Thought Piece: Influencer Marketing is the Most Effective Social Media Marketing
Have you ever been scrolling through your timeline on Instagram and see your favorite celebrity wearing the cutest pair of sunglasses that you need, so you head to the tag and go look to see if you should get yourself a pair?
This is the reason why Influencer Marketing on Instagram is so effective. It is way more effective than advertising by companies in my opinion.
An Instagram Influencer is someone who has shared their lives for their audience to see over social media. The audiences trust and respect people and let them influence their consumer decisions! That is why influencer marketing is so effective!
When looking through your feed you are going to notice when someone you like to follow pops up! And you are going to look at the photo and caption because you care to see what they have to say.
Say you are a big fan of soccer; you are following all the major soccer players of the world on their Instagram accounts. But even these major celebrities are still Influencers. Below is Cristiano Renaldo posting about an online university, nothing to do with his soccer career but companies will pay him to post because of his following.
Another reason why influencer marketing works is that its audience trusts the person. When it is coming from someone, they look up to it seems a lot more genuine. A lot of companies will send influencers their products for free so that they will give them a try and tell their audience their opinion!
According to Forbes, “for content to feel genuine, it must “fit the feed” and complement the influencer’s content and personality in a way that makes sense.” For influencers like above Emma Chamberlin posting about skincare is very on-brand for her audience and people trust her opinion on skin products so it would influence them to go shop the brand.
Another reason why this type of marketing is so effective is that by someone whose audience fits your brand’s specific audience it is much easier to have them post because you are engaging with a very specific target market. Young girls ages 15-25 who listen to Taylor Swift are going to be influenced greatly if she posts her favorite place to go, food to eat, or anything she sells.
In the end, we need to stay informed that our favorite influencers could be selling us something without us even knowing it. A post with just an item in the back could make hundreds or thousands of dollars. CNBC reported that “an influencer with over a million followers can reportedly make more than $250,000 per post from brands”.
Who would you trust more when posting about a product they love, a company, or a celebrity?