Influencer programmes now play a routine role in PR campaigns. From products to events and even promoting ideas, the process of tapping into the audience of a prominent person is a key part of many well-rounded communications efforts.
Developing an influencer programme should include a solid measurement plan
Depending on the business goals for communications, an influencer outreach strategy could include measuring engagement, changes in sentiment or reputational scores, and audience conversion rates.
Although influencer programmes have been around for a long time—well before social media!—the ease of communicating to large audiences really took off when platforms such as Facebook and early Twitter (now X) opened to the public.
When social platforms were new, the go-to method of “measuring” influencer metrics was to use follower counts as a score for visibility. It was the easiest way of pinpointing a stat, as follower counts are readily visible.
The logic followed that if an influencer with 250K followers mentioned a brand, that mention was seen by 250,000 people.
The problems with using follower counts as a metric are readily apparent. First, a single post is unlikely to be seen by every follower. That would require conditions like everyone who follows the account to be on the platform at the same time to hold, so right off the bat the “seen by 250,000 people” falls apart.
Next, almost as soon as there were real people followers, bots quickly followed—so even the “people” part of the equation was not accurate.
Follower counts are good to know when identifying potential influencers, but it is important to pay more attention to engagement. How active are followers? Do they interact with posted content by sharing it or commenting on it?
Measuring engagement
Measuring engagement is about paying attention to how people respond to an influencer’s content. Likes are a first-tier response—it shows an action. Someone has viewed the content and responded to it.
Sharing is a more valuable action than a like, as it demonstrates a follower was interested enough in the content to then distribute it to their friends, family, and followers.
Commenting is similarly of higher value than a like, as it shows the person viewing the content was willing to stop whatever they were doing and respond to it with a written thought.
However, as anyone who has spent even a few minutes reading the comments knows, not all engagement is positive.
So, simply reporting a total number of comments without any additional context could be misleading. If an influencer posts about your product and there are 1,000 comments within the hour, is that good or bad? It depends on the content of those comments—which is where sentiment fits into the equation.
Sentiment
Reporting engagement numbers is of limited value without the added context of sentiment. And, even within the context of reporting sentiment, additional analysis determining what followers are responding to is useful.
Here are some examples of why additional context matters:
- Example A: Influencer shares a sponsored post, highlighting a brand’s product that receives high engagement numbers, which include high-volume sharing and comments. Overall sentiment is positive, but an analysis of what drove the sharing and comments reveals that engagement was driven by the exotic location of the photo, rather than the product.
- Example B: Influencer posts about something unrelated to the brand, but the brand’s product is visible in the photo. Overall sentiment is mixed. Analysis of comments reveals that 25% of commenters ask or comment about the product the influencer forgot to mention/tag.
- Example C: Influencer shares a sponsored post, correctly tagging the brand. Sentiment is mixed, but leans negative. Further analysis of comments shows that while the initial response to the post was negative, over time the sentiment shifted, becoming overwhelmingly positive.
- Example D: Influencer shares a sponsored post, which receives low initial engagement numbers but sentiment is overwhelmingly positive. A week later, analysis shows increased engagement, additional sharing, and brand-new interactions with the account.
In each of the above scenarios, there is a lot more going on—and therefore more to learn—than just a flat reporting of engagement numbers. Engagement can be a strong indicator that your influencer programme is strong, but do not forget to look deeper into the numbers to make sure the conclusions you are drawing align with your data.
Audience conversion data
Ultimately, the point of engaging with an influencer is to elicit audience action. Whether you are providing discount codes to the influencer to share with their audience or tracking through affiliate links, there are ways to determine if an influencer is having an effect.
These need to be set up at the outset of a campaign. Tracking sales and monitoring the use of affiliate links and discount codes can be an ongoing process throughout a campaign. Examine which posts are the most successful, and analyse data that can show you why one post landed well with the influencer’s audience, while another fell flat.
After the campaign has ended, you can then use your data to determine other key campaign metrics, such as how much each conversion cost and the overall ROI of the influencer programme.
Collecting data is a part of measurement, not its end goal. Influencer outreach can be very effective in an overall communications programme, but it is important to understand what is working, what is not, and perhaps most critically, why. Recognising these details will help to inform future efforts and enable a more successful PR strategy the next time an influencer programme is deployed.
