Influencer marketing – a concept that is here to stay?

As you’ve probably heard before, the best marketing out there is the one which travels from mouth to mouth. In fact, statistics from Nielsen show that 83% of us trust recommendations from people we know. In the digital world of today, where communication reaches far further than the closest circle of family and friends, it is not difficult to understand the strategic use of influential people online. In fact, it’s been shown that 60% of people across all age groups would buy a brand recommended by a Youtuber (Acumen, n.d).

Shane Barker (2016) wrote an interesting blog post on this matter where he shared some of his own tips and ideas on how to use influencers as a tool for attaching favorable associations to a brand. Accordingly, people form emotional connections with the personalities they choose to follow. They identify with them and trust them. So, what could be more effective than letting your target group get in touch with your brand for the very first time on the market place of an influencer? Below follows Barker’s list of tips.

1. Forget Big Influencers

Prioritize relevance over mass reach. Collaborating with mid-level influencers rather than the largest ones could mean higher engagement with the audience. Look for those who are best to connect with their audience on an emotional level!

2. Reward Brand Advocates

Do not limit yourself to well-known individuals. Those who already are customers and appreciate your products could be your best advocates. Include them in your influencer marketing by rewarding them. Why not provide them with exclusive offers or feature them on your social media?

3. Let Them Do the Talking

Do not dictate the way an influencer promotes your brand. No one knows their audience better than themselves – so do not interfere with their content creating.

4. Social Media Takeover

Let your influencers take over your social media accounts for a while. This way, you can let your brand story meet a story from a customer’s perspective.

5. Be a Storyteller

Utilize the voice of your influencers and let them share a story about your brand. What impact does your brand have on them?

6. Host Contests and Giveaways

Instead of going through your own channels – host your contests and giveaways through your influencers. Then, give products to the winner along with a feature in both your brand’s and the influencer’s social media channels.

Source: https://www.twenty20.com/photos/e56068e4-7c9f-4732-8ff9-2e52ddc8a852

Nevertheless, despite the straightforwardness and the applicability of these tips, we argue that there could be reasons to be critical when looking at what value influencers can add to digital marketing strategies in the future. Like Barker, we believe that the most important part is to make sure that the influencer is able to express the brand personality naturally through their content. However, as audiences get increasingly informed and their relationships to the content makers get seemingly tighter, they might become increasingly suspicious and quicker to recognize unauthentic messages. The consequence of that could be that the profiles who publish many paid collaborations with brands would lose some of their social following, as audiences would move towards other, more genuine content creators.

So what do we do with this? Should we stop believing in influencers as marketing channels in the future? Certainly not. On the contrary we argue that the power of influencers, if managed properly, could become even larger. However, for audiences not to lose interest as soon as they identify marketing content, there has to be some type of deeper exchange for the reader as well. If they value what they see, it will not matter whether the profile received money to share it or not. And if that is settled – focus will instead be on the comprehensive travel destination guide, the interesting demonstration of a new technical gear, or the extensive post on how to succeed in your professional life.

So, let us say goodbye to shallow paid posts which can be displayed just as well through the brand’s own channels, and make room for innovative and interesting collaborations. If not for the sake of own social feed, let us do it for the survival of the influencers.

Louise Wendel & Emilia Djerv

References:

http://www.nielsen.com/content/dam/nielsenglobal/apac/docs/reports/2015/nielsen-global-trust-in-advertising-report-september-2015.pdf

http://sandbox.break.com/acumen/Acumen%20Constant%20Content__ExecSum%20Booklet_Final2.pdf

https://www.searchenginejournal.com/form-emotional-connections-influencer-marketing/165252/