[Honest Edition] Checklist for Working with Influencers

Influencer marketing continues to expand both in market reach and scope of application.

Last year, Dentsu Inc. conducted an influencer receptivity survey to clarify how influencers' fans are influenced by them. Some of these results were reported in the series "Influencer Marketing 2.0."

Dentsu Inc. collaborated with Facebook Japan on a joint study concerning influencer marketing. This study focused directly on the influencers themselves. In addition to a questionnaire survey of 346 influencers, we conducted in-depth interviews with seven prominent influencers* active in various fields. We explored what influencers themselves think, what kind of relationship they desire with companies, and what kind of initiatives they want to pursue going forward.

This series will report on the key findings from that research. In this first installment, Taichi Nishimura introduces how influencers approach the most common method companies use when leveraging them: having influencers introduce products or services on their own SNS accounts, known as "PR posts."

[Table of Contents]
▼How many PR post projects have you taken on so far?
▼What are your criteria for accepting PR projects?
▼What kind of requests would you like to receive?
▼Distribution of PR posts to non-followers
▼Pre-briefing checklist

---

※7 influencers who participated in the in-depth interviews

①utosh: Food Instagrammer
Food stylist and cookbook author. Has posted food photos on Instagram since his graphic designer days. Created the popular hashtag "#とりあえず野菜食" (roughly: "veggies first"), gathering numerous posts.
https://www.instagram.com/utosh/

②Yukos: Beauty Influencer (Instagram, YouTube, Twitter, etc.)
Former member of HKT48. After leaving the group, she began self-promotion, created the title "Mote Creator," and started her own business.
https://www.instagram.com/yukos0520/
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCxS4vbIvtjHQcEW61J2KQIw

③ Kobashiri: Beauty YouTuber
She started YouTube in November 2017 and surpassed 500,000 subscribers in about a year. She mainly posts beauty-related videos and is popular among junior high/high school and college students.
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC4GMLPKC8TgfW1BtJ-0vf-Q

④ Reina Hoshi: Fashion and Lifestyle Instagrammer
Mother of two children. Before giving birth, she worked as a nail technician at the hair salon "NATURA" in Aoyama. While active as a reader model for women's and beauty magazines, she currently runs a beauty-related company.
https://www.instagram.com/reinahoshi1015/
https://ameblo.jp/reinail/

⑤Okame Mimi-chan: Beauty Twitter personality
Operates as an anonymous beauty-focused Twitter account. Boasts overwhelming popularity with highly specialized beauty knowledge and edgy commentary.
https://twitter.com/okamenattochan

⑥Son Rina: Korean Beauty Instagrammer
Works as a magazine model and runs her own apparel brand.
https://www.instagram.com/song_rina/

⑦ Kim Eun-hye: Korean Beauty and Sports Influencer
Active as a model and director.
https://www.instagram.com/__bygracekim/

How many PR posts have you taken on so far?

How many PR posts do influencers typically accept? We asked them to share the number of PR posts they've done so far. The table below shows the results broken down by follower count.

It's easy to imagine that influencers with large follower counts receive many requests. However, even among so-called "nano-influencers" with 5,000 followers or fewer, about 40% answered "50 or more times." This shows that influencers with thousands of followers are also regularly engaged with companies.

What are the criteria for accepting PR projects?

Influencers don't accept every request they receive. What kind of requests are they more likely to accept? We asked them about their criteria for accepting PR posts.

The top three criteria all relate to the product or service itself. The most important factor is "whether the product or service fits naturally with their usual posts." Next, the influencer's personal loyalty to the product or service is crucial—meaning they agree with it or genuinely feel it's "good." On the other hand, the company's or product's name recognition isn't particularly important, suggesting influencers are open to collaborating with a wide variety of products and services.

How do these results break down by follower count? While some factors show little variation, items emphasizing personal fit ("products/services that fit with my usual posts") and consideration for fans ("products/services my followers would want") tend to be more important as follower count increases.

For example, beauty Twitter influencer Okame Mimi-chan states:

First, I try out any products sent to me and won't accept ones I don't like. I also turn down offers where the target age group seems too far removed from my own. Recently, I got an offer for a beauty serum targeting dark spots and wrinkles. Since the target audience was far from my age and most of my followers aren't at an age where they're concerned about wrinkles, I declined. (Okame Mimi-chan)

Yukos-san also shares her perspective:

My criteria for accepting PR projects are, of course, that I personally like the product, but I also judge whether the information will benefit my fans. That's why I prefer relatively new products. Since no one has posted about them yet, it's easier for my fans to benefit.

Then, it has to pass my "popularity" filter and allow for natural posts. Often during briefings, they say, "We want natural posts, so please include it casually in your photos." But I think that's anything but natural.

I accepted the job because I love the product—I'm crazy about it, right? If someone asks me to post, "posting about it three times" is what's "natural." (Yukos)

The more fans an influencer has, the more conscious they are of their fans' presence and the more they consider fan benefits. Hiring an influencer who's a good fit brings significant benefits for the company too.

On the other hand, the two Korean influencers we conducted depth interviews with this time emphasized the importance of staying true to themselves, while also

"I turn down brands that are too unknown" (Son Rina)

"I choose products that enhance my image" (Kim Eun-hye)

What kind of requests would you like to receive?

Even when simply requesting a PR post, there's a wide range—from letting them post freely to specifying even the photos and text content. How should companies make requests to make it most desirable for influencers? We asked them about their expectations for companies.

The top request was "Please narrow down the key points to convey," followed by "Please provide more information about the product or service being introduced" and "Please allow more time between the request and the post."

Influencers also want to understand products and services more deeply. In an interview, Yukos clearly articulated the benefits of this approach.

I'd really like to receive products to try, then meet face-to-face with the creators to hear their vision and who they want to reach.

If you write down your reasons and thoughts for wanting me to take this job, I can suggest things like, 'Live streaming might be better,' or 'Given my fan base, this approach would work well,' which leads to a better strategy. (Yukos)

It's effective not only to extend the period influencers can physically interact with the product but also to create opportunities for deeper engagement, like holding briefings specifically for them.

Since you're investing marketing budget, you naturally want to convey the product's benefits and promote the campaign—you want to communicate everything. However, conveying a lot through single Instagram or Twitter posts is difficult and tends to make the post feel overly promotional. On top of that, influencers don't seem to welcome that approach.

Comments about compatibility also stood out in the interviews. Here are remarks from beauty YouTuber Kobashiri and food Instagrammer utosh.

I'd be happy if they considered the usual vibe of my videos. In my case, I was asked to cut out all the relaxed parts and just focus on introducing the product, but it made the video feel a bit stiff... I want to convey the product's key points, though. (Kobashiri)

I probably felt like the client didn't trust me, because they kept saying things like "Film this part like this" or "Do it this way" – all these specific instructions were really annoying.

I wouldn't do anything half-assed for my own feed, so there's no need to worry about that... I believe delivering quality that matches the request is the bare minimum. When someone who doesn't trust that basic level hires me, I just think, "Why did they even hire me?" (utosh)

utosh's use of the word "trust" is symbolic. If requests are made with proper consideration for compatibility, the influencer's character and areas of expertise should be trusted. Therefore, unreasonable requests and odd restrictions should naturally decrease, right?

 PR Post Distribution to Non-Followers

PR posts aren't just something influencers post on their own social media accounts and then forget about. They can also be repurposed: featured on the company's social media accounts, used as secondary content on owned media, or utilized as social media advertising assets.

Twitter also utilizes a system called "Third-Party Tweet Distribution," which distributes influencer posts directly as ads. Furthermore, in June 2019, Instagram announced the launch of a similar feature called "Brand Content Ads" (*). The use of influencers in conjunction with ad distribution is likely to expand even further.

On the other hand, as we've seen, influencers consciously consider their affinity with their fans when deciding whether to accept PR posts and when reviewing post content. Do they have reservations about these PR posts being distributed beyond their followers? We asked them about their awareness of "ad distribution."

The more followers an influencer has, the less resistance they show to ad distribution. Overall, nearly 90% of influencers responded that they are okay with their posts being distributed as ads, combining those who answered "applies" and "somewhat applies." In-depth interviews also revealed many welcomed this as an opportunity for people beyond their followers to see their posts.

However, there are differences depending on the platform. Okame Mibichan stated the following:

I think it's totally fine when used in stores, and I generally allow it. But I'm not really keen on Twitter ad delivery. The reason is that it gets randomly shown to completely different target audiences. I don't want people who aren't interested in beauty seeing my comments or reacting to them. For example, I dislike the idea of a guy who isn't interested in beauty just joining a girls' gathering out of curiosity. (Okame Mimi-chan)

Many Twitter users manage multiple accounts for different topics—beauty accounts, hobby accounts, secret accounts, etc. Consequently, a significant number of influencers seem more cautious about unexpected virality on Twitter compared to other platforms. When running ads, targeting settings are crucial—and that's equally important for the influencers themselves.

※ About Instagram's "Brand Content Ads"
In June 2019, Instagram announced "Brand Content Ads," allowing companies and brands to run ads featuring PR posts (brand content) created by Instagram creators like influencers and publishers.

Previously, companies couldn't directly advertise influencers' PR posts. Therefore, to reach audiences beyond the influencer's followers, it was common practice for companies or brands to repost the influencer's content on their own accounts and run ads from there. "Brand Content Ads" now enable companies to reach audiences beyond the influencer's followers directly from the influencer's account and measure the effectiveness of those posts.

Details can be found at the URL below.

https://ja.newsroom.fb.com/news/2019/06/branded_content_ads/
 

Pre-Orientation Checklist

When requesting PR posts from influencers, it's standard practice to summarize the briefing content. Based on the above discussion, we've compiled a checklist of items to double-check before finalizing the briefing content.

Confirming these five points should help ensure the briefing content is tailored to the influencer.

During the depth interviews, several influencers mentioned that even though it was a PR post, they ended up posting multiple times because they genuinely liked the product and wanted to convey their enthusiasm. That represents the ideal relationship between influencers and companies. Of course, whether an influencer genuinely comes to like a product or service is not something that can be controlled. However, there are steps you can take to increase that likelihood and create a desirable encounter between the influencer and the product.

[Influencer Survey Overview]
・Survey Period: December 2018
・Research Company: Trendenders Inc.
・Survey Method: Internet Quantitative Survey
・Sample Composition: 346 registered influencers