Influencer marketing is becoming the next big thing in the social media industry. Brands are spending millions of dollars on influencers to help promote their product and increase brand awareness. In 2019, the influencer marketing industry was up to $8 billion dollars, whereas it is estimated by 2022 that it will be worth up to $15 billion dollars. Influencers mostly promote brands and products on a wide array of social media platforms like Instagram, YouTube, and Twitter. With technology advancing over time, it is now easier for influencers to reach more audiences. As the social media industry grows, so does the influencer industry.
So what is the hype about influencers? Influencers are an attraction to the millennial age and young teens during this generation. Most of these influencers are big celebrities, but some have originated from YouTube who has gained a lot of subscribers and views from their videos. Influencers have huge power over consumers’ purchase decisions, especially with a younger audience because influencers have the knowledge and relationship with their audience and know how to attract them. Most brands hire influencers to focus on business to consumer sectors. If a consumer sees an influencer using the product they are promoting, they will most likely purchase that product.
Influencer marketing has been a marketing tool for a number of years. It simply started off as celebrity endorsements on television. Celebrity endorsements started off when makeup started to become popular and from then, celebrities have been promoting all different brands and products from fashion to medication. Most influencers have particular niches that help certain brands hire specific influencers to help grow their brand name and to increase their audience. For example, Kim Kardashian is a big celebrity in the fashion and makeup industry. Since this is her niche market, most of her following will be an audience who is also into makeup and fashion, so a brand like Maybelline may ask her to promote their new mascara.
Influencers are not only big-name celebrities, but they can also be content creators, industry experts, bloggers or micro-influencers, which is someone who has the following range of 2,000 and up, on a particular social media channel. All social media platforms are useful for influencers to promote brands and products, but Instagram has a dominance for influencer marketing. Instagram allows influencers to post videos, stories and pictures of them using brands and products. With their new shopping tool within the app, this also allows consumers to purchase products when clicking on the ad. This tool helps direct consumers to the brand’s webpage for them to purchase the product. On average, businesses generate $6,50 for every $1 invested in influencer marketing and 49% of consumers depend on influencer recommendations.
Not all influencer marketing campaigns are positive. If a celebrity has recently been in trouble or has a bad reputation, consumers will most likely not purchase a product from that influencer. This type of situation has recently happened back in 2017 with a music festival called Fyre Festival. Many famous celebrities, artists and models were supposed to sponsor a music festival called Fyre Festival on a private island and hundreds of people purchased expensive tickets, booked plane flights and hotel rooms. It ended up being a disaster with artists backing out of the show, celebrities not showing up and accommodations that were promised to consumers not existing. After this disaster, consumers had trouble trusting celebrities who had promoted this festival and it was hard for these influencers to gain back trust from their audience.
Although sometimes brands run into trouble with some influencers, most brands that partner with influencers have a positive reaction. Successful influencer marketing techniques include Kate Hudson, partnering with Fabletics for her own workout clothing line, YouTubers becoming an influencer for SeatGeek who promote discounts for tickets and help increase brand awareness and sales and Chrissy Teigan becoming an influencer for BECCA Cosmetics and releasing her own makeup products. These examples of influencer marketing are positive outcomes that help a brand increase its awareness, sales, and audience.
Social Influencers are all around the world and all across different social platforms where they specialize in food, fashion or fitness. Here in New England social influencers range from specializing in sharing fashion trends, exposing the best Boston restaurants or simply sharing their favorite fitness workout. Check out the top five social media influencers in New England:
- Kiel James Patrick @kieljamespatrick- RI influencer who specializes in promoting the New England lifestyle.
- Svetlana Damiani @sdamiani – Boston influencer who shares her favorite food stops around the city
- Maggie Macdonald @maggiemacdonald- Boston lifestyle influencer who posts about her life as a college student in Boston
- Kathryn Nash @minibutmighty- Boston fitness coach who shares her secret fitness routines and favorite healthy meals
- Brian McWilliams @brianmcw- Travel social influencer who photographs his favorite New England spots during the changing season.
Overall, when a brand decides to invest in influencer marketing, it can lead to positive outcomes. An influencer can help grow audiences and boost traffic, increase brand awareness, build a brand’s credibility and create fresh content. In today’s digital age, influencer marketing has evolved tremendously and it will grow more due to the advancement of technology. At DDL Advertising, we can help assist our clients in using this social tactic in their media plans. DDL Advertising strives to help each client with their business needs, so contact us today!