Displays featuring online beauty gurus hit stores the last few months as CoverGirl launched a new influencer program featuring nine social stars on in-store displays.

The point?

To help consumers shop the looks they love on social media more easily. In addition, larger brands are finally getting the picture that real people can relate most to the people we see in our favorite social media apps. By working with the influencers to create specific makeup looks using CoverGirl products and featuring how-to posts on their social feeds, the brand was able to “bridge the gap between online content and offline commerce,” said Laura Brinker, vp, influencer marketing, consumer beauty at Coty.

“Collaboration is critical,” said Jessica Clifton, U.S. managing director, strategic growth and development at Edelman. “While the brands have to be comfortable giving up some power to the influencer so they can speak and operate in their own style, we’re seeing the benefit of true collaborations that result in long-term relationships, not one-off transactions.”

She added, “Influencer marketing isn’t going away.”

Earlier on around Sept. 8, the Federal Trade Commission revealed that it had settled a case against influencers who had failed to properly make consumers aware of their relationships with brands and issued a warning to others. “Influencers should be aware that they’re violating the law if they don’t clearly disclose their material connections to brands,” said Maureen Ohlhausen, acting chairman of the FTC, in a video posted on Twitter.

Unlike one-off collaborations, these deeper, longer-term, more engaged relationships give brands the time to work with influencers to make sure each post is transparent and meets the FTC’s requirements while also creating content that will get influencers’ fans interested in buying their products.

“What you’re seeing is a flight to quality,” explained Noah Mallin, managing partner and head of MEC Wavemaker, a media shop that has worked on influencer programs for brands like L’Oréal and Ikea. “Brands want to make sure what they are paying for has an impact and is brand safe.”

Over the last year the risks of working with influencers have become clearer. Not only do brands risk major marketing dollars if they haven’t done their homework to find the right influencer, but there are also legal disclosure issues around influencer posts that, if they aren’t followed, could cost their partners big time. Social media has been cracking down on sponsored posts that may mislead the public and are taking every post that is brand tagged or associated to make sure that certain disclosure rules are followed.  If your planning on following the lead of these influencers and building your own brand on instagram, be sure to read all the rules first.  We have included a link below to the rules:

 

If you are looking to kill it on instagram, our favorite social media expert and music journalist, Jacqueline Jax has some quick tips to get you improving your page today.

 

Discover how to build your own influential platform on Instagram with tips from Entertainment Branding Specialist Jacqueline Jax.

 

You may not realize it but there are people building huge brands on instagram. This little app is amazingly powerful and so easy to use. In fact, right now it’s one of fastest growing platforms and it brings in effective results in just minutes a day. Come connect with me on Instagram today: @JacquelineJax

 

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How to make your social media influence a career http://lsh.re/1I8U5

Music Marketing Instagram Hacks for Creating a Killer Feed http://lsh.re/1FZT8

How to gain Influence for your business from Influencers http://lsh.re/1HPZ5

 

POPULAR BEAUTY INSTAGRAM ACCOUNTS:

@beautybydchinchilla

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Instagram rules and guidehttps://help.instagram.com/477434105621119