Do not hire influencers to run your marketing team.

If your marketing team’s looking to hire then there’s actually no need to hire someone with a popular online presence.

Hiring a marketer because they are popular online and have an impressive following isn’t going to net anyone a marketer. That’s an influencer.

These are different skill sets.

Influencers market on behalf of themselves. The best that one can do there is promotional affiliate marketing via an influencer. It’s top-of-the-funnel awareness building through paid and organic social.

Bringing independent influencers in-house presents its own challenges. For example, influencers are expected to activate their audience through a company’s product, yet once they are in-house, all interactions with their audience must either cease to include any other products (stopping altogether) or become strictly their given employer’s own branding, making any subsequent reviews obviously biased. This corrodes trust between themselves and their audience.

And again, while influencers can sell their own personal brand quite well alongside that of a sponsor, this has no baring on whether or not they have any notion regarding the foundations of marketing. GTM strategy, product marketing fit, CPC, ASO? Who knows if they know?

Hire a traditional marketer. Do not hire social media influencers to run your marketing team.

The pull of popularity is hardwired.

Screw your bias. Pay attention.