Written by: Roman Tilahun
What is Influencer marketing?
In today’s world the rapid expansion of social media networks such as Twitter, Facebook, Instagram and YouTube have created a new breed of influencers: these are individuals who have high online status and the power to influence consumer purchase behavior of a brand’s target audience (Liu et al. 2016). Influencer marketing is the basis of word-of-mouth recommendation, which leverages the power of social media influencers such as bloggers, Instagrammers, YouTube stars and Snapchatters to reach out to brand’s target market through the influencer’s large follower base (Waller, 2016).
The growth of social media has also offered consumers with vast amount options to gain information on products and services. As one of the biggest content marketing trends of 2016, Influencer marketing is being recognized as an important marketing strategy in social media. Brands are using influencers to bring creativity to their marketing in order to expose a product or service to wide set of potential customers (Williamson, 2016) as it has the ability to connect with customers in a more natural way (Rogers, 2016).
The concept of Influencer marketing is broad. This blog post is going to focus on how brands utilize influencers and increase visibility on social media.
Keywords: Influencer marketing, Social media marketing, Social media marketing strategy, Online marketing strategies
Influencer marketing and social media
Over the past couple of year’s, market communication strategies and how consumers collect and exchange information have been changing dramatically due to the shift to social communication networks (Hennig-Thurau et al., 2010). Social media is used as one of the marketing strategies that are used to build long term relation ship with customers (Soyoung et al., 2016).
The decline of traditional marketing strategies such as television commercials and print ads, made marketers recognize the significance of social media to capture the online audience. As more companies identified the extensive effect and the high growth of marketing with digital media influencers, brands are looking to the popular social networks and platforms such as Facebook, Instagram and YouTube to obtain competitive marketing advantage by reaching to millions of consumers (Asano, 2016).
Data from Statista (2015) shows the fastest growing social media and messaging apps. According to the report Snapchat has increased by 45%, Instagram has grown by 43%, Pinterest by 40%, and Facebook by 28% in terms of user base in 2015. This rapid expansion of social media platforms supports the fact that companies need to effectively market their brands through influencers on social media (Barker, 2016a).
The emerging of influencer marketing in social media creates different possibilities. It opens up a new platform for brands to directly communicate with customers. Brands can magnify their message by developing branded content with social media influencers while attracting their target group. It has also an important impact over the perception of brands and companies (Talavera, 2015)
Why Brands need influencers?
Recommendation:
According to a survey conducted by (McKinsey, 2010), words of mouth produce more than twice the sales of paid advertising. Meaning that recommendation has an impact at the point of purchase. By using Influencer marketing strategy, brands can leverage the power of word of mouth through social media personalities (Talavera, 2015), (Liu et al. 2016)
Trust:
People trust influencers more than brand content. Adweek report from twitter research states that 47% of consumers purchase an item based on influencer recommendation (Swant, 2016).
Another study, which is conducted in United States, also states that more teens trust top social media influencers even more than well-known mainstream celebrities (Ault, 2015).
Reach:
The continuing trend in the growth of social media platforms increases the significance of influencer marketing. It helps brands reach out to millions of their target group (Swant, 2016).
Authenticity:
Influencers are not pushing out ads. When they deliver contents to their followers it comes off more genuine and organic (Trapp, 2015), (Rogers, 2016).
People are blocking ads
Based on the data conducted by Adobe and PageFair, more than 198 million people actively use ad blocking around the world. Which means global ad blocking has grown by 41%. The report also states that publishers lost around $22 billon due to ad blocking in 2015. This indicates that marketers should move to other strategy to gain customer trust.
Your Competitors are spending on it:
59% of the 125 participating marketers see influencer marketing as a significant advertisement tool and are willing to spend more money on it (Tomoson, 2015).
However, the question remains: how can brands use influencers to win social media?
How brands can use Influencer to win social media?
How can companies increase brand visibility, especially in today's media landscape where dozens of new platforms arriving each year? Most existing companies scrambling to stay ahead of the game with new features and innovations. How can brand breakthroughs the social media culture? The answer is the perfect mix of a great idea, the right influencer with established followers in the area of brands target group, and a strategically executed campaign that contain messaging that stays true to the brands value.
Brands can be able to integrate their social media marketing strategy with influencers using different ways:
Co-create Engaging content:
Content co-creation is about recognizing the audience as part of the brand. It is about finding a relevant influencer and then collaborating on authentic story (Rogers, 2016). Brands should allow influencers to use their creativity while keeping the appropriate brand message. According to a Crowdtap’s poll, How to Navigate a Successful Influencer Marketing Program, which involves 50 content creators, 76% of the respondents said they are more likely to work with a brand that gives them creative and editorial freedom than competitive compensation.
An example of co-created content is the series of videos travel vlogger jack Harris of JacksGap created in collaboration of Marriott Hotel’s to inspire young audiences. The YouTube star that has over 4 million YouTube subscribers was able to provide Marriott-branded content to a large audience. The content has received more than 800,000 views (Barker, 2016c).
Figure 1. JacksGap’s Marriot-branded video screenshot
Another example can be the Hawaiian tourism authority Instagram campaign that featured top Instagrammers including Jordan Hershel to showcase Hawaiian experience. The aim of the campaign was to attract first time visitors (Barker, 2016c).
Figure 2 Collaboration of instagrammer @jordanherschel and Hawaiian tourism authority to showcase Hawaiian experience. Source: (Barker, 2016b)
The One-Off
One-Off marketing with social media influencers involves using the influencer’s fan base towards the brands latest product or services (Asano, 2015).
One example of One-Off marketing is promotion codes. Brands can create unique discount codes to the influencers the brand working with. Then the influencer promotes the product to their social media followers. In this way, the company can easily track the influencers’ contribution to the campaign.
The screenshot below shows MISSPAP clothing partnering with Instagrammer/ YouTuber Jayde Pierce, who posted an image of herself wearing a dress from the brand together with a special discount code. The influencer who has more than 700 thousand followers help expose the brand to her audience as well as encourage her followers to make a purchase.
Figure 3. Collabration of Instagrammer/Youtuber Jayde Pierce with MISSPAP clothing.
Deeper partnership
In depth partnership with social influencers includes long-term commitments through out the entire campaigns. The brand might also feature the influencer as an official brand ambassador. The partnership between CoverGirl and YouTuber Ingrid Nilsen can be an example. The YouTuber who currently has over 4 million subscribers was named “CoverGirl’s Glambassador” on 2014 (Asano, 2015).
Figure 4. Video tutorial on CoverGirl by Ingrid Nilsen screenshot
The challenges with Influencer Marketing
Based on a survey published by Fashion and Beauty Monitor, which polled over 300 marketing professionals in both industries, based in UK and US six challenges of influencer marketing have been identified (see Figure 1).
One of the biggest challenges is identifying influencer. 73% of the respondents admit that identifying the right influencer is the greatest challenge and time commitment. This is because there is lack of appropriate tool and resources that is used to identify influencers.
The second biggest challenge is measuring the effectiveness of the investment. 65% of respondents struggle to justify the investment.
According to the survey, the third biggest challenge is engaging influencers. 59% of respondents say gaining an influencer’s attention and being able to engage them is an ongoing challenge.
Figure 5. Challenges in working with influencers by Fashion and Beauty Monitor
Conclusion
In the world of social media, marketers should change the way to communicate with their target audience. Companies should constantly innovate their marketing campaigns to stand out in an increasingly competitive market. Influencer marketing must be viewed as a great addition to their existing content marketing efforts as it generate revenue while expanding reach. However, Identifying the right influencer is not enough. Brands should utilize influencers in an effective way not only to build trust and brand awareness with their followers but also to drive action.
References
Hennig-Thurau, T., Malthouse, E.C., Friege, C, Gensler, S., Lobschat, L., Rangaswamy, A. Skiera, B (2010). The Impact of New Media on Customer Relationships. Journal of Service Research, 13(3), pp 311-330
Liu, S., Jiang, C., Lin, Z., Ding, Y., Duan, R. and Xu, Z. (2015). Identifying effective influencers based on trust for electronic word-of-mouth marketing, 306, pp 34-52.
Rogers, C. (2016). WHAT'S NEXT FOR INFLUENCER MARKETING?. Marketing Week, pp16-18.
Soyoung, K., Martinez, B., McClure, C., Soo Hyun kim. (2016),
eWOM Intentions toward Social Media Messages, Atlantic Marketing Journal, Atlantic Marketing Journal, 5(1), pp137-154
Waller, N. (2016). Beginner's Guide to ... Influencer Marketing. Creative Review, pp.12-13.
Web References
Asano, E. (2016). How Brands Market With Top Instagram Influencers. Available Online: http://mediakix.com/2016/03/brand-guide-to-working-with-top-instagram-influencers/#gs.vmrPWpU [Accessed 25 Nov. 2016].
Asano, E. (2015). TOP SOCIAL MEDIA INFLUENCERS SERIES 2015, Available Online: http://mediakix.com/2015/07/top-social-media-influencers-2015-series/#gs.G4locY8 [Accessed 25 Nov. 2016].
Ault, S. (2015), Digital Star Popularity Grows Versus Mainstream Celebrities. Available Online: http://variety.com/2015/digital/news/youtubers-teen-survey-ksi-pewdiepie-1201544882/, [Accessed 26 Nov. 2016].
Barker, S. (2016a) 5 Reasons Why Influencer Marketing Shouldn’t Be Ignored. Available Online: https://socialmediaweek.org/blog/2016/03/5-reasons-influencer-marketing-shouldnt-ignored/, [Accessed 26 Nov. 2016].
Barker, S. (2016b), 4 Successful Influencer Campaigns You Can Model. Available Online: http://www.socialmediaexaminer.com/4-successful-influencer-campaigns-you-can-model/, [Accessed 26 Nov. 2016].
Barker, S. (2016c), 6 Ways to Integrate Social Media and Influencer Marketing. Available Online: http://www.socialmediatoday.com/marketing/6-ways-integrate-social-media-and-influencer-marketing/, [Accessed 26 Nov. 2016].
Mckinsey (2010) A new way to measure word-of-mouth marketing. Available Online: http://www.mckinsey.com/business-functions/marketing-and-sales/our-insights/a-new-way-to-measure-word-of-mouth-marketing, [Accessed 25 Nov. 2016].
Statista (2015), Fastest growing social and messaging apps worldwide as of 1st quarter 2015. Available online: https://www.statista.com/statistics/381933/messaging-social-app-user-growth/ [Accessed 25 Nov. 2016]
Swant, M. (2016) Twitter Says Users Now Trust Influencers Nearly as Much as Their Friends How brands are taking advantage of the trend. Available Online: http://www.adweek.com/news/technology/twitter-says-users-now-trust-influencers-nearly-much-their-friends-171367, [Accessed 25 Nov. 2016].
Talavera, M (2015) 10 Reasons Why Influencer Marketing is the Next Big Thing. Available Online: http://www.adweek.com/socialtimes/10-reasons-why-influencer-marketing-is-the-next-big-thing/623407#disqus_thread [Accessed 25 Nov. 2016].
Tomoson (2015), Influencer Marketing Study. Available Online: http://blog.tomoson.com/influencer-marketing-study/, [Accessed 26 Nov. 2016].
Trapp, F. (2015), Instagram Ads vs. Influencer Marketing: Deciding What’s Best for Your Brand. Available Online: http://www.adweek.com/socialtimes/instagram-ads-vs-influencer-marketing-deciding-whats-best-for-your-brand/624838, [Accessed 26 Nov. 2016].
Williamson, D.A (2016). How Brands Can Work with Creator-Influencers.
Five Keys to Effective Influencer Marketing. Available Online: http://adage.com/article/digitalnext/brands-work-creator-influencers/302919/ [Accessed 25 Nov. 2016].