Social media has completely transformed how we live our lives. With their power to connect people, social media influencers have changed how we do business. This is especially true in the case of influencer marketing, which is now valued at over a billion dollars. Some businesses and brands have become dependent on influencers for promotion.
Considering how much money is involved, influencers must ensure that they are always protected when committing to agreements. This is easier said than done as it can be quite difficult to navigate the legal side of the influencer marketing business. To help you out, we’ve put together a brief list of the four best practices for influencer marketing agreements. If this is something that you want to learn more about, read on as we list down best practices that you have to know about.
The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) recently updated its Endorsement Guides to provide more detailed information about what disclosures are necessary for social media influencers. Certain hashtags, such as #partner, #ambassador, and #thanks are no longer sufficient. For paid partnerships, influencers must indicate that the content is an ad by adding hashtags such as #paid, #ad, and #sponsored.
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When you’re hiring an influencer or an agency to create content for your brand, be sure to create specific guidelines that set the boundaries about exclusivity. For example, are they allowed to work with other agencies for the same or similar products or services, or is the influencer tied to creating content exclusively for you? If so, be clear about the boundaries of their exclusivity within your initial agreement.
Increasingly, deals are not negotiated with individual influencers but rather with influencer networks on behalf of many influencers. Keep in mind that the influencer network will often try to avoid direct responsibility for any of the influencer’s content. Today, more than ever before, influencers are celebrities, and as such, you will need to know as much about them as you would know about a traditional celebrity talent or production agreement. This could mean taking into account matters such as SAG-AFTRA issues, and you should take this issue into account when committing to an agreement.
Each influencer agreement should be tailored to the specifics of each marketing campaign, but they will all include elements such as:
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We hope that this article proves to be useful when it comes to helping you best protect yourself when committing to agreements within the influencer marketing industry. While this may be a lot to take in, it would be best to familiarize yourself with these best practices as doing so will help you avoid any issues and complications down the line.
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