Brand Tips for Working With Influencers: Don't Be a Buzzkill

Studio71 has a roster of over 1,200 influencers from YouTube and other social platforms ready to help build your brand. There's an influencer for every demographic, but for brand partnerships to go well brands need to let the influencers take control.

We sat down with Ryan Daume, Studio71's vice president of sales and branded entertainment, at the recent Streaming Media East conference to get inside tips on how brands can best work with influencers. Here are a few excerpts:

Troy Dreier: Why does it make sense for a brand to hire and online video star rather than just doing a traditional commercial designed to appeal to a certain audience?

Ryan Daume: People are already tuning in to watch these guys. That relationship that they have with their audience allows them to be more of a peer or trusted advisor. They're in the same friend group, they may be the alpha of that friend group but as that person, when they find a brand they can do an authentic partnership with, the message hits home much better and really sinks in. That influence is leveraged back on hopefully some type of sales or brand goal.

Troy Dreier: What does a brand need to know going into this? It's probably a scary area for them, giving up control and working with an influencer.

Ryan Daume: I would say that main thing is remember you're stepping into someone else's house if you will. This person has given up in many cases, years of their time to build that audience and build that relationship they have with that audience and the trust that's there. If you step in and try to do something that's going to step on that trust or otherwise put you in kind of a weird light with the audience, you're probably not doing yourself a good service. If you come to the party and you dampen the experience, nobody is going to want you to come back, but if you come to the party and you make the party better, everybody is going to want you to come back and they're probably going to remember you. Those are the cases when we have fans saying, "Hey, where's the Geico sponsorship? Where's that segment that's been there for the past few weeks?" Those are the big wins for us because you know that the audience really appreciated what Geico brought to the table.

Troy Dreier: Give me a few specific things that a brand can do that are completely right when working with an influencer.

Ryan Daume: A few things that are completely right. Main thing would be remember that you're using somebody else's voice and you have to in some way make sure they can maintain their vernacular and authenticity. I think the authenticity is key but remember that the audience has a reason they tune in to this person. The person or the group of people who are that influential group, they have needs of their own, often times a brand will forget what it took for them to get there and say, "Well I'm paying them a lot of money, why aren't they willing to do X, Y, or Z?" They need to maintain that authenticity. If that goes away, then they devalue themselves.

Scroll down for the full interview:

Troy Dreier's article first appeared on OnlineVideo.net