Ten tips for social media influencer agreements
Ten tips for social media influencer agreements
Modern society has moved away from face to face interactions to a social media culture. As the social trend continues to grow exponentially, the role of social media in promoting brands becomes even more crucial.
Therefore, the part of advertising, PR, and marketing becomes critical in social media culture. That importance is in the value placed on social media influencers whose favour can be the difference between success or failure. Bloggers, vloggers and social media influencers are hugely influential in the social media world.
Please focus on the right influencer that fits the vision of your campaign, not the size of their following. It is far easier to get what you want from a less high profile influencer.
According to the, we are social report, 45% of the world’s population actively use social media, that’s 3.484 billion people. Social media influencers, therefore, have a massive influence over the buying decisions of their followers and hold great commercial value as a result.
So before engaging influencers, you should think about these ten tips.
1. Content
The content that is produced by the influencer must be subject to change. If the influencer should create original content that is unacceptable, you should have the mechanism in the contract to change. Make sure you can request to add your links; and hashtags. The influencer hashtags must be reviewable.
2. Size
Influencers can come with several million or a few hundred thousand followers. Please focus on the right influencer that fits the vision of your campaign, not the size of their following. It is far easier to get what you want from a less high profile influencer.
3. Relationships
Spend time with the influencer in which you will invest. It would help if you got to know the influencer so you can get an idea of suitability.
4. Budget
Be ready to pay real money for your business. Don’t use your friends as models or have your photoshoots at the local park. You need to get professional web designers, real models, and photos taken by professionals. Get proper legal and accounting advice from professional accountants and lawyers. You will get the return on your investment for an influencer campaign when everything goes without a hitch whether you are an existing business launching a new brand product or a new business. Influencers will create that buzz around your brand, products or services. The professionals will help you sleep well at night.
5. Age
Make sure your influencer is old enough to enter into a legal agreement. If an influencer is a child, then they need to sign through their guardian. Ensure that you are not breaking any laws for the protection of children.
6. Brand Values Ensure that the influencer signs up to your brand values and does not dilute or damage your brand unwittingly.
7. Parties
The typical influencer agreement is between the influencer and the marketing/PR/advertising agency representing the client. It sets out the contractual terms of the campaign while the content and other work to be delivered are in schedules that are attached to the main contract.
8. Social Media Platforms
The contract should contain social media platforms used for the campaign, such as Instagram/Twitter/Pinterest/Facebook/YouTube.
Detailed mechanisms of acceptable use of social media accounts should be clarified.
9. Fees
The influencer fee structure can be complicated, based on incentives and bonuses. Influencer fees can vary between $1 to $1million a post.
10. Content Ownership
The contract needs to control who owns the intellectual property to the uploaded media. There is also the data generated by the campaign.
You need to consider the GDPR aspects of the influencer campaign and address that in the contract.
There are several different ways of dealing with copyright content produced for the campaign. The most common is to own the content but give a license to the influencer to share the content.
Closing comment
The above are some of the essential issues to address in an influencer agreement. The critical thing to understand is that the more about the intellectual property you know, the more control and profit you will make.
Please contact our firm for advice on any digital marketing related contracts – including influencer; collaboration; sponsorship; social media management; intellectual property rights management.
Disclaimer Notice
This article provides a high-level view of what issues to address in influencer agreements. It is non-exhaustive, and if you are seeking advice on a marketing campaign and have read this article, you must take the opportunity to go and seek professional legal advice from a solicitor or barrister. The information and any commentary on the law contained on this web site are provided free of charge for information purposes only. Every reasonable effort is made to make the information and commentary accurate and up to date, but no responsibility for its accuracy and correctness, or for any consequences of relying on it, is assumed by PAIL® Solicitors. The information and commentary do not, and are not intended to, amount to legal advice to any person on a specific case or matter. You are strongly advised to obtain specific, personal advice from a lawyer about your case or matter and not to rely on the information or comments on this site. No responsibility is accepted for the content or accuracy of linked sites.
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Disclaimer
We provide cases and statutes as general information because contracts should be flexible to adapt to legal changes. Our articles on media and IP agreements serve as starting points for readers to brainstorm ideas. They are not a substitute for professional legal advice. Each contract is unique; even good templates need adaptations for specific situations. One party typically presents a contract based on industry standards and in-house policies. Replacing the contract may be difficult, but you can negotiate important clauses and agree on amendments.