Despite efforts to approach DEI in influencer marketing, ensuring pay parity and mistrust on the brands’ side to create authentic content remains a key issue.
By consciously identifying creators of colour to collaborate with on platforms like TikTok, brands now view creator bases as a place for them to consciously reach their DEI goals. But in spite of brands’ efforts to ensure diversity in their influencer marketing efforts, issues like pay parity continues to be a hindrance in DEI-sensitive influencer marketing.
Brands need to tackle such concerns by working towards establishing authenticity. For instance, brands need to ensure they work with Black creators apart from specific times of the year like Black History Month. Similarly, marketers must trust their creators to come up with authentic content for their audiences.
Instead of fixating on follower counts, marketers must opt for nano influencers and rely on other factors like engagement rates and view-to-follower ratio. Companies can even establish DEI audit committees to audit business practices and measure representation in the brand’s marketing content.
[10 minute read]
