How Can AI Help Influencers?
Artificial intelligence (AI) has been quickly weaving its way into the fabric of modern digital marketing practices over the past year. Many software developments — like those associated with ChatGPT, OpenAI, Jasper AI, Bard AI, and more — aim to simplify and expedite the tedium that professionals face in their day to day. But can AI be adapted to support the creator economy? And is it safe to rely on this technology to drive results?
We’ve identified four ways that AI can be integrated with influencer marketing to help marketers streamline their processes — without hurting their business practices. Let’s dive in.
4 Ways AI Technology Benefits the Creator Economy
1. AI helps marketers source the right influencers
Finding the right group of influencers is a crucial part of running a successful campaign. While there are so many strong creators out there, some influencers have fraudulently increased their follower count by purchasing followers. PR Newswire reported that in 2020, 55% of Instagram influencers engaged in suspicious activity. Additionally, a HydeAuditor study claimed that 45% of Instagram accounts in 2020 were fake.
Brands are understandably wary of this issue, especially those that are new to leveraging creators, as a fake following means that the ROI driven by the influencer partner is not accurate.
That’s where AI comes in. Some AI tools can help brands find influencers who are a good fit given their target audience and have a history of creating high-quality content. Additionally, AI technology helps brands sift through their potential creator partners to flag those who may be bots or accumulate their followings through misleading methods.
2. AI can help predict campaign effectiveness
Influencer marketing is a strong tactic marketers should leverage, but brands will only utilize it if it can prove to be effective. So, how can brand marketers make a case for their influencer-based initiatives?
AI can help brands by predicting influencer performance through natural language processing (NLP). NLP is a scientific practice that focuses on teaching computers how to understand certain human behaviors, such as speech and writing. Machines can utilize this logic to help brands gauge an influencer’s future success and determine their vitality.
While NLP can help interpret tone and intent, it can also be applied to analyzing effective influencer marketing. It can evaluate creator content and predict how well it will perform on social media according to a brand’s objectives.
Not only this, but AI can simplify measurement processes by automatically tracking influencer performance and pre-emptively measuring the creator’s future return on investment (ROI). As marketers know, tracking metrics such as website traffic, social media engagement, and sales conversions can be tedious — and AI technology helps to take the burden off of marketers so that they can reallocate their time and effort elsewhere.
3. AI can help support creator content production
The more content a creator produces, the more they earn. With the rising amount of influencers experiencing burnout, creators are looking to restructure their work processes to meet their content commitments — all while preserving their mental health. A 2021 study from Awin reported that 66% of content creators feel their mental health is negatively impacted by burnout and stress. This challenge has driven 49% of those respondents to pursue alternative income streams.
On the other end, brands are also feeling the sting of economic instability with budget cuts and layoffs. This means that there are fewer resources for them to leverage when it comes to activating creators and maintaining lucrative relationships, while still achieving their company objectives.
AI resources have been developed to help with writing and content production — innovations such as Later’s caption writing AI tool for Instagram. As a result, creators and brands alike are able to bridge the gap between overwork and driving results. There are also tools like Munch AI, which assist with video production tasks and even keyword analysis.
That all being said, we caution our readers to utilize AI content production tools with realistic expectations: these tools are not meant to replace a human influencer’s discretion and creative vision. Rather, AI content production resources are intended to save time and make the creation processes more efficient.
Instead of expecting AI to replace influencers, look at it as a tool that aids in ideation. Sometimes, getting started is the most difficult part. The benefit of AI is that it provides people with a building block to work from rather than having to create something from scratch — and it’s a valuable tool in breaking through writer’s block, design block, and more.
4. AI can make contracting and negotiation easier
Automation is always useful when making tedious tasks more simple. Integrating workflows that change infrequently is a great way to gain back valuable time. For marketers and creators alike, you probably already have an idea of some tasks that would benefit from automation.
Consider paperwork. Contracts and NDAs are a necessary part of influencer marketing, but they require a lot of time regardless of the parties involved. AI technology simplifies this by helping brands enforce the agreed-upon terms and keeping creators honest about their contract fulfillment. It reduces the time spent checking in and helps to mitigate potential risks before they arise.
AI can help creators protect their intellectual property. AI can be used to help creators track the use of their intellectual property and take legal action against any infringements. With firms losing between 5-40% in value due to contracting inefficiencies (as reported in 2018), these emerging AI tools can greatly help companies overcome this challenge.
Ready to Try AI?
Overall, AI can be very valuable for brands that are looking to get the most out of their influencer marketing campaigns. It can help brands find the right influencers, predict results, streamline content production, and save time during the contract negotiation phase.
Despite its benefits, AI should be used cautiously and reviewed with strong attention to detail. At this time, AI is not perfect — and its usage isn’t feasible without human intervention when it comes to amending errors and inaccuracies. Though it can help automate some tasks and create efficiencies, AI’s power correlates to the user’s prowess. Embrace new technology and learn how it works — but don’t assume that the results will be error-free.
We’re excited to see how the creator economy grows with AI as a companion. From more efficient content production to making faster and smarter choices, we believe that AI can change the face of influencer marketing — and put more power into creators’ hands.
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