(Barrett, 2014) “Influencer marketing identifies those which have the most influence over potential buyers, and orientates marketing activity around these influencers”.
Whether it has been through a blog, Facebook, twitter, tumblr or Instagram we have all most likely been influenced by someone to do or buy something at some point in our lives. Influencers in social media are continuing to grow in power as social media platforms are becoming ever more popular to today’s generations. Certain influencers have grasped the attention of the world and businesses are using these influencers to alter people’s perceptions of brands and companies (Booth & Matic, 2011). Watkiss (2014) further explains the role of influencers; whilst it is the influencer’s own opinion which they are spreading to their ‘listeners’, the influencer can effectively communicate and promote brand’s message to a large amount of people. Essentially, companies are using prominent figures in today’s social media platforms to enter a cycle of electronic word of mouth (Ewom) with their wide spread reach.
Who is an Influencer?
There are many faces of ‘influencers’:
Journalists,
Academics,
Industry analysts,
Professional advisors,
Celebrities, and
Individual brand advocates
(Source: Barrett, 2014)
Source: Instagram, 2015 & Facebook, 2015
Examples of social media influencers: Bunny holiday influencer for American Apparel Clothing on Instagram (First picture) Beyonce Knowles influencer for Pepsi on Facebook (Second picture)
Appinions (2014) highlights a range of prominent benefits of introducing an influencer to a business’s digital marketing strategy:
1. An influencer can increase brand awareness and grasp consumer attention
Consumers do not have a credible bond with corporate organisations the same way in which they have a bond with an influencer. There is a certain level of trust established between consumer and influencer that corporate brands cannot seem to grasp. This therefore means that consumers will pay more attention to a product/ brand that an influencer shows passion towards. Bakshy et al. (2011, p1) discusses certain attributes that explain why an influencer is so influential to consumers; a “combination of desirable attributes—whether personal attributes like credibility, ex- pertise, or enthusiasm”. If an influencer portrays a passion for something, consumers will then (hopefully) also reciprocate the same type of passion. Through these attributes an influencer can grasp the attention of consumers whilst also increasing brand awareness.
Source: Instagram, 2015
Simeon Panda, an influencer for My Protein
2. Cost benefits
(Instafluence, 2014) “Influencer marketing campaigns drive 16x more engagement than paid or owned media”. Instead of having to create a huge and expensive marketing campaign, which could not be successful, a company can use an influencer. This allows a brand’s message to be distributed cheaply to consumers. Through influencer marketing, companies can spend less time and money that could be alternatively used for other parts of the business (Appinions, 2014).
3. Large extended reach
Booth & Matic (2011) explain that through the concept of leveraging, if a company can direct their brand’s image vicariously through an influencer, ideally they should be able to capture the attention of thousands of consumers. This process is highly effective as a company is targeting thousands, if not millions of consumers through a single channel (the influencer). The picture below shows the model Cara Delevingne’s instagram page, she is a model and influencer for the fashion designer label Burberry. Through the use of her influence Burberry can establish their brand to 10.1 million followers/consumers!
Source: Instagram, 2015
The picture below portrays different examples of paths of Ewom a brand message takes from influencer to consumers:
Source: Bakshy et al, 2011
4 .Builds credibility for the brand
Companies must locate and decide on which figure in social media will effectively and honestly promote their brand. Certain attributes mentioned previously will play a vital role when making the correct decision in choosing an influencer (i.e. passionate). If an influencer’s perceived persona does not adhere to the ideologies of the brand, the entire influencer initiative could be made invalid, as there is no credibility behind the campaign. (Hall, 2010 cited in Booth & Matic, 2011) “Influentials generally do have many direct ‘friends’ and ‘followers,’ but what makes them truly valuable is the number and relevance of their extended or indirect connections”. Relevance plays a huge role in the perceived credibility of an influencer: if a car company were to target an influencer who advocates world sustainability and a substantial amount of their reach were simlar, the influencers credibility would be diminished.
If a company can approach an influencer that shows relevance to their brand, who shows passion and enjoyment in promoting the company’s message, then the credibility of the brand and influencer will be conveyed to their extended reach. Therefore a level of trust is established between influencer and consumer.
Locating an influencer
Forbes (2014) outline 7 different steps when locating an influencer:
- Define influencers
- Find influencers
- Contact influencers
- Utilize your sources
- Build and maintain relationships
- Measure results
- Find influencers offline
The influencer marketing ideology is becoming ever more apparent in present and future digital marketing strategies (Booth & Matic, 2011). This is due to the range of benefits including: the power to change people’s perceptions of corporate brands and the ability to use leveraging to establish their brand message to an influencer’s extended reach. However, Baer (2015) questions the true credibility of influencers and if they hold a genuine passion about a certain product or brand. In addition, he argues that an incentive is normally required to obtain an influencer (money or free products), which raises the question is their enthusiasm in a product or brand a façade? (Baer, 2015). Despite these factors, influencers continue to play a prominent role in corporate digital marketing strategies.
For more information on Baer’s article on “Social Media Influencers versus Brand Advocates Infographic” visit http://bit.ly/1mnvHi4.
References:
Appinions (2013) 5 Benefits of Influence Marketing [online] < http://blog.appinions.com/2013/02/14/5-benefits-of-influence-marketing/> [Accessed 5th March 2015]
Baer, J. (2015) Social Media Influencers versus Brand Advocates Infographic [online] < http://www.convinceandconvert.com/content-marketing/social-media-influencers-versus-brand-advocates-infographic/> [Accessed 5th March 2015]
Bakshy, E., Hofman, J., Mason, W. & Watts, D. (2011) “Everyone’s an influencer: quantifying influence on twitter.” Proceedings of the fourth ACM international conference on Web search and data mining, pp 65-74
Barrett, A. (2014) Who is an influencer? [online] < http://social.ogilvy.com/who-is-an-influencer/> [Accessed 6th March 2015]
Booth, N., & Matic, J. A. (2011) “Mapping and leveraging influencers in social media to shape corporate brand perceptions” Corporate Communications: An International Journal, vol. 16 (3), pp.184-191.
Facebook (2015) [online] <facebook.com> [Accessed 7th March 2015]
Forbes (2015) How To Get Industry Influencers To Boost Your Social Media Reach [online] < http://www.forbes.com/sites/jaysondemers/2014/07/14/how-to-get-industry-influencers-to-boost-your-social-media-reach/2/> [Accessed 5th March 2015]
Instafluence (2014) The Statistical Benefits of Influencer Marketing [online] < http://instafluence.com/blog/2014/01/03/the-statistical-benefits-of-influencer-marketing/> [Accessed 7th March 2015]
Instagram (2015) [online] <instagram.com> [Accessed 7th March 2015]
Twitter (2015) [online] <twitter.com> [Accessed 7th March 2015]
Watkiss, J. (2014) Next gen word of mouth: the social media influencers [online] < http://www.adestra.com/next-gen-word-mouth-social-media-influencers/> [Accessed 6th March 2015]