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The influencer marketing space has boomed over the past few years with brands of all shapes and sizes getting involved, largely driven by rising consumer preference for the opinion of trusted individuals, over and above the voice of the brand itself. For the relationship between an influencer and their followers to be truly genuine and sincere though, it has always been crucial that the individual is fully disclosing their commercial interests to their audience, so that there is complete transparency when content has been paid-for or incentivised. Credibility is of utmost importance, and consumers need to trust that an influencer is offering their honest review of a product or service, for their overall content to be of any value.<\/p>\n
Historically there has been some confusion as to how and when influencers should be disclosing their brand affiliations. In the UK, the guidelines are set by the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) and in the US by the Financial Services Authority (FSA). For some time it appeared that few influencers were disclosing their brand affiliations, but this has improved slowly over the past year or two. Saying that however, some dubious ethics still prevail with even well known media personalities and top tier influencers sometimes failing to disclose when an image post is sponsored. In fact the Federal Trade Commission recently sent letters to\u00a0more than 90 influencers reminding them that they need to \u201cclearly and conspicuously\u201d disclose when their posts are sponsored.<\/p>\n
The role of sponsored posts<\/strong><\/p>\n While sponsored posts might not be everyone\u2019s cup of tea, they serve the purpose of enabling influencers to discuss and review brands and products which they might otherwise not be able to afford, and also allow them to make a full-time career of building their social media content streams. \u201cSponsored posts are what pays my bills and allows me to continue blogging and sharing my life with all of you. Otherwise, I\u2019d have to get a 9-5, which would mean a whole lot\u00a0less<\/em>\u00a0content from me,\u201d shares US fashion and lifestyle influencer Sivan Ayla<\/a>.<\/p>\n The reluctance to disclose sponsored brand relationships is simple: influencers worry that paid-for content will be less well received by their followers than non-sponsored content. To a certain extent this is true \u2013 it\u2019s easier for a reader to trust the opinions of a product review, for example, where no money or gift has exchanged hands. To add to this, brands are increasingly needing to justify the ROI of their influencer marketing spend, and so they are wanting o see tangible results from an influencer collaboration. This a view which Ayla supports, and she admits that \u201cover the last year I\u2019ve read and heard a few bloggers I follow express their frustrations with low engagement on sponsored posts. They explained how their following doesn\u2019t \u2018Like\u2019 their photos if it says #sponsored or #ad, which then looks like poor ROI to a brand, which then means they probably won\u2019t work with that blogger anymore. I get it, but if you have an engaged audience they will be able to tell when a paid post is genuine or not.\u201d<\/p>\n To a certain extent an education gap still exists, where brands aren\u2019t always insisting that an influencer discloses the nature of their commercial arrangement. But ultimately, it should also be the responsibility of the influencer to know and understand the legal and ethical obligations within their country.<\/p>\n