The Phenomenon Of Influencers On Social Networks

Globalization has led to the phenomenon of influencers on social networks and it is even affecting the way people understand marketing.

Ad saturation added to the heyday of social networking changed the paradigm and companies had to devise new actions to reach consumers. This is where the influencers come into play.

An influencer is someone with a social media account and a community of followers they can influence. People see them as new actors in a company’s marketing strategy that wants to convey a more credible message.

Influencers, or influencers, can be traditional celebrities, but there are also bloggers, YouTubers and Instagrammers who can bring the brand’s message to a larger segment of the market. They also help companies reach their niche market directly. So they are quite relevant today.

The advent of social networks created a panorama in which the opinion of each user can generate an ideological current and create a new language. The aim of this article is to examine this phenomenon that moves more than a billion euros. A phenomenon in which more than 20 million people work worldwide.

What are influencers on social networks?

We all have the ability to exert influence to a greater or lesser degree. However, an influencer is able to transfer certain information to multiple spheres of influence. These people reach multiple online communities, media, other influencers and, most importantly, the end consumer.

The ability to communicate and keep in touch with their followers is one of their most important skills. The influencer must know their audience and the language they use. They need to know how to adjust their message. Remember that the influencer’s communication model is bi-directional and creates space for dialogue.

So they also have the ability to build trust and reciprocity. That is the ability to convey closeness and create lasting relationships. Showing empathy and similarities with followers is the key to influencing them.

The ability to create a trend is the most important characteristic of an influencer. This person must be able to convince a customer to buy, consume and recommend a product.

For all of this, the influencer must be able to tell stories and create content (videos, images, articles and opinions). Everything is while maintaining a certain level of quality and arousing the interest of the audience they want to reach.

The influencer phenomenon – between fraud and numbers

Let us also emphasize the dangers of this phenomenon. It’s pretty easy to take advantage of people’s ignorance. Here are two cases that show the dangers of it all.

A paradigmatic story is that of the Instagrammer Arii. She is a girl with more than 2.6 million followers who decided to launch a clothing line but was unable to sell more than 36 shirts.

This demonstrates that the number of followers a person has does not always translate into a loyal audience or potential customers. For example, there are tools that allow you to buy followers to become a fake influencer.

Another very notable case was that of the Fyre Festival (English link), an event that was publicized by several influencers.

It consisted of a beach, supermodels and an island in the Bahamas that belonged to Pablo Escobar. The tickets were sold for 4,000 euros. All tickets were sold out within 48 hours. However, it was all fake news.

Despite these dangers , 49% of consumers seek buying advice from influencers on social networks, according to a survey conducted by Twitter in 2016. In addition, 20% said they bought something after seeing an influencer’s tweets.

This research also shows that politics, society and fashion are the areas most affected by this type of marketing. The most used social networks are Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.

Conclusion

So you could say that the phenomenon of influencers in marketing is a viral event for consumers and businesses. Consumers prefer to put their trust in a person who provides a good argument for buying a product, even if they don’t know this person personally.

Companies have therefore made the decision to invest time and money in a new marketing strategy, which uses influencers within the promotion and communication strategy.

However, it is important to find the right influencer at a brand. Otherwise your investment will be of little use. In addition, companies could lose confidence in the brand.