Editorial: Big brands wise to ‘influencers’

MAJOR brands are now ditching some of their influencers for the simple business reason that they are not delivering worthwhile results.

THE negative aspects of social media are well-known. There have been many cases of young people in particular driven to self-harm and worse by wicked online humiliation. But businesses have also detected a positive aspect to social media, by employing prominent social media identities as “brand ambassadors” and such.

A number of social media influencers have turned out not to be very influential at all. Picture: Getty Images

According to various marketing theories of the past decade, the reach and readership of social media makes it an ideal advertising platform. That is why we have seen the rise of so-called “influencers” — people thought to be capable of altering consumer choices by virtue of online popularity. So much for theories.

Major brands are now ditching some of their influencers for the simple business reason that they are not delivering worthwhile results.

A number of those influencers have turned out not to be very influential at all. Within their ranks are outright frauds — people who have purchased followers for the purpose of inflating their profiles and attracting big-dollar contracts.

Unlike traditional media forms, which have longstanding and reliable methods of calculating readership — and therefore offering accurate readership guides to advertisers — the online realm is far murkier. Keith Weed, the chief marketing officer for Unilever, a company that uses social media influencers to promote products including Dove, Sunsilk and Rexona, believes certain influencers are ripping brands off by including among their followers any number of fakes or bots.

“At best, this is misleading and at worst, it’s fraudulent,” Weed said. “We need to take urgent action now to rebuild trust before it’s gone forever.”

For its part, Unilever now has a policy of refusing to hire any influencers who have purchased followers.

British actor Stephen Fry lost 400,000 followers during a Twitter purge of fake accounts.

This policy is beginning to be seen across many large businesses.

Yet deliberate follower fakery is only part of the problem.

Social media numbers can be falsely inflated even without a user taking action.

Twitter last week began a purge of fake followers across its entire platform.

US President Donald Trump lost 340,000 followers. Former president Barack Obama lost more than two million. Celebrities were hit, too.

“What the heckfire? 400,000 followers expunged! At a stroke?” British actor Stephen Fry posted.

“Nearly half a million of my devoted adherents were BOTS? It explains so much.”

Businesses and people in general are now wise to social media hype. The proof is in the purchasing.

A VITAL MESSAGE FOR ALL MEN

Drunkenness. Verbal assaults. A terrified mother.

That was Rod Silva’s world as a young boy.

“I remember as a young child being in the room with my siblings and waiting for it to stop,” the ex-NRL star told The Daily Telegraph, revealing his father’s alcohol-fuelled rage.

Rod Silva — with his wife Deb and daughter Keely — is speaking out about violence against women. Picture: Jonathan Ng

His traumatic upbringing led Silva to make a vow: “I knew if ever I was going to get married, my wife would never have to go through that.”

Silva is now taking his message to the broader community as a White Ribbon ambassador. It’s a message all men must heed.

NON-DEVELOPMENT DILEMMA

It’s the massive Hunter Valley development that was never being developed.

A Daily Telegraph investigation has exposed a claimed megadollar development deal set to overwhelm the town of Millfield as nothing more than a crafty lure to ensnare gullible overseas investors. And what a lure it was, complete with bogus assertions from the China-based Profit Palace Group that the project “has received NSW state government and local city government support” and that “the project’s approval process is close to complete”.

Not so, according to a spokesman for Planning Minister Anthony Roberts.

“The Minister is very concerned about the comments made by the proponent that seem to indicate planning approvals have been granted that haven’t been,” he said.

“He will be seeking a high-level briefing from the department on Monday over the exact details.”

Another politician, Parramatta MP Geoff Lee, appears in a photograph at the fake development’s website.

“I do not know anything about this company or the site,” Lee, who is demanding his image be taken down, told The Daily Telegraph.

Further developments about this non-development are certain to follow.