What Branded Content Means for Marketers
What is Influencer Marketing?
An influencer is someone who has the power to influence the perception of others or get them to do something different. Today’s social media influencers must have a combination of three key factors: reach, contextual credibility and salesmanship.
The higher these three factors, the higher the influence potential. With the rise of social media, companies have been able to capitalize on this and work with highly influential people to promote their products and/or services.
Facebook’s Branded Content
With the FTC’s crackdown on endorsements made for products based on an exchange of money between an influencer and a company, influencers have had to disclose the existence of such partnerships through placing hashtags in their post copy (#ad or #sponsored). This is all in the name of marketing transparency and ethics. As time has gone on, Facebook developed a more clear way for influencers to disclose partnerships through a branded content tag which signifies on a post whether an influencer is being paid to post about a specific product or message and who by.
To use the branded content tag, a Page (business, company, or organization) or Profile, (an influencer or other public figure) can tag a product, brand, or sponsor within a post. The post will display a “with” tag in an organic newsfeed view, connecting it to a sponsor.
This branded content tag does more than just help consumers be more aware of when content is sponsored by a brand though. It also gives advertisers more power and transparency into what they are buying when partnering with an influencer.
Key benefits of using the branded content tag on Facebook & Instagram for advertisers:
- Access to insights for tagged businesses: Tagged advertisers will be able to access reach and engagement metrics of these tagged posts in their Facebook Page Insights. Influencers also will keep seeing metrics in their app insights and Page Insights. Without the tag, advertisers can’t see organic reach and engagement from influencer posts without getting screenshots from the influencers themselves.
- Ability to boost the content and amplify the message: Once the influencer tags an advertiser, the advertiser will have the ability to boost that tagged post directly from their ads manager. The influencer’s tagged post will be available for boosting just like any other post from the advertiser’s page.
Amplifying Content Through Boosted Posts 
Organic content only reaches a subset of the influencer’s follower base due to Facebook and Instagram algorithms and even though influencers should be worked with based on their audience being made up of a brand’s target market, there isn’t necessarily a guarantee of it.
By boosting an influencer’s content, an advertiser is able to amplify the message by putting money behind the content and controlling the target audience based on demographics and interests. This allows advertisers to maximize their investment in influencer marketing.
The difference between an influencer’s organic post in a feed vs the boosted version of that same post in a feed:
As time goes on, influencer marketing continues to adapt and become smarter. Whether that means guidelines to protect consumers or further transparency for advertisers, it’s all information we are keeping up on here at Defero.
If you’re interested in learning more about what an influencer strategy could look like for your business, drop us a line.