Melanie Liu says marketing managers should be looking for long-term relationships with their brand’s influencers, rather than ‘quick hits.’

Melanie Liu is a social media and digital strategist. In Instagram circles she is known as The Tia Fox. With over 180,000 followers, she collaborates with brands such as Mercedes-Benz, Cartier, AccorHotels, Salvatore Ferregamo, Emporium Melbourne and L’Oreal.

She’s now a full-time professional influencer and has launched her own consulting firm, Fox Digital Lab. At Fox Digital Lab she consults for brands on their digital and social branding strategy, and assists with creating engaging social content, styling, and events.

With so much experience in the space, she’s well-suited to offer advice to marketers and brandsthat are employing influencer marketing for their campaigns. Here’s some of her advice and her view on why long-term is better than short.

What are your top tips for influencer selection?

Ensure your overall goal is clear and aligned with the strengths of the influencers. Different influencers have different strengths. Some can increase your brand’s awareness, while others will generate leads or establish trust.

The influencer’s personal brand should match your brand. It’s important that your brand is relevant for the influencer’s readers for them to care about your product.

Know the platforms that you want to reach users on and focus on influencers with active presences on them.

Check other collaborations that the influencer has been previously involved in and ensure that those are ones you would be proud to stand beside. Focus on building long-term relationships with influencers. If influencers mention your brand on a regular basis, the content will feel more authentic and organic.

Why are long term influencer relationships and campaigns better than one-offs?

Brands that hop on and off influencers lack credibility. It’s best to have a few excellent relationships in place, rather than multiple short term alliances.

The best marketing strategies align with longer term business strategy, so it’s vital to select influencers who also have a professional long-term brand plan in place.

Marketers should be asking influencers about their brand to ensure a level of confidence in that influencer.

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Further reading

• will ambassador programs replace influencer marketing? »
  
• have you considered micro-influencer marketing? »

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