The Influencer Activation Dictionary

Emma Garrett

September 19, 2022

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Meet the Influencer Activation Dictionary; your new secret weapon for commonly used influencer marketing terms.

The world of influencer marketing and influencer campaigns can be seriously confusing. Social media in general utilizes a lot of slang terms, so the verbiage used in influencer campaigns can be unfamiliar. The most important aspect of running a successful influencer campaign is having a good understanding of exactly what you need to ask for, and what information you need to provide. Having some knowledge on the below terms is going to improve your influencer strategy and increase your chance of success. 

1. Affiliate – An influencer who is connected through a third party and who typically promotes e-commerce offers, intending to earn commission on purchases connected through unique promo and referral codes.
   Ex: An influencer who shares clothes on their LikeToKnowIt page earns a commission from the brand of clothing every time their followers purchase those pieces through the influencers’ link. This influencer would then be an affiliate of the clothing brand.
2. Ambassador – A long-term brand representative that regularly promotes the brand for a higher rate. Usually, someone who has participated in past promotional influencer campaigns and has proven that they either convert well or produce high-quality content.
   Ex: An influencer who is contracted to get a facial from a particular spa 1x a month for 12 months and posts about it each month, is an ambassador for that spa. In this case, the influencer would sign a contract for 12 months, and their fee would represent the longer duration and monthly content.
3. Branded Hashtag – A hashtag that is at least 95% or more used solely by a brand and that brand’s influencers. Lionize asks for branded hashtags in every campaign application for reporting purposes and to help you establish a solid brand on social media to share with your influencer partners. Need help establishing your branded hashtags for your first influencer campaign? Ask your dedicated Account Manager for help! They can help you generate some great options to choose from.
   Ex: For SoulCycle, an example of great branded hashtag options would be #CycleWithSoul #SoulCycler or #SoulCyclePartner
4. Caption – The text underneath an in-feed photo or video post. On Instagram, captions can contain @ tags, hashtags, and text, but cannot contain an HTML link as links in IG captions are not clickable. This is why you see most people including a CTA in their captions such as, “click the link in my bio!”
5. Carousel – An in-feed post on Instagram made up of multiple static images and/or videos. If you can swipe left on an Instagram post and see multiple images/videos, it’s considered a “Carousel Post.”
6. Celebrity – An influencer who has Celebrity status, or who has over 250,000 followers. When you get into the Celebrity level, influencers typically will charge at least $5,000.00 for one piece of content.
   Ex: Martha Stewart and Becky Hillyard would both be considered ‘celebrity’ influencers. (link to profiles)
7. Content – Slang for photos and videos produced for partnership or branding purposes.
   Ex: This influencer produced great content for this campaign.
8. Comment – A written response on an in-feed post. When speaking about social media engagement rates (see #14), the number of comments on an in-feed post is one of the touchpoints taken into consideration.
9. Commission – A monetary percentage that an influencer or affiliate earns on a purchase. Typical commission rates start at 10%. Commission is tracked through a unique link given to that influencer (a link with UTM tracking parameters) or a unique promo code. This is so that a brand’s POS (point of sale) system can track how many purchases were attributed to a specific influencer.
   Ex: An influencer shares a link to a $35 phone case. For every purchase that their followers make using their unique promo code or link, the influencer makes 12%, which in this case would be $4.12. If the influencer was able to have 25 of their followers purchase the phone case, totaling $875 in retail conversion, the influencer would then earn $105.
10. Conversion – The process of an influencer turning one of their followers into a purchaser (for a specific brand or product). Some influencers don’t convert – which means their followers don’t go and purchase the products, while some regularly convert 5-15% of their total followers who go and purchase the product the influencer is promoting.
    Ex: An influencer is asked if they have a good conversion rate. This means that when they share products, how many of their followers normally then go and purchase the product? Does the influencer have a history of high conversion and getting a lot of their followers to purchase a product?
11. Counter Offer – Proposing a different rate offer than what was originally listed. Through Lionize’s Negotiation functionality, brands and agencies can send Counter Offers directly to the influencers, and the influencer can approve the Counter Offer, or Counter Offer again back to the brand.
    Ex: A brand receives an application from a great influencer they want to work with. The rate listed is $800. This is slightly out of their budget. They want to work with them, but want to see if the influencer will partner for $600. When they propose the $600, they are sending a Counter Offer.
12. Credit – An influencer. Lionize’s subscription is based on how many influencers you work with each month. Each influencer you can work with is considered to be one “credit.” If your subscription has 10 credits each month, this means you would be able to work with 10 new influencers each month.
13. Deliverables – Slang for requirements. If you ask an influencer to do two stories and a Reel, this would then make up the deliverables requested for this campaign. Influencer rates are based on the deliverables.
14. Engagement Rate – A metric that is used to determine how active an influencer’s followers are with their content. The more influencers’ followers interact with their content, the higher the influencers’ engagement rate will be. Engagement rates take into account comments, likes, and reach against the number of followers an influencer has. See (link to engagement rate blog) on all the different types of engagement rates and how to calculate them.
15. Evergreen – Non-promotional, usually ongoing. This term is typically used regarding retail promotions. While there are seasonal or holiday retail sales, any offer that is ongoing and not tied to a holiday or season is considered evergreen. It’s always a good strategy to have one influencer campaign that is evergreen and can apply to any month of the year.
    Ex: If Anthropologie was running an influencer campaign to promote their Anthro Insider program, this would be considered an evergreen campaign as it’s not tied to a seasonal promotion. If Anthropologie wanted to run a Back-to-School campaign, it would not be considered evergreen as it has a distinct end date where the offer would no longer be applicable.
16. Flat Rate – A pre-set monetary offer. On Lionize, if you run a “Flat Rate” campaign, you will offer each influencer the same, pre-set amount.
    Ex: You decide to run a campaign and you have a strict budget, so you offer every influencer $150. This would be considered a “Flat Rate” campaign.
17. Hashtag – A keyword that relates to a piece of social media content, that is utilized to help people on that social media platform find the content. Think of hashtags as thematic tags that act like SEO. Hashtags utilize the hashtag symbol “#”. A good rule of thumb is to include 10-20 hashtags for each in-feed post if you’re trying to grow your Instagram page and get your content seen by more people.
    Ex: You post a picture of a fancy Hamburger on social media. You want people who are foodies and based in your city to be able to find it. Some hashtags you could do are #foodies #foodstagram #foodpic #hamburger #burgerlife #foodphotographer #yourcitynamehere #yourcitynameherefoodies
18. In-Feed – A social media post that is posted permanently in your feed. Your feed is your wall, or the photos and videos that show up when you view your profile. That array of images/videos is considered your “feed.” Choosing to ask for “in-feed” content means it will have a longer lifespan, as it won’t go away. This is in comparison to asking for an Instagram story, which disappears after 24 hours.
19. Like – A heart response on social media content. This is considered a method of engagement and normally outperforms comments due to it being a one-click response with no typing involved.
20. Link in Bio – A link that is placed in the biography of an Instagram profile. These links have a longer lifespan as compared to sharing a link in an Instagram story, where it will only be shown for 24 hours.
21. Linktree – A software where an influencer can build a “landing page” that houses multiple permanent links. The downside of a link-in-bio used to be that only one link could be shared at once. If an influencer uses a Linktree, they can keep as many links as they want in their bio.
22. Macro – An influencer with 30,000 – 250,000 followers. Macro influencers are well-established and will typically charge a rate of $400-$4,000 depending on where they fall in the aforementioned follower range.
23. Micro – An influencer with 5,000 – 30,000 followers. Micro-influencers are influencers who are smaller and are normally trying to grow their page. Rates for micro-influencers will be lower, and typically around $100-$400. Micro-influencers typically have the most engaged audience out of the four influencer categories and are most likely to post more content than you asked for, due to the mutual benefit of the partnership.
24. Nano – An influencer with 1,500 – 5,000 followers. Nano influencers are the smallest kind of influencers and are normally trying to grow their page. Rates for nano influencers are typically around $50-$100, but some will offer to produce content for free. Nano influencers work best for small local campaigns, as they are the largest category out of the four types of influencers and they will usually accept a trade or a very low rate.
25. Negotiation – The process of bartering with an influencer to agree upon a rate that works for both parties. If you run a “Suggest-A-Rate” campaign on Lionize, you can negotiate directly with the influencers on the platform (see #11). Some influencers do not accept any negotiation and are firm on their prices, while some will accept a lower rate than they originally stated. It’s normal to have around 25% of influencers not budge on their rates in negotiation.
26. Promo Code – A code given to influencers that the influencer can use in a CTA to push their followers to go purchase, sign up for, or download a product. You can give each influencer their own unique promo code, or every influencer the same promo code.
27. Rate – The price you agree to pay an influencer for their content.
28. Reach – A metric on social media that calculates how many unique accounts viewed a social media post. This is a key metric when calculating engagement rate (see #14).
29. Reactivate – To submit a new offer to an influencer you have worked with on a previous campaign. Typically you reactivate an influencer if they had a high conversion rate or produced content that you loved. Reactivation is beneficial because you already know that the influencer is going to produce the results you desire. It’s common for an influencer to increase their rate the second or third time they get reactivated, as they have proven to be a loyal and diligent partner.
30. Reels – A TikTok like, highly edited, immersive, entertaining, catchy short-form video, that is a newer addition to Instagram. Instagram Reels have a different audience demographic (usually skews younger). Instagram Reels don’t have to show up on an influencers’ feed (see #18), so if you want the Reel to show up in the Reels section AND on an influencers’ feed, make sure to stipulate this in your campaign application. Instagram Reels, like TikTok, are more expensive. Because Reels take a lot longer to make since they require advanced video editing skills, if you ask an influencer to produce a Reel the influencer is going to require a higher rate. Reels are currently the most “trendy” format of social media content to produce, and reach the youngest generation, which makes it the best way to raise brand awareness.
    Ex: You want to run a Reels campaign with Macro influencers where they all produce a similar video. While most of these Macro influencers might quote you $600.00 for one piece of content and three stories, for a Reel and three stories, the influencer might ask for $1,000.00 instead.
31. ROI – Return on Investment. When it comes to influencer marketing, ROI is typically used to determine how much money is made off of an influencer partnership. An ROI is applicable on commission and/or conversion campaigns. The easiest way to calculate ROI for an influencer is:
    ROI = Net earnings from the influencer / Influencer Rate x 100.
32. Sponsored – A tag that is added to any post where the influencer was paid to promote something. If a rate is involved, any content produced is automatically considered a “sponsorship.” The FTC requires influencers to note if they are being paid to discuss a product by either noting that a post is sponsored, or by including the hashtag #AD in the caption of their post.
33. Story Slide – A single Instagram story slide, consisting of at most 15 seconds of video.
34. Static Post – A single image in-feed post (see #18). A static post is the most inexpensive type of in-feed content on Instagram.
35. Stories – Short, 15 second slides that can be viewed by clicking the profile image on someone’s Instagram page. Stories can be in the form of static or video and disappear after 24 hours.Stories are the least expensive type of content you can ask an influencer to produce on Instagram.
36. Story Link – A clickable link that is included in an Instagram story slide (see #33). This clickable link will disappear after 24 hours along with the rest of the stories.
37. Suggested Rate – A type of campaign you can run on Lionize, where the influencers review the deliverables (see #13) and then list their usual rate that they would charge. With Suggested Rate campaigns, you are able to negotiate those rates directly with the influencer through the Lionize negotiation module. Suggested Rate campaigns have the widest reach, and allow you to customize the offering for each influencer.
38. Tag – A mention of another Instagram profile that can be both in the caption (see #4) or directly in the in-feed post/story (see #18 and #35). Influencers are always required to tag the brand they’re working with in all of the content they produce for that brand’s campaign.
39. Tracking Link – A link you can give to influencers that contains UTM tracking parameters. This allows you to track clicks and purchases. You can give an influencer a tracking link for their stories (see #35) and/or for their bio (see #20). If you are monitoring conversion and/or commission, you will need to use a tracking link. Google Analytics is the foremost UTM analysis tool, but there are other softwares for it as well. 
40. UGC -User Generated Content. This refers to the content produced by a “user” which in this case is an influencer, that can be utilized by a company
    Ex: A hair salon wants to share before & after images on their website that their influencers took, after hair appointment visits. These images would then be considered UGC that the brand can use in marketing and branding material.
41. URL– Slang for a link, either a tracking link or a website html link that you want influencers to share.

Article written by

Emma Garrett

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