The use of celebrities of social networks to promote products - Marketing of influence - is a lucrative industry and is growing rapidly, it should in 2022 to about 15 billion dollars be worth .

Influencers leverage their online notoriety by working with brands and offering their followers products for a fee (or free goods and experiences).

Some influencers are established stars looking for an additional source of income (soccer player Cristiano Ronaldo for example charges up to $ 1.6 million for an Instagram endorsement). Others may have recently gained fame on reality TV shows like Love Island, an experiment that can spark a flurry of advertising deals.

But the most successful influencers include ordinary consumers who have become known on social media, often within a specific community. Zoella's makeup, for example, has grown in prominence in the YouTube beauty community, bringing in her channel 11 million subscribers. Ms. Hinch, "Cleanfluencer", now has 4.1 million followers on Instagram who long for cleaning tips.

These community influencers develop a high level of public trust , which makes them attractive as brand sponsors. However, its particular origins have important implications for influencer marketing.

We researched consumer reactions to brand recommendations on YouTube by leading UK beauty vloggers, including Zoella, Lily Pebbles and FleurDeForce. Our research found that since other members of a larger online community played key roles in their rise to fame, these influencers have different responsibilities than their viewers.

We have found that brand approvals that ignore this responsibility can backfire on us and damage the reputations of influencers and the companies they represent.

Here are the five most common influencer marketing mistakes we've identified:

1. Inappropriate Disclosure

Influencers should clearly disclose advertising activities to their viewers so that they can distinguish them from organic content. Viewers expressed frustration when they felt the difference was unclear.

Disclosure of influencer advocacy is a regulatory concern and a key goal of an ongoing investigation into UK influencer culture . Followers quickly identified cases where influencers were not following current UK endorsement disclosure guidelines .

They also had additional expectations. For example, many subscribers expected influencers to verbally disclose recommendations and found that they often multitask while watching YouTube videos and could easily overlook written disclosures.

While influencers bore most of the blame for the inadequate disclosure, any resulting negativity could be passed on to the brand as well.

2. Inauthenticity

Some subscribers believed that influencers were responsible for ensuring that the majority of their videos were "organic" and impartial through recommendations. They were sensitive to the relationship between organic content and approved content on the influential YouTube channel and reacted negatively when product advertising began to dominate.

One commented, "Every other YouTuber I see also runs ads on their videos, which is perfectly fine, but every video feels a bit over the top. It also leads us to wonder what products you really like.

This illustrates the doubts about the authenticity of the influencers. While this mistake didn't damage the reputation of the recommended brand, it did lead consumers to view these influencers with skepticism, which likely diminished their effectiveness as supporters.

3. Too much emphasis

Influencers are given the responsibility to deliver valuable content. We found that subscribers criticize brands that they believe have taken a great deal of control over content from influencers, especially if they distract viewers. For example, they would react negatively if they thought the influencer had received a script or a high frequency of product mentions was requested.

One answer was, "I loved the vlog. I hate mentions of OTT products. At first I was interested, but after the third mention I thought, "How bad can this product be if you have to pay for X number of mentions?" "Once or twice would be enough. But I think the company asked more than necessary to be mentioned.

Influencers need to have a great deal of creative freedom in presenting a product so that they can make recommendations that their viewers will appreciate.

4. Brand fatigue

Influencers' responsibility to deliver valuable content was also jeopardized by brands asking many influencers within the community to publish similar recommendations in quick succession. Such saturation of the target audience was seen as repetitive and boring, possibly reducing the effectiveness of the approval.

In fact, many have claimed that they will avoid buying from brands that are guilty of this mistake. Businesses should avoid selecting large numbers of influencers from the same online community for a campaign and should be careful when planning. Again, the influencer's control of creativity is likely to result in more diverse recommendations and reduce brand fatigue.

5. Too much enjoyment

Fans felt that influencers receiving excessive gifts (e.g., luxury vacations and large amounts of free merchandise) made the resulting recommendations less reliable. Consumers have even complained that the cost of these expensive influencer incentives would drive up the retail price of the brand's products.

Many subscribers expressed negative feelings about these brands and planned to avoid them. Businesses should reduce incentives for influencers or ensure that these promotional activities benefit other members of the community through competitions or freebies.

In general, brands can avoid the risk of their target audience reacting and increase the impact of their campaigns by paying close attention to influencer selection and the timing and execution of the campaign.

Rebecca Mardon is Professor of Marketing and Kate Daunt is Professor of Marketing at the University of Cardiff. Hayley Cocker is a Senior Lecturer in Marketing at Lancaster University.

This article first appeared on The Conversation .