to come up with a tight briefing. Not only what to say, but also what not to say. This can be as simple as ‘no swearing’ but helps prevent situations where you would be left unsatisfied, or worse, ‘branded for life’. Ensure you approve (or as we do at Social Circle, veto) content.

The old adage of ‘there’s no such thing of bad publicity’ really doesn’t apply here. Let me tell you, inappropriate content, political associations and extremist views can destroy your brand as fast as your influencer can post a video featuring a sign saying “Death to all Jews”.

TOP 10 GLOBAL YOUTUBERS

1. PewDiePie

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