• by Lena Katz , Op-Ed Contributor, November 26, 2024

As influencer marketing evolves from “experimental” to an essential part of any integrated marketing mix, the influencer engagement process almost always includes an “influencer vetting” or background check step. Some brands use background check companies; others use social listening tools. Many marketers check account health-related metrics using a influencer marketplace tool. All of this is considered due diligence to make sure an influencer doesn’t bring scandal or negative social attention to a brand.

But more and more, brands and products are just as likely to draw negative attention onto influencer partners as vice-versa. Whether from trolls, competitors’ fans, or simply by dint of the public opinion microscope needing a target du jour, any entity that takes a position on anything is potentially vulnerable to a sudden burst of negative feedback – and influencers, being loud independent voices who put themselves out there on the social platforms, are often first-hit and least defended.

Here are five things planners, buyers, PR and comms teams should do to make sure their influencer partners are well looked after in turbulent times.

1. Have a crisis response strategy that includes pre-written and brand-approved responses. Usually this can be spun out from the social media/community managers’ canned responses they use on the  main brand social channels. Make sure and align between brand and agency on which instances deserve a response and which can go unacknowledged (or hidden).

2. Include a section in the brief on how to deal with negative comment-dumps that are outside the normal engagement behaviors for the channel.

   This is not just for “controversial” brands and products. It is a normal pattern in larger-budget paid campaigns that once an ad reaches a high number of users outside the influencers’ community, it will sometimes trigger a high-volume spree of negative feedback that isn’t related to the product or the influencer, but something more circumstantial/superficial.

   Case in point, one of the worst negative comment pile-ons I ever saw was for a candy brand campaign, and all the negative comments were about the influencer’s choice of clothing (shorts and a bikini top).  The brand was not ready for it because their messaging was general and not controversial at all– but what they overlooked was that women in swimwear on the Internet are disproportionately targeted for bullying.  It took an all-hands crisis meeting to come up with a response, which ended up being to turn off the paid spend on the post. Chalk up a win for the bullies.

3. Carefully research the words you’ll be using in your messaging, both spoken and in caption. Certain words trigger AI responses from the platforms and also “pop” on bot radar. We saw it with “women’s health” late in the election cycle, but 4 years ago I ran a sadly memorable GTM campaign for a snack puff where our messaging included how many grams of protein were in each serving. What we didn’t realize: “Grams” is associated with cannabis, and “protein” is often tied to supplements. Both supplements and cannabis have a lot of trouble co-existing with platforms’ AI-powered moderation. Our campaign got penalized with takedowns in a way that wouldn’t have happened if we just said “This new snack puff is crunchy and delish!”

4. Have an honest strategy discussion with client and agency account team: has this happened before on similar campaigns, what kind of energy are we feeling online, are we activating on a “hostile” platform – and, is our brand or product itself somewhat controversial at the moment? Any brand can fall out of favor these days, and being in denial about it – or refusing to manage for it in the influencer comms – is setting both sides up for a rocky partnership.

5. Encourage influencers from the beginning to come to you with feedback. They should feel comfortable telling you that your proposed caption wording might suppress views. Or pushing back on a proposed video element that feels problematic.

   Above all, once a campaign goes live, if a barrage of hate-comments hit, you should be proactive in acknowledging, coming up with a solution, and offering your support.

Part of being a responsible business these days is putting policies and practices in place that protect influencer partners and give them guidance when trolling happens. As someone who launched more than 250 influencer partnerships in the 2024 election season – trust me, it’s brutal out there . But many times, just acknowledging, being responsive to the influencer and saying, “This stinks and here are a couple ideas how to handle it” is sufficient to make you a good brand partner from their POV.