Influencer Marketing has been a big thing for marketers. As marketers ourselves, we always read articles not to only better ourselves, but also to share with our readers. One article by Brightedge gave us ideas to kick off this blog about what an influencer is and why is influencer marketing is important.
What is a social media influencer?
A social media influencer is a person who is widely recognized as an expert with style and has a loyal following. People believe in their beliefs; thus, their endorsements carry a lot of weight. Experts with a big social influence and presence on social media are becoming increasingly popular.
What is influencer marketing and why is it important?
Modern marketing requires a high level of trust. Customers trust ‘earned media,’ such as reviews and recommendations, more than any other sort of promotion, according to Nielsen. Influencer marketing recognizes the need for consumers to trust and see recommendations.
Because people already follow the influencers and view them as thought leaders in their field, the brand recommendations they make are extremely valuable.
Influencer Marketing at Work
You may tap into an influencer’s power and create your own brand when you form a relationship with them. Influencers can assist market you and your company in a variety of ways.
- They may enjoy or share the stuff you share on social media, increasing your social influence.
- They may be able to provide you with blog post space on their website.
- They have the option of endorsing you on their own networks.
The more personal the influencer’s endorsement, the more value it will have for your efforts. Contractors or an influencer agency can help you locate the greatest influencers for your brand or business. Working with an influencer agency could help you establish a more structured relationship.
How are influencers different from the KOLs?
According to influencermarketinghub.com, “Influencers can be key opinion leaders and vice versa. However, there is no need for the two roles to overlap.
There have been key opinion leaders for virtually as long as humans could speak. Many key opinion leaders actively avoid the internet because they have little spare time to devote to it. Some consider social media a massive waste of their time. There is no requirement that KOLs to operate any social account or have any followers. They just need recognition for having expertise on a topic.
There are probably many small towns, where the local population unofficially treats their doctor as a KOL, just because of respect for his or her work. If people have health problems, they will immediately go to their GP for assistance. If the local paper wants to know the effect of some local medical issue, they too will unquestionably go to the doctor for advice.
Similarly, many university professors are accorded KOL status by virtue of their title. If somebody wants advice on the importance of a newly unearthed historical artifact, they will often go to the local History Professor for assistance and a soundbite.
Of course, no one saying that KOLs can’t spend time online, and gain influence. Many authors have followed that route. Stephen King clearly is a key opinion leader when it comes to horror writing. He made his name offline, by writing extremely popular novels. He has also made a name for himself amongst aspiring writers because of his seminal “how to write” book On Writing. Yet, that doesn’t mean he isn’t also an influencer. Stephen King has 5.15 million followers to his Twitter account, tweets regularly, and engages with his followers.
Another key difference between most key opinion leaders and influencers is one of geography. If somebody is accepted as being a KOL (and they don’t double up as an online influencer) their fame and recognition is probably restricted to a particular area. It may be a small town, a city, a state, or even a nation. The internet has no bounds, however. If people recognize you as being an influencer, you probably have fans across the entire globe.
An exception to this global differentiation, though, is with key opinion leaders who gained much of their fame on television. Like the internet, TV shows play across the world. So somebody like Gordon Ramsey, famous for his cooking shows (and almost as much for his colorful language) is renowned from the United States, to New Zealand and everywhere in-between where his shows play.”
Influencers’ tiers in Influencer marketing
- Nano-influencers: 1,000 – 10,000 followers
- Micro-influencers: 10,000 – 50,000 followers
- Mid-tier influencers: 50,000 – 500,000 followers
- Macro-influencers: 500,000 – 1,000,000 followers
- Mega-influencers: 1,000,000+ followers
Brands & Their Influencer Marketing
The brand should create campaign goals at the start of any influencer marketing effort. What do you hope to accomplish with influencer marketing? This will have a huge impact on the type of individual you hire to market your campaign.