Current Issue Summary
June 2022 (Vol. 62, Issue 2)
Managing the Transparency Paradox of Social-Media Influencer Disclosures: How to Improve Authenticity and Engagement when Disclosing Influencer-Sponsor Relationships
Despite its widespread use, influencer marketing is a recent phenomenon in scientific research. Among the open questions is how to address what some refer to as the “transparency paradox” of influencer disclosures: whether—and how—to be transparent about relationships with brands. Research findings, to date, are ambiguous. In some cases, more transparency led to mistrust and negative attitudes. In others, disclosure was perceived as ethical and positive.
Some countries have enacted laws regulating such disclosures. “The literature has neglected the consequences of influencers’ disclosure choices so far,” according to Nadia Steils, Annabel Martin and Jean-François Toti (all three at University of Lille). In fact, “97 percent of social-media influencers do not disclose their partnerships correctly, because they fear a negative impact on their authenticity and on the engagement of their community.” The French researchers examined how disclosure messages moderate the relationship between an influencer’s community size and perceptions about that person’s authenticity and ability to engage. They also studied the impact of the disclosure statement source: influencer versus platform.
Earlier research has found correlations between influencers’ community sizes and their followers’ reactions to messaging. Micro-influencers (with fewer than 10,000 followers) “are perceived as more authentic and engaging, making them a more interesting target for partnerships.” The reaction for meso-influencers (up to one million), is similar to the micro- category. But for macro-influencers (more than one million including international outreach), who tend to be confused for celebrities, “engagement is particularly at risk, as they present a higher risk of losing their authenticity” if disclosures are handled poorly or not at all, Steils, Martin and Toti note.
Among their takeaways:
- Advertisers should encourage the use of transparency messages that are included in the video or in a static publication.
- These messages should be created by the influencers themselves and avoid the use of automatically created platform messages.
- Brand managers should avoid excessive control of social-media influencers’ activities, but rather, leave them their freedom regarding personal content creation.