What is an influencer?
How often are you scrolling through Instagram and you see a celebrity with a blue bear sweet in their post, or something about Skinny Tea, or countless other brands which you didn’t know existed but now are appearing all over your feed? Wonder why? Well, in this digital age advertising and marketing has taken on a new form, working not just through big billboard ads but via popular online influencers.
To put it simply, an influencer is a personality who can influence others. Through social media the more followers a person has, the more likely they are to hold influence over others, meaning the products or brands they use and enjoy will most likely be used in turn by their audience, whether it be clothing, make-up, technology, apps or much more. Influencers can work over multiple platforms such as YouTube, Twitter, Instagram, Snapchat and Facebook, reaching audiences that brands may not be able to reach otherwise due to their online celebrity status. Influencers can also have different levels of audience and fame, whether it’s a big celebrity name such as Kylie Jenner (@kyliejenner), who has 96.6 million followers on Instagram and can make up to $400,000 (£320,384) for a single post[1], to more modest popular influencers such as lifestyle vloggers and bloggers like Keira Rose (@_kiera_rose_) who has 74.3k followers on Instagram, 12.9k on Twitter and over 220k YouTube subscribers who will be influenced by her post by post. For example, Keira Rose regularly reviews and endorses of Lush products, these YouTube videos getting thousands of views.
This type of online marketing has been growing over the last few years, higher celebrity influencers being paid huge amounts just to snap a quick pic to endorse a product, whereas smaller influencers (or micro-influencers) can be sent the product and either paid a fee or the free merchandise will be enough to prompt them to endorse the product if they like it. This sort of endorsement from online influencers can be cheap and easy if the right audience or product is found, and can reach thousands or millions of subscribers in a more effective and quick way than traditional advertising. Indeed, these online celebrities are becoming ever more desirable by big brands; a survey of U.S. teens made by Variety in 2016 found that YouTube creators took the top 10 spots in a survey of influencers[2], outranking traditional big celebrities like actors or musicians who are being replaced by YouTube celebs like KSI and PewDiePie. This is perhaps because these YouTube creators represent a more authentic and accessible personality which followers trust and feel genuinely connected to as opposed to more big names. Because of this interpreted closeness with online influencers, they tend to have a more focused and loyal audience which pays more attention to their posts and are more likely to take their advice or recommendation, meaning that if the right brand approaches them they’ll be reaching their target audience with ease.
So clearly working with online influencers can enhance a brand’s reputation, credibility and reach with extremely effective results. Research has stated that 49% of consumers look to social media influencers for advice or recommendations when it comes to purchases, and nearly 40% of Twitter users said they had made a purchase as a direct result of an influencer’s recommendation[3], showing just how much influence social media influencers really have over their followers. Similarly with Instagram, influencers with slightly fewer followers (in the thousands or tens of thousands rather than the millions) had followers who were more engaged with their posts.[4] Markerly found that these micro-influencers had a more focused audience in terms of their interests. For example, a fitness blogger is going to have more success marketing fitness products online because that will be the key reason their followers are interested in them, whereas big celebrities’ followers will have more varied interests so although more may see the product, less are likely to be directly interested in actually purchasing it. Getting the right influencer to engage with your brand or product provides invaluable reach and credibility not only to a large audience but one which is relevant to your product. And the beauty is that many of the micro-influencers are easy to get in touch with online – keep an eye out for Twitter livestreams and get involved so the influencer can see your product. If it’s right for them it will be right for their audience, and by extension vital and successful for you and your brand’s vibe.
[1] http://www.ok.co.uk/celebrity-feature/1043007/kardashian-jenner-money-paid-instagram-advert-sponsors-kim-kardashian-kylie-jenner
[2] http://variety.com/2015/digital/news/youtubers-teen-survey-ksi-pewdiepie-1201544882/
[3] https://blog.twitter.com/marketing/en_us/a/2016/new-research-the-value-of-influencers-on-twitter.html
[4] http://markerly.com/blog/instagram-marketing-does-influencer-size-matter/