7 Best Practices For Influencer Management

Best Practices for Managing Influencers

To help you best manage influencers working with your business, we asked marketing and social media managers this question for their best guidance. From building real relationships to having a tracking system, several of these strategies will surely help you effectively manage and retain influencers for your business.

Seven best practices for managing influencers:

• Build Real Relationships
• Use Escrow for Payments To New Influencers
• Set Deadlines
• Allow Influencers to Take Creative Liberties
• Explore Influencers Feed and Work Around That
• Develop Clear Rules & Expectations
• Have a Tracking System

Build Real Relationships

Elliot Brown of OnPay states, “When your relationships with influencers are purely transactional, your efforts generally aren’t going to be as effective. It’s not always possible to build a strong relationship but look for ways to engage them more deeply. For example, you may be able to work with them on promotions that might help add your existing audience to their followership. Or you could hire them to give you internal feedback on your product. When you’re collaborating with them and they feel a sense of ownership in the work they do for you, they’ll be way more persuasive —  and authentic —  when they talk about you.”

Use Escrow for Payments To New Influencers

Dale Reardon from All Accessibility Matters suggests, “Trust goes both ways as I am sure influencers have dealt with businesses not making payments either at all or in a timely fashion afterward. Why not use escrow online for the payment to make sure neither party lets the other one down? There are many different escrow services online – then the influencer knows they will be paid but the business knows for certain that the agreement will have to be fully carried out before they consent to the payment being released.”

Set Deadlines

Corey Ashton Walters of Here advises, “Be sure to set deadlines for content when working with influencers. If there’s no timeline, then you may not see any content for months. Give them an appropriate amount of time to complete the stories or posts, such as one month, and check in consistently to make sure it’s received at the assigned date. It’s a great way to create structure and expectations.”

Allow Influencers to take Creative Liberties

Eric Ang from One Search Pro mentions, “Although you’d like an influencer to promote your product or service, it’s important to note that hard-sell language and sales talk might not appeal to their audience. Therefore, one good practice is to provide them with minimal descriptions of your product or service, then let them take creative liberties. They might come up with a funny skit to better illustrate their experience with your product or they might write a catchy tune. Letting them be creative allows them to keep their content authentic. Plus, the creative soft-sell approach tends to get better engagement.”

Explore Their Feed and Work Around That

Igal Rubinshtein of Home Essentials Direct shares their thoughts, “A good way to manage influencers and the output you receive from them is to know what to expect. Start with exploring the influencer’s feed and gauging their aesthetic, values, and overall message. Choose to collaborate with an influencer only if their brand matches yours or if they display signs of creative flexibility. An influencer who can adapt to the brand’s needs while staying true to themselves is an influencer worth working with. When you have clarity on your campaign’s messaging, visuals, deliverables, and more, it becomes easier to choose and work with an influencer. Therefore, the best way to manage an influencer is to find one who understands your brand and brings their creativity to the table.”

Develop Clear Rules and Expectations

Clare Jones of Custom Neon provides, “Managing several influencers can be a daunting task, particularly when you’re dealing with poorly defined expectations and a lack of proper onboarding. It’s important to put in the effort in the early stages and develop clearly outlined rules or expectations that can be adapted for each influencer. Many influencers have a very particular way of doing things, with some approaches not suiting your brand or the goals that you would like to achieve from a partnership with them. The more clear of a picture that you provide to each influencer when onboarding them, the less likely you are going to have to micromanage their output.”

Have a Tracking System

Gisera Matanda with WeLoans mentions, “A tracking system helps monitor influencers’ progress, content, and performance. The system helps manage budgets in keeping track of their expenses, especially when working with a set fee. It also makes important information easily accessible when checking progress as needed.”

Special thanks to Terkel for their help in creating this article. Read more of our helpful articles related to Influencer Marketing!