Influencers now play a key role in most social media marketing strategies. Consumers increasingly look to influencers to guide their purchasing decisions and shape lifestyle choices, a trend that has been accelerated during the pandemic.
Whether you have used influencers before or are considering it for the first time, you’ll need to decide on the details of your arrangement with them. Influencer marketing is known to generate a good ROI.
What is an influencer?
An influencer - also known as a brand ambassador - is someone who is paid to promote your products through their personal social media pages.
Influencers are celebrities of the digital age. They are generally bloggers or vloggers who have established a strong base of followers on their chosen platform, having built up credibility and trust among a particular audience. They may focus on fashion, make-up, fitness, gaming etc., and will promote products or services within this field of interest to their followers.
Why do you need a social media influencer agreement?
Since these individuals will be representing your brand in their social posts, you want to ensure that your business interests are protected and that you are getting the type of exposure that you’re looking for.
Many brands have learned the hard way, with influencers not posting what or when the brand expected them to, or demanding more for their services than was initially agreed.
Whenever you are engaging the services of a new social media influencer, it pays to have all the details clarified in advance through a social media influencer blogger/vlogger agreement. This way, all parties know exactly what is expected of them, and you can enjoy a successful campaign from start to finish.
What should you include in your Social media influencer contract?
Outline of the services required
Firstly, you’ll need to be explicit about exactly what services you are paying for. Some influencer contracts are for one of content, whilst others are long term campaigns. You will also want avoid the influencer posting any content that could damage your brand image.
Be specific about:
Intellectual property rights
You’ll need to agree who owns the intellectual property (IP) rights of any content the influencer creates. Typically, a photo or video is automatically owned by the person who creates it. This would give your vlogger/blogger exclusive rights over any content they create for you, unless otherwise stated.
Therefore, you will probably want the influencer to either:
a) transfer the IP rights to you, or
b) grant you a license to use their content for your own purposes – for example sharing their photo or video on your website or in any newsletters.
If you chose to ask them to transfer IP rights to you, you will need to then grant the influencer a license to use the content themselves on their social platforms.
Payment terms
Remuneration of influencers can take various forms, including financial compensation, free products, discounts, or other perks. Be clear of the type of remuneration and any payment terms in your agreement, so the influencer is aware in advance of exactly what payment – or payment in kind – they will receive for their content creation.
Confidentiality
There may be times that you need to share confidential information with your influencers – for example, about the launch of a new product. Having a clause in your influencer agreement will ensure that they are duty-bound to keep this information confidential until you are ready to announce it publically.
Exclusivity
Are you happy for your influencer to promote other brands at the same time as promoting yours? For one-off content this may not be a consideration, but for longer campaigns, you’ll probably want to negotiate exclusivity rights to avoid the influencer promoting any of your competitors within the same time period. You will need to agree the exact time frame for the exclusivity period, which will probably cover the length of the campaign and sometime after.
Working with social media influencers
Having a healthy relationship with your brand ambassadors will lead to better results and reduced risks. It may be easy to just see this as a casual arrangement, but having an agreement in place is just as relevant for influencers as for any of your other business partnerships. The more work you do with influencers, the clearer an idea you will have of what you expect from them, and what you are willing to offer in return.
The contents of this article do not constitute legal advice and are provided for general information purposes only.
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