• by Kinglsey Taylor , Op-Ed Contributor, July 25, 2016

Brands have been leveraging celebrities, endorsements and influencers to speak to their audiences in a uniquely human and authentic voice for ages. In this regard, influencer marketing is not a new concept. While influencers can raise awareness and pique interest, your brand needs to stand on its own beyond borrowed interest.

To ensure credibility, your brand messaging strategy needs be consistent, and your brand promise needs to meet (better yet, exceed) expectations.

Here are a few tips to keep in mind to make sure you are effectively implementing your social-influencer strategy.

· Set attainable goals.

Often times, goals are too lofty or too vague. If your goal is to “increase customers,” how are you going to measure success? Are you talking about growing 100 to 1,000, or growing 2MM by 10%? Is “customers” referring to everybody, a specific audience, or just Facebook users?

Realistic and well-defined goals (with concrete and measurable criteria) are much more likely to actualize.

· Build real relationships.

Influencers may not know the ins and outs of your brand, so remember to integrate them into your team as much as possible. Try inviting influencers to company events, or creating ways for them to interact and get to know your team.

PlayStation got personal when they baked PewDiePie, the YouTube sensation and game reviewer with 45+ million subscribers and 10 billion + views, a birthday cake and hid a one-of-a-kind, hand-painted DualShock 4 controller inside. The result? PewDiePie's created an organic video of the cake and controller that created a viral moment and earned over 3.2 million views.

By sharing brand values and cultures, influencers will have a much more complete picture of and build a more organic relationship with your brand.

· Identify boundaries.

Though integration is important, an influencer does not hold the same level of brand knowledge as an agency or brand manager. Have upfront discussions around your brand guidelines to avoid potential off-brand messaging.  (You don’t want an Instagram of your influencer with a competitor sending your PR team into triage mode).

· See the big picture.

An influencer is one piece of your marketing plan, and not the other way around. Regardless of how persuasive, genuine and on-brand their message may be, your influencer marketing strategy will be most successful as part of a larger campaign or supporting initiatives. A cohesive brand message has impact beyond any single endorsement.

With kids 6-14 watching more YouTube than ever, Nickelodeon recognized the opportunity to leverage A-List influencers to create custom YouTube videos to promote events such as the Kids' Choice Awards, the HALO Awards, and their program, Game Shakers. Nickelodeon made sure their marketing messages lived beyond YouTube by having their cast, of close to 50 influencers, create snackable, targeted social content across all platforms.

The results were a smashing success. The Kids' Choice Awards program had over 32.4 million views on YouTube alone, and over 10 million loops on Vine. Game Shakers had a wildly successful Instagram campaign with nearly 13 MM impressions leading into the premiere.

While you can follow all of the rules, with the ever-evolving media landscape and growing demand for KPIs, it's increasingly essential to have a standardized framework for measurement. By defining a baseline, narrowing the focus and identifying goals, agencies can self-regulate to protect the credibility of influencer marketing as part of a standard marketing mix.

Influencer marketing will continue to grow and become more commercialized as new platforms arise and with them, new audiences and new opportunities.