The weird thing is that I then got a great gap with the Blue Bulls [rugby team] in 2019 – the same rugby union that used to be known for Steve Hofmeyr singing their theme song. I did a whole comedy-driven content campaign for them during the Currie Cup. They said that their team consists of both black and white people: “We are not bothered by your political views at all.” I actually think my divorce had a greater impact on my career and my opportunities than my political views, particularly over the last year. Liefde Wen [Bouwer’s apparel line with a charitable element] definitely took shots, because people didn’t seem to want to support the purpose of loving your neighbour if it is driven by someone whom they don’t associate with romantic love any more. If my political opinions have some sort of impact on the work and opportunities I get, that’s also okay, though. This country is bigger than one culture. I’m a South African, a Suid-Afrikaner as much as I’m an Afrikaner.
Joe Scott, the American influencer marketing strategist, says his experience in running global campaigns for Fortune 500 companies has shown that:
This is most definitely something that varies from client to client. Some brands are trying to boost positive sentiment on social media around their brand. So, it is important that the influencers they work with are not as critical, and more about keeping things light. However, influencers, especially in the tech space, have done remarkably well because of their unbiased, unpaid opinions regarding particular products, such as Marques Brownlee or Jonathan Morrison. Marques gets pretty much whatever he wants as a gift for review these days, but it is known by all of these companies that he will give a fair review with pros and cons.
Joe has a balanced guideline ready for influencers:
Feel free to be critical, but be fair. Don’t go on a rant, completely dismantling a brand out of principle. Do your best to be objective with your critique, what you think would improve it, and [what] the redeeming qualities of a product are (if any). If you’re an influencer that will review or critique a product (unless it’s purely humour, in which case the brands you attract will be different anyway), play nice, be honest but fair, and refrain from letting personal vendettas shape the review. This leaves you open for partnerships with brands in the future, without alienating them or your audience should they make an offer you can’t refuse.
You could even take the opportunity to turn this into future work by leveraging your unique voice. For example, if Reebok contacts you and says they will give you a year’s worth of apparel for free, but you uploaded a four-minute video rant named “Why Reebok is Absolute Trash”, your followers will think you’re fake. However, if you posted a video called “Reebok: The Good, the Bad, the Ugly”, a nine-minute video about what you love, what you dislike, and constructive feedback or solutions, then you now evolve from noise to someone that can influence a brand’s decision-making moving forward.
This is not only valuable to the brand, but also helps your audience to understand you better.
As a listener, watcher, follower, I learn more about you and your unique style based on your feedback and solutions. From there, I can decide if your opinion is worth listening to. And if I can give one last bit of advice, it would be for influencers to always create content that presents the audience with takeaways about who they are as individuals, and a reason to keep listening. You can’t do that if you’re not expressing anything but criticism and complaints.
If you hold down a job alongside your influencer pursuits, always remember that what you post in your personal capacity – even on an influencer account you run in your spare time – can serve as grounds for your employer to dismiss you. Everything you do, whether in real life or on social media, reflects not only on you but also on your employer. Including a disclaimer, like the age-old “all views are my own (and not those of my employer)”, in your profile is pointless. If you would not say it from a stage at an industry conference or in a job interview, do not say it online.
Even if you are reposting something that someone else posted on social media – whether you denounce them for it or not – spreading their offensive material also makes you guilty of spreading offensive material, regardless of whether you created it in the first place. Report them, do not retweet, share or screen grab the content – particularly if you think it might lead to criminal action.
In summary, things you should generally avoid or be careful about include:
• Profiting from someone’s distress or a power imbalance, whether this be due to their poverty, their injury or their pain (emotional or physical). You might have the best intentions when showcasing a great cause on your feed, but consider the fact that this might not necessarily be construed as altruism, because your feed is essentially a business. Even when a post is not sponsored, you will be held to a very high ethical standard.
• Ask your friends and family members for their permission before you include them in posts on your influencer account. Allow people to opt out of your pursuit.
• Think twice about sharing photos of your children; they might not enjoy the attention a social media following affords them, if not now, then possibly later on in life. You can be a mummy blogger without having instantly recognisable kids.
• Think twice before you share images of anyone else’s children, unless you have the parents’ explicit consent. If someone is too young to hold down a part-time job, they are probably too young to consent to being featured on your social media stream without their parents’ explicit permission.
• You can be taken to court for defamation or crimen
