When it Comes to Reporting on Influencer Fraud, Words Matter

Words matter. Perhaps now more than ever. Why? Largely because the proliferation of information and content has forced all of us into attention deficit disorder consumption. We skim. We thumb scroll. We let our short attention span perceptions shift our understanding of the world around us without stopping to think. So words matter. If you see a headline that says “more than half of instagram influencers engaged in fraud” you probably don’t have the time or interest to read the story. You assume the resource posting that is not posting a lie or a misstatement of the truth and you assume the majority of influencers are fraudulent. That headline was real. It was posted by Campaign U.S., a popular resource for the advertising industry. It was quoted to me last week by a well-respected public relations professional considered a thought leader and expert in his field.  But the assertion he made based on believing a poorly worded headline is 100 percent false. Words matter. I’ll explain in today’s commentary.  This episode of Winfluence, the podcast, is sponsored by Julius. If you’ve read my book, you know I’ve depended on Julius for influencer discovery and campaign management for some time now. When I’m looking for the right influencer for my clients, Julius allows me to search across Instagram, YouTube, Facebook, TikTok, Twitch, Twitter, Pinterest, Blogs and more. When I click into an influencer’s profile, I can see their audience demographics, what other networks they have reach through and quickly scan their recent posts to decide if they’re a right influencer for my brand. All the pieces of campaign management are there, too. Julius allows you to reach out, document contracts, share and approve influencer content and, of course, measure the ROI of each campaign, influencer or post. You owe it to your brand or agency to do a demo of Julius today. Go to jason.online/julius and request one. That’s jason.online/julius. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices