How do you tell a social media influencer their LinkedIn videos really suck and they not get upset with you?
I was asked this question recently and really wish I had a good answer.
Sometimes You Just Have to Say It
However, I do understand what the person was asking.
There are a number of individuals who post a lot of videos on LinkedIn and Twitter who obviously feel their videos are providing valued content to their viewers,…but are not.
Actually, many of them are hurting their own brand by posting poorly produced selfie type cellphone videos on platforms like LinkedIn and Twitter.
Granted, these people I see posting self-produced videos are somewhat of an ‘influencer’ to a significant number of followers. But apparently, their followers are not liking the selfie videos and want to tell them.
Natural Attraction
It seems obvious that ‘Influencer’s’ popularity online has to do more with them being attractive than the content they post. Most of them could produce a blank screen and it would get 5k views an hour…just saying.
They Look Good, But Their Videos Don’t
Still, being good looking does not automatically make them a videographer.
I know there are probably 100’s of people who tell the influencers their videos are awesome, but really…out of focus, bad lighting, and audio, camera shaking and the phone held in portrait instead of Landscape…how can that be an awesome video?
Could it be their supporters are just trying to be nice so they can continue to engage in a conversation with their influencer online in hopes that some of their attractiveness rubs off on them? This is more than likely the case and why they don’t tell the social media magnets that their videos suck.
Granted, the selfie-stick video productions appeal to a selected audience. The question becomes, does that audience represent their consumer base? Meaning, do the fans for social media influencers actually financially support the influencer?
Obviously, ‘Influencers’ get financial support from their Followers, but not directly. Most influencers are paid by sponsors for the number of followers reported on their social network profiles. And who posts those number of followers to those Profiles…yes..the social network. Meaning…since social networks will not validate how many actual real users they have would make it uncertain on how many actual real live people Follow the Influencers….but…I digress.
What happens when these thousands of Followers move on to watch higher quality produced videos? Eventually, that fallout of Followers will affect the influencer’s influence.
Poorly produced videos are not tolerated any longer by the buying consumers. Studies are showing that a viewer will click off a LinkedIn video that has poor lighting, audio, sharing selfie stick and poor content. 61% of users say they have been put off after watching a bad explainer video.
Followers of social media influencers are moving away from watching videos that suck but are afraid to tell the influencer their videos suck because they do not want them to UnFollow them.
There Is A Better Way
It is very unfortunate social media influencers fall for what looks to them looks to be a cool way to do videos. (or in most cases are told by the people who influence them they would look cool doing selfie style videos). Fortunately, there is a solution.
The solution starts with Influencers developing a different strategy and then budgeting their sponsor’s funds to support the strategy.
Basically, this means if the influencer wants to keep their following they will have to:
- Think ahead of time what content they are going to produce in video form
- Schedule when they are going to produce those videos
- Hire a video-centric digital marketing firm to produce the videos
- And continue to hold to a higher standard of their brand’s image by staying away from faddy trends like selfie stick videos.
Influencers are business people and business people need customers. Customers are not going to do business with business people who produce videos that suck. So, stop wasting your time and money producing awful videos and invest in quality. If you produce it well, the consumer will come.
Contact SyncLab Media today to learn more about how they can help.
