Five Fatal Fails In Influencer Marketing

influencer marketing fail scott disick instagram bootstrap business twitter

There are many challenges when it comes to Influencer marketing. When it comes to Influencer marketing, I view the process as 4 parts: Selection, Proof Of Influence, Execution, and ROI. It is relatively easy to locate potential Influencers and to measure their actual influence (cutting through the vanity numbers on social media), but you don't know for sure how they will execute their campaigns. 

I hate to use pathetic pop culture social media references (my wife unfortunately watches a lot of E News that I overhear), but I will because they stand out in my mind as horrible examples of Influencer marketing. 

1) Scott Disick

Last year socialite Scott Disick posted a sponsored Instagram post (which also auto-posted to his Twitter account) about skinny tea including the copied and pasted text of the actual online campaign instructions. Lord Disick re-posted it later and presumably still got paid over $10,000 for his staged post about the tea that he loves before his pretend trip to the gym.

2) Naomi Campbell

Model and actress Naomi Campbell also made a similar copy-and-paste mistake with Adidas shoes. How embarrassing! And that's with an industry leading global company that works tirelessly to protect their brand equity! Their blogger outreach manager must have had a heart attack when they saw this one.

3) Ramona Singer

Another copy and paste massacre from Ramona Singer of "The Real Housewives of NYC" is when she blew it this past year promoting a Rodan & Fields healthy supplements company update. 

Aside from the obvious copy and paste disaster on Instagram and Twitter, the post was also completely counter to her own brand's voice. Maybe she could use some extra Ginko Biloba to help boost her brain's performance. 

4) Tia Mowry

Very recently actress Tia Mowry was promoting DQ (Dairy Queen), and in the same promotional interview she talked about staying in shape by avoiding dairy! Any fitness blogger worth their weight in whey protein could avoid making this mistake. We get it Tia, you don't actually eat anything from Dairy Queen ever, but at least don't sabotage the company that's helping you get back in the public eye. 

At least Chrissy Teigen does a good job advertising McDonald's when in reality she has probably never had a bite of Micky D's in her life.

5) Rob Kardashian

Black sheep of the family Rob Kardashian was being paid well to promote sock and clothing brands before going off on an explicit and borderline illegal tirade about Blac Chyna. The financial fallout and brand damage is still unknown but I think it is pretty obvious that neither of these two will be commanding such high prices for their Instagram and Twitter posts. Rob Kardashian continues to display incompetence in the business arena, much to the disappointment of his entrepreneurial sisters and mother. 

Avoid Failing

These are all marketing epic fails that failed in the execution phase and you can't be sure a similar result won't happen with your paid Influencer(s). And that can make all the difference for your campaign ROI. 

This inherent risk can make blog outreach services or influencer marketing somewhat of a gamble depending on your company and budget. Tread carefully and don't put all of your eggs in one basket(case)!





I hope you enjoyed this article about epic fails of social media Influencer marketing to avoid.

Interested in more articles about social media marketing?

Read My Posts:

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Published by Michael J Schiemer
Owner of Bootstrap Business
Money - Marketing - Motivation
Digital Marketing | SEO | Social Media
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