Become an influencer Read online

  Someone else pointed out that in print media, they refer to the amount of sponsored real estate in a publication as the commercial “load”. The balance in a newspaper used to hover around a load of 30% advertising to 70% content. When I worked as the music compiler at 5FM for about 18 months, shortly after I finished university, I used to build the playlist for the most lucrative commercial station owned by the state broadcaster, the SABC. This was a fun job, since you had access to the blueprint or the template of what made up every hour of every day of the week. Over the course of a week, that blueprint used to level out to a remarkably similar ratio: roughly one-third music, one-third content (features, news, traffic, sport, etc.) and one-third advertising.

  For Liesl Laurie, this limit is about “three or four out of every ten posts” as well.

  I do plan around the fact that I don’t want everything to be one paid or sponsored post after another. When I’m getting booked for things, I usually work out how often I generally post and how many sponsored posts the clients require, and then I space it out. Generally, I work with about four brands consistently and I keep them a few days apart, so it doesn’t become spam. You don’t want to post about the same thing over and over. I work about a month and a half in advance and I put it in my diary. I’ll tell clients that this week will be reserved for so-and-so and I don’t know if you want your content to stand side-by-side with them ... Often, I have to plan a shoot with a photographer, a make-up artist; I often also create videos for clients and in all of this, we take on board the client’s time constraints.

  Nadia says that she tries to maintain a balance between sponsored content and the stuff she relies on for what she calls organic growth, because:

  I want to build an organic audience. You only do that by posting things where you’re not selling a product. I do a lot of personal content and then sponsored content in between. I think you’re building that organic audience when you share content that doesn’t require something of your follower. People just want to sit down and not think or do anything. That’s what I try and do for people.

  One person who also instinctively came up with that 30% load as a guideline is Bouwer Bosch, but he cautions against the temptation to do more.

  I think if you’re strapped for cash you might say yes to anything, but there’s some benefit in guarding your brand and making it a bit more exclusive – both for you and the brands you partner with.

  Mike Sharman says:

  I believe in an 80/20 model, which applies to a lot of things in life: 80% of the content is generated by 20% of the users. Everything in life tends to have an 80/20 model of sorts. That’s a pretty fair description. I’d say two out of every ten posts is a good metric in your head. You also need to realise that you’re an influencer because of your audience. You can’t force-feed messages down their throats, because you’ll lose them.

  Ask any influencer and they’ll be able to share a long list of products or service campaigns they have declined: weird beauty tools, weight-loss fads, accessories, clothing and even getaways all count among my own list of no-thank-yous. I have declined stuff or experiences I wouldn’t normally spend my own money on, businesses I didn’t think my followers would find useful, content I didn’t think I’d be able to create with some semblance of integrity, and stories I didn’t believe I’d be able to tell well. Often the deals simply don’t offer enough reward to justify the effort. Every free gift or offer of a paid campaign you receive as an influencer has a quid pro quo attached to it and, as the English writer and influencer Bella Mackie (@mackie_bella) says, “the quid is often literally just not worth the quo”.

  I received a pair of vellies (veldskoene) recently – a pair I knew I’d never wear. I contacted the sender immediately and explained my position: that I was really flattered by their generosity; however, I didn’t want their stock to go to waste since I knew the shoes were expensive, and out of respect for our relationship, they would be more than welcome to collect them if they felt they could extend the offer to a more receptive influencer. The pair was unopened and unworn, after all. They replied to thank me for the forthright feedback and insisted that they were happy for me to do whatever I wished with the shoes. Now it’s not that I hate vellies or that these were not trendy enough (they were actually pretty cool), but I knew that I probably wouldn’t wear them – a simple case of personal taste.

  Follow a professional approach when it comes to your internal policy about the load you approve for your own feed. When you receive content offers, sponsorships or just a barter deal that you feel you cannot do justice to or if it is something your followers will not engage with, be mature enough to reach out and have that conversation with the marketer involved. You can offer an alternative solution or suggest another influencer you could pass it on to. Perhaps there is a product in their range with which you could interact more naturally or another story you’d be better placed to tell.

  Cluttering your feed with sponsored content that your followers will resent you for is no way to build an authentic, relatable feed – or a business, for that matter. It is about your followers. Just because you need a new toothbrush and don’t want to pay R150 for it doesn’t mean that the followers on your “latest cars and bikes” themed feed care to see six posts on which model of electric toothbrush is currently parked next to your bathroom basin. Perhaps shelling out the R150 would be worth more to your influencer business in the long run?

  Regulations: These are the rules

  Before that whole Fyre Festival incident I was a bit more ignorant than I am now [admits Liesl Laurie]. I would do what was asked of me, within reason. But since then I’ve read so many articles about what you should be doing as an influencer, how you should declare paid collaborations and why. I would often just call agents and brand managers I know in the industry to ask for advice. I don’t have any pride when it comes to asking for guidance: when I don’t know, I check things out. Having worked so hard, from where I’ve come from, I would never risk getting myself in trouble for a brand.

  In 2019 the South African Advertising Regulatory Board (ARB) released a Social Media Code that serves to regulate the way influencers post, ensuring that consumers and influencers are all on the same page about transparency, accountability and best practice. The full code can be found on their website: http://arb.org.za/assets/appendix-k.pdf.

  The code defines the three accepted hashtags you need to include if you share sponsored content “to ensure that consumers reasonably understand this to be a Paid Advertising as opposed to an Organic Social Media endorsement”:

  #AD

  #Advertisement

  #Sponsored

  Even if you’re not taking cash in return for sponsored content, but you have managed to strike up a barter deal where a brand gives you stock in exchange for posts, you need to disclose this as well:

  Influencers are required to disclose if they were provided (permanently or on loan) with goods or services in return for media coverage (whether this is expressly stated or not). This helps reinforce ... influencer integrity while clearly allowing the consumer to make an informed opinion of the applicable content, product or service.

  The code also protects influencers by requiring brands to provide you with a written agreement.

  Marketers are required to have a written contract with any paid influencers that include the following information:

  1.The details of the engagement/brief.

  2.The remuneration (cash or cash equivalent), details and conditions of payment.

  3.The obligation to publish only own content or to clearly disclose or credit the content creator, if and when the content is not self-created.

  4.Mandatory disclosures and industry specific marketing regulations required by the marketer’s industry.

  Number 4 relates to gambling- or alcohol-related content, for example, which has an additional set of standard adver
tising requirements imposed on it.

  Influencer content must also comply with the standards of the Code of Advertising Practice, which means that if you make a false claim about how good a product is, you can’t protect yourself afterwards by saying, “It was just my own opinion”. If your claim cannot be substantiated with facts, don’t make the claim on your profile, no matter how truthful you may think it is.

  If you want to check your draft post against the Code of Advertising Practice just to be sure, head over to the digital home of the Advertising Standards Authority of South Africa: asasa.org.za.

  7

  WHAT IF I SCREW UP?

  Slacktivism and other ethical no-nos

  Slacktivism is the practice of supporting a political or social cause through social media or an online petition, which on its own might seem harmless. It could even be very useful and potentially very effective, but the harm is typically done by the low levels of effort or commitment keyboard crusaders are known for. When you are considering taking up a paid-for collaboration with a brand that has some activist or other good-cause element attached to it, tread carefully. You run the risk of being accused of being a lazy slacktivist or of profiting from the distress of others.

  In early 2019, the TV personality and rapper Nomuzi Mabena, professionally known as @Moozlie (on Instagram) and @Nomoozlie (Twitter), faced heavy backlash for a campaign she ran on her profiles, in partnership with motor manufacturer Volkswagen South Africa. She seemed to host a live video on Instagram one Thursday night in January, while driving. The live video was then cut off abruptly, in what seemed to be a car accident, judging by the noise and apparent breaking of glass visible before the video ended.

  Her management refused to comment on reports that she had been in what appeared to be an accident for 14 hours after the incident, while her fans flooded social media with messages of concern and distress. Some on social media were already suggesting that it might have been a set-up, a stunt of sorts, within hours of the incident. She then took to Instagram with a carefully produced video, revealing that it was a stunt, but also a paid campaign:

  “Take the pledge and make the change to #VWDriveDry in 2019. #Nomuzi”

  What I found astounding is that she still only disclosed that she had “partnered” with VW but made no overt use of a hashtag such as #AD, #Sponsored or #Advertisement – of course, there is also Instagram’s built-in disclosure function, which I often use. Four private individuals then duly took the case to the national Advertising Regulatory Board (ARB). The directorate ruled on the two main complaints: that the campaign was unduly graphic and that it didn’t sufficiently disclose the fact that it was a paid campaign.

  Even though it was found that this was advertising material that needed to be more clearly “labelled as such (by means of a hashtag or other appropriate identifier)”, Mabena was ultimately excused because it was done in the name of a good cause. “The code is to be applied in the spirit as well as the letter ... We do not consider that the purpose of clause 12 [of the regulation] can have been intended to undermine the strength of a message that is in the public interest and plays an important social responsibility role.”

  The regulatory challenge aside, the reaction in the court of public opinion was so vehement that she addressed the reaction with a follow-up video on Instagram three days after the event. In the update, she highlights how she had left a series of digital breadcrumbs in previous posts and in her Instagram Stories over weeks. She had apparently purposefully exhibited irresponsible behaviour relating to alcohol and driving for a while before the staged incident. The point she made in her follow-up video was that only four comments were reportedly made about “reckless driving” in the lead-up to the incident and the insights apparently showed that 300 000 people saw the campaign posts.

  In other words, she felt the campaign was justified because almost no one had called out a celebrity for promoting drunken driving on social media.

  Whether this campaign succeeded in promoting Volkswagen’s and Moozlie’s aims is beside the point now. What struck me was that the comments criticising the campaign were not aimed at the brand. Mabena’s followers clearly wanted her – the content creator, the influencer – to exercise better judgement. Followers remarked that their trust in her was damaged, not their trust or faith in the brand.

  Perhaps the fact that this was a paid-for campaign is beside the point. I suspect that some of Mabena’s fans would still have been angry if it had been done in partnership with a non-profit organisation as an advocacy stunt and not a paid one. The point is that your followers might not respond well if they feel that you are building better engagement statistics on content that causes them (or others) distress.

  When you do start running paid-for (or even bartered) content on a profile, you cross a line into new territory: your entire profile and everything on it becomes a business and your followers will regard it as such, even if only subconsciously.

  Whatever story you tell, any content you create on an influencer platform will be held accountable to a higher standard than your cousin’s private citizen account. The average Joe can freely share their sentiments, opinions, thoughts, feelings and frustrations. They can prank and even outright deceive without facing many repercussions, but when you are building a brand, everything hinges on trust. Whatever you create under the banner of this brand is fair game for far more criticism and judgement and higher ethical standards than a private account that is run only as a hobby.

  Where should you set your boundaries?

  Let’s say that you run a travel-themed influencer account and you happen to get engaged somewhere: a post sharing this detail will necessarily elicit more engagement. Win-win, you might think! But if you then also happen to go through a low moment in life, like a divorce, be prepared for a fair whack of scrutiny, judgement and even criticism around how that shows up (or doesn’t) in your content.

  This is not because there is an objectively right or wrong way of telling your story. You have created the perception that your followers are welcome in your personal life, so you should expect them to feel hurt when you shut that door in their face. Worse still, if you let people in, they might also criticise you for capitalising on something they find shameful. Hurt followers tend to express these sentiments in a variety of ways, many of which will not aid your healing or boost your influencer business.

  Be very careful about which doors you open and the terms on which you open them. You determine the boundaries, the tone and the access you grant, but you will ultimately also bear the brunt and often this might not seem fair.

  To keep your personal life personal when you’re an influencer is easier said than done, because it is human to want to share your joy. Bouwer Bosch found this out the hard way when his high-profile marriage to Afrikaans actress and influencer Leandie du Randt ended in 2019.

  People have never become brands in quite this way before. We’re all still figuring it out as we go, but in hindsight, I’d definitely have stronger boundaries. Going forward I’d be more careful, even though Leandie and I never purposefully tried to use our marriage on social media ... The thing with a break-up or a divorce is [that] it’s shameful and when that shame is a public level of shame, it makes it much harder, but if you share the good times with your followers, you need to suffer through the bad times in full view as well. The weird thing with all of this is, of course, that people tend to announce things on social media that they could more meaningfully communicate with the person directly. Like, when people wish their kids happy birthday on social media or congratulate someone on a public platform. How many of those messages are really about the other person? I often wonder. And how much of it is actually about the person posting it?

  For Liesl Laurie, the end of a high-profile relationship also changed her approach to sharing her personal life.

  I don’t share the person I’m dating with social media anymore
. I share my family, but I always ask them to approve every time before I share them, but I do tell that story. I love spending time with my family and I think it is part of who I am online. But my relationship isn’t part of my social media presence because of the media in the past taking everything out of context when a relationship comes to an end. If media companies are going to make money off my posts and it’s at the expense of my feelings, I’d rather be the one to make money off it first.

  So, you don’t want your unhappiness to make someone else money?

  Exactly. But it’s easier said than done. Should I be comfortable and ready again – to share my relationship with the world – I will ensure that we benefit from it. I am tired of media companies using my name to sell copies of their publication, when things don’t work out in my life.

  Rachel Kolisi made the headlines for calling out women who sent her husband inappropriate messages on social media in 2018 and 2019.

  And I stand by every social media move or decision I have made. My Instagram profile is the truest reflection of me and if you follow me, you have a good idea of who I am. I was real at the beginning; there has never been a strategy, and I am proud of what I have put out there.

  From a brand-strategist point of view, Mike Sharman advises two potential routes:

  You’re either a “fuck that” personality or you’re not. Rachel Kolisi is a good example of someone who stuck to her position. But you have to weather the storm. Yes, it’ll be noisy but it will eventually be done.

  Or, you have to man up [sic] and say, “I fucked up, sorry guys”. Someone screen-grabbed it already. Once it is out there, it’s out there. Don’t delete it – that makes it look like you’re covering it up. If you wouldn’t want to see a post on the front page of a newspaper, then why are you putting it out? Some people are controversial for controversy’s sake. The true test is always, even on WhatsApp, are you willing for this to go on the most public platform you can imagine? If not, don’t type it. Anywhere.