8 minutes 
If you are an Influencer, you’ve probably been asked by brands if they can Whitelisting your account. Most Influencers have no idea what this really means and what is involve risks and benefits.
As more brands use influencer whitelisting as a core part of their marketing budget, it’s important that you understand the whitelisting process.
Influencer Whitelist 101
Influencer whitelisting means that you grant a Brand Partner advertising permissions on your Facebook Page or Instagram account. Invented in 2014 by Twitter, influencer whitelisting is gaining popularity on Facebook and Instagram.
When whitelisting is successful, brand partners can create and pay for Facebook and Instagram ads that run from an influencer ID.
Whitelisting allows brands to take advantage of great influencer content with added benefits like:
- Have full control over who sees a content creator’s whitelisting post. Brands can even target the post to people who don’t follow the Influencer.
- The ability to make minor edits or adjustments to the Influencer’s post. Keep in mind that a good brand partner will always show the Influencer what the edited post looks like.
- It extends the reach and lifespan of an Influencer’s post, which is especially important for Instagram Stories as they expire after 24 hours.
Unlike the Instagram branded content tools, influencer whitelisting allows brands the freedom to create ads that are slightly different than the original posts to deliver better marketing performance.
This includes adding a call to action like “Buy Now”, changing the copy to be more “urgent”, and even editing the image/video/carousel.
Whitelisting also allows brands to use audience data from content creators to show the whitelisted ad to the perfect consumer.
Benefits of influencer whitelisting for influencers
1. Extended reach
One of the most significant benefits of whitelisting for creators is that it increases their audience reach. Whitelisting helps brands access a broader, like-minded audience.
Brands essentially pay to get their content in front of the people who are most likely to follow it!
2. Growth in the fan base
Increased visibility can quickly build a much larger fan base. If the posts are engaging enough, users are likely to share them or start following the channel.
This can also lead to increased brand awareness and audience engagement.
3. Drive engagement
Influencers can experience exponential growth with their engagement as a result of whitelisted content.
Influencer research suggests that sponsored posts tend to drive higher engagement than unsponsored posts, likely because influencers put more effort into creating high-quality content when they’re being sponsored.
4. Improve the content
Amplifying influencer-generated content allows brands and creators alike to keep a close eye on post performance.
Monitoring and tracking these results gives brands the key information they need to run campaigns well, and also gives creators feedback on how certain content is performing.
5. Develop lasting relationships
In most cases, whitelisting is a win-win strategy for brands and creators alike.
Brands can tap into the influencer’s organic audience using their authentic voice, and influencers can experience increased exposure and subsequent follower growth.
This relationship can pave the way for creating long-term professional partnerships and more genuinely effective influencer marketing.
While influencer whitelisting is highly advantageous for brands and their creative partners, there are some significant inherent risks.
Before granting whitelisting permissions, make sure you trust and vet the brand or agency.
A partner who has access to your account’s whitelist can create ANY ad and run it through your account. The partner can also target ANYONE, including over-saturating their audience to the point of annoyance.
As you can imagine, the risks of influencer whitelisting can be pretty scary for influencers, especially since it only takes one rogue partner to compromise your account. That is why this technology was built by the Filiatly team.
It’s specifically for influencers, to help them better manage who has permissions to their accounts and data.
Unlike whitelisting through other methods, whitelisting through Filiatly gives influencers complete visibility into how their partners are using whitelist permissions.
Filiatly also gives influencers the ability to automatically disconnect a partner as soon as the contractual terms of the influencer whitelisting request are completed.
As a bonus, Filiatly also funnels brand marketing data to the Influencer, giving you visibility into how your content is performing across a broader audience.
How to grant whitelist permissions
As an Influencer, how exactly do you complete a Whitelisting request? There are three main ways:
- Provide your username and password to whoever requests access to the whitelist and hope they don’t steal your account. It goes without saying, but it’s worth saying anyway: NEVER DO THIS!
- Grant permissions through Facebook, which will require you to create a new Facebook Business Manager if you don’t already have one. This approach generally requires you to be familiar with Facebook’s advertising tools.
- Grant permissions through Filiatly technology.
- Overall, influencer whitelisting is a surefire way to ensure brand content reaches a larger audience and has real impact for brand associations.
To ensure you are fairly compensated for Whitelisting access, it is important to understand how to charge for Influencer Whitelisting.
