Instagram influencers can earn money from mobile devices by creating their audiences at a young age, and even become brand ambassadors by collaborating with big brands. To build your audience on Instagram, you must produce the right content and know the Instagram algorithm well. By following the constantly changing Instagram rules with Instagram updates, you should often update your profile and keep up with new developments. You can reach many local and foreign followers by not only following what is happening around you but also the worldwide social media fashion and what is popular. Sounds nice, right?
However, until you hear that a new application is coming to Instagram influencers that enable them to reach the masses.
Following a recent warning from the UK Competition and Markets Authority, it would not be wrong to use the phrase “Instagram has launched a war against social media influencers secretly posting ads”. Seeking to protect consumers by revealing the commercial relationships in the influencers' posts, Instagram seems determined not to let influencers go by promising to do more about users who secretly advertise.
Since their followers idolize them and value their views, people who have
developed a broad and engaged following on Instagram are known as 'influencers'.
Due to their lifestyle, their work or hobby, the clothing they wear
or the stories they share, they may have acquired a loyal following.
The influencer pool is massive and diverse, ensuring that almost every brand has
the ability to use Instagram influencer marketing for its sector and demographic target.
The advent of Instagram influencers opened up tremendous possibilities for brands looking to advertise their goods to their target audience authentically, and thus the 'paid post' movement was born.
It may have been enough in the early days for a brand to give one of their items as a gift to an influencer, in exchange for them posting on their profile about it. But with the rapid growth of space, this changed as influencers realised that they could not only receive free goods, but also charge brands.
Social media influencers in many countries have to use #advertisements or #sponsored hashtags in their ad posts. However, this decision was taken after the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) discovered that many Instagram users did not use it. This means that Instagram may face legal action, and to avoid this, Instagram has also pledged to increase its pressure on sponsored posts.
According to CMA, which defines the changes as "very important", it seems that it will be seriously difficult for the phenomena to introduce the products without explicitly stating that they are advertising. Social media influencers now have to indicate whether they receive any incentives or money without promoting a product or service. So what if they don't? How can this be prevented or is there a chance to prevent it? Of course, there is. Technology, which is the answer to everything, also answers this question.
Well, have you ever thought why this application came up? This problem, which has been related to influencers for a long time, has previously been raised in the US Federal Trade Commission. There is no clear information about when and what payment is made for influencers who are effective in promoting products and services. Facebook Ireland Ltd, which operates Instagram in the UK, according to a statement from the official website of the UK Government, to combat hidden ads on the photo and video sharing platform. This makes it difficult for people to advertise without tagging whenever they post any post on Instagram. Within the scope of consumer protection law, incentive shipments must be clearly labelled so that people are not misled.
The Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) has been investigating hidden advertising on Instagram for hesitation that many social media influencers post content about businesses without explicitly specifying whether they are getting paid or are encouraged to announce what they share, and the platform is not doing enough.
What will change in our Instagram lives after the announcement:
• It will require users to report if they have been in any way encouraged to promote a product or service, and also to express this fact clearly.
• It will spread the "paid affiliate" tool to all users, allowing people to easily put a descriptive tag on a post.
• It will use technology and algorithms designed to detect situations where users do not explicitly state that their posts are an advertisement, and will notify promoted businesses of those detected.
Have you heard that Instagram made profitable offers to popular TikTok users to switch Reels? Read "Instagram Reels 101: Things For Marketers To Watch Within Instagram Reels"
As part of the commitments, Instagram also needs to include companies in the changes by creating a tool to help them track how their products are promoted. As a result, businesses will have to do their part to comply with consumer protection law and take action whenever appropriate, including by asking the platform to remove broadcasts if necessary.
What Will Happen to Influencers Who Aren't Following the New Rules?
First, Instagram will add a feature that will ask if they have received incentives to promote a product or service before publishing their posts. The social media platform is also working on a new algorithm to detect ad content. This algorithm will ensure that the advertiser is informed about the platform rules.
Besides, CMA Chief Executive Officer Andrea Coscelli said, "These changes mean there should be no excuse for them to ignore how their brand's advertised. Social media should become much more difficult for those who are dishonest with their followers."
Hidden ads on Instagram are a longstanding problem. The company has been trying to spoil the marketing gimmicks of phenomena for years. As you may remember, in 2017, your post included the option to tag a partner, so the ad was visible on the Instagram post. However, as Instagram points out, many users still fail to follow the advertising guidelines.
5 Tips For Marketers on How To Collaborate Influencers on Instagram
1. Investigate Your Influencers
Not only follower count is a measurement metric on social media. When investigating your influencers' accounts, watch closely whether their follower count and likes are correlating.
Check their followers (a sample size of course) if they're real or created accounts.
There are tools to check engagement rate, location, gender, age and interests. Well, such platforms are starting from 700 EUR per month but with a yearly subscription :) We are collaborating with Achoo. Their team is friendly and helpful. Plus, their prices are more affordable compared to their competitors.
2. Create Brand Ambassadors
Enough of brand cliches now. Everybody knows you're paying for that content. Build a relationship with your influencers. Make them your brand ambassadors.
First of all, you need to do what you do best, your job. Your choice of brand ambassador needs to be reflecting your target audience. So that your brand ambassador would make your product part of their lives willingly, instead of creating a story highlight which is screaming that is fake.
One time jobs are not really my thing. I want to be best friends with my brand ambassadors so that their audience get to know me and the other way around. Air Up is executing it very well on Instagram.
3. Consider Takeowers
A takeover is another common format that marketers use to partner with influencers on Instagram.
You should partner with an influencer to do a takeover instead of continuously trying to produce engaging content. A takeover is a form of partnership between influencers, where the influencer takes over the account of your brand and publishes content on your behalf.
Takeovers are both fascinating and beneficial to the brand because content from influencers is more successful than content created by the brand.
4. Do It Right
All branded content posts have a "Paid Partnership with [company / brand name]" mark under the Instagram handle of the influencer, making them easily identifiable. This means that paying partnerships are more straightforward and clears up any misunderstanding in the mind of the audience. The influencer taps Advanced Settings, then Tag Business Partner, when making a feed message. They look for your business partner account from there and give you a tag submission. If the influencer is accepted as a business partner by your brand, they will be able to explicitly tag your brand in their posts. Make sure that your brand ambassador has "Allow Business Partner to Promote" enabled, so that you can advertise.
5. Plan EVERYTHING
I don't say "don't trust your influencers". But just plan every step in advance to avoid surprises. Plan what message to give, the frequency of your message, the advertisement plan, post or story, highlights, language, tone, the scenario etc. You might not be thinking about it at the first step but there needs to be a contract when it comes to influencer collaborations.
Here is a check list for your collabs:
Ready to get started with Influencer collabs? Contact us.