The truth about influencer marketing
Credit to Author: KAYE VILLAGOMEZ-LOSORATA| Date: Sat, 29 Dec 2018 16:12:25 +0000
The year 2018 saw even greater shift of advertising budget to influencer marketing. The brand war was particularly focused on getting specific influencers that are supposed to reflect brand identity.
Brand marketing peeps are particularly obsessed with getting this or that influencer because they believe the person is influential enough to convert followers into customers.
This current state of the advertising world was inevitable since social media dethroned, not just print and radio, but the mighty television. We can understand the clamor because the channel these influencers use get automatic responses in the forms of like or comments. No waiting needed.
But is it really working? Is influencer X really converting his or her followers? When will we ever nail the formula that attributes actual monetary value to every influencer post?
Months back, Entrepreneur.com asked, “Are Influencers Worth Your Money?”
“Businesses can, of course, just buy ads that Instagram slips into the streams of its users’ photo feeds. But younger consumers are alarmingly adept at ignoring those. The ideal solution would be to infiltrate those streams not with ads but with the familiar, trusted voices of friends — who are also, as it happens, pushing the exact message you, the entrepreneur, want pushed,” said the article.
“Naturally, there has become such a thing as an Instagram influencer. A person, usually young and attractive, who creates a rich social media fantasy life, into which they will happily slip a glowing reference to your product in exchange for free stuff or a small fee. This allows you, as a business owner, to create an ad without hiring models or photographers. It also allows your potential customers to see your product not in the harsh light of some studio but in situ, in the glamorous life of an actual person,” continued the story.
Forbes reported that the real problem is rooted in the fact that most brands fail to get the right influencers. “No matter what your brand sells or who you sell to, there’s not a marketer alive who hasn’t struggled with one (or all) of the following challenges: Not having enough content to support all your audiences and channels; too much noise to break through and grab consumers’ attention; and an inability to cultivate an authentic and trusted brand identity.
“So, when influencer marketing came on the scene, billing itself as the solution to all of these challenges — arguably, the biggest obstacles facing marketers today — it’s no surprise brands far and wide jumped on the social influencer bandwagon. Marketers were quick to dedicate an increasing amount of budget, time and resources to build influencer campaigns, contract online personalities and procure influencer platforms to help find and manage this new strategic priority. The problem? These never were and still aren’t the influencers marketers should be focusing on.”
A report by Stackla said “only 23 percent of people believe content from celebrities and influencers is influential; alternatively, 60percent say content from friends or family influences their purchasing decisions.”
Forbes nailed it by saying: “As an industry, we’ve lost sight of the fact that social influencers are inherently inauthentic. Even if they’re true fans of your brand, the content they’re creating isn’t earned; it’s just a modern form of paid advertising and content.”
At the end of the day, the best influencers are still your customers. “As cliche as it may sound, your customers are your best marketers. This has been true for centuries. It’s why word of mouth has always been one of the most effective forms of marketing,” said Forbes.
When it comes to credibility, your market will spot a paid post vs an actual user’s post or review in an instant.
The author is a former broadsheet entertainment and lifestyle reporter and section editor for an entertainment magazine before crossing over to corporate and marketing PR.
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