Who are Social Media Influencers?
Social Media influences are an interesting group of people as they seem to rely on just their popularity for their income. Before getting into what they actually do, we would first need to define an Influencer. Influencers are social media users who wield some influence over other users within their spheres of interest.‘ Influence’ usually refers to the ability to sway users’ purchasing decisions for various products and services, which is an invaluable ability for organisations to control. For example, a person interested in coffee would try out different brands of coffee and review them. Others who are interested in coffee would follow and see them, and their posts on social media would compel them to try what the reviewer has a positive experience with. In this case, the particular niche is coffee, but it can be anything from clothes and footwear to technology, vehicles, and even diets. People tend to judge the intuition of influencers as they are (at first) just another user like them. Therefore, they gain a following for their content which gives them the ability to influence what their consumers consume through their social media profiles. Instagram is one of the leading social media networks and is the most popular social network for influencer marketing due to its visual system of sharing. Learn more about Instagram marketing at Instagram marketing agency Brisbane.
Social Networks
As mentioned previously, Instagram is by far the most popular social network for influencers. Almost every fashion or accessories brand actively sponsors influencers on Instagram to market their products. This is also commonly seen with YouTube with services, software, and technological products such as VPNs and hardware or even subscription based streaming or educational services. YouTube channels with a moderately high number of subscribers are given offers to feature a product in their video in return for sponsoring said video. The market is smaller than Instagram’s but the products in concern are much different than those advertised on Instagram.
The Marketing Aspect
Once a user establishes themselves in the social networking circles as a person of influence – an influencer, they are highly valuable to brands marketing to that particular niche the influencer occupies. An influencer commenting positively on a particular product will essentially promote it to all of their followers out of which a significant portion may be led to make a purchase. Therefore, companies routinely collaborate with the most popular influences and sponsor them in various forms in return for endorsements.
Criticism
Being an influencer is seen as a vain and shallow occupation by some and in general carries the connotation that everything advertised by an influencer is marketed towards similar people. This is especially true of services such as VPNs advertised on YouTube where the general consensus is that if it is advertised on YouTube, the product itself might not be adequate. There is also the fact that influencers would not criticise the product of their sponsors. The truth of this remains to be seen but for companies, the benefits far outweigh the drawbacks, if any.