INFLUENCER MARKETING

Out with the old influencers, in with new and more authentic ones

By our News Team | 2021

Your most powerful influencers aren’t who you think they are. The flashy – and expensive – ones are giving way to ‘real’ people.

You can’t deny that influencing where we shop and what we buy is big business. It made sense originally, when content creators were building strong communities and their advice felt genuinely valuable. They were relevant to their followers. 

But as the world of social media expanded and authentic creators became harder to come by, the attraction of this marketing channel has begun to slowly fade. It may be because these self-appointed social media ‘stars’ are losing their grip on the very thing that gave them influence in the first place: their audience’s trust. 

But the costs associated with using traditional influencers are rising, social media trends change by the day, and the benefits of an influencer strategy are increasingly hard to measure. It’s far from a foolproof marketing strategy.

What is the alternative?

Influencer marketing

Image by Gerd Altmann from Pixabay

Enter the new, more reliable influencers: your existing customers. Face-to-face recommendations are always the most popular and trusted way to share products, brands stories and endorsements. More than any Instagrammer with blindingly white teeth and a discount code, daily conversations are where the most genuine brand recommendations come from.

Research by UK-based marketing industry media outlet, The Drum, has found that almost 60% of people are more likely to buy a product recommended by a friend or family member than by a celebrity or social media creator. 

When it comes to influencing, it’s the people you know who have the real power. So traditional influencers are losing more and more… influence.

Nearly two-thirds of people aged 18-44 don’t trust what influencers promote on their social channels. Over half of consumers prefer following everyday social media users to influencers. 

In the UK, more than half of Instagram influencers were found to have engaged in online fakery such as buying followers, likes and comments. Some content creators were even found to be swindling money out of the brands they work with. 

According to studies by advertising and media giant Ogilvy, one in four influencers in the UK have engaged in fraud against brands. 

This makes choosing an appropriate influencer even tougher for marketing executives and their agencies


Source: The Drum, UK

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