The Rise of Influencers
The Art of Digital Brainwashing
I recently came across a BBC article titled ‘I’m sick of influencers asking for free cake’ which were the words of renowned chef Reshmi Bennett who created quite a stir with her Instagram post complaining random influencers desperately asking for freebies to promote her cakes on Instagram. In the interest of those who are new to the world of online Influencing, any Social Media user with credibility in any particular product or service area, with a significant number of followers and an ability to manipulate them to act as per their advice can be termed as an ‘Influencer’. (In certain cases, this advice ends up to be a sort of relentless narcissistic preaching.) One of the classic ones being, quick sales pitches by trending YouTuber’s embedded within their videos. With an astronomic rise in usage of digital platforms since the pandemic, there is no debate over the fact that social media marketing is way more effective and penetrable than the traditional billboard advertising, boosting its market potential by fourfolds.
Mainstream film stars, sportspersons, entrepreneurs and many others with their so-called celebrity status with their huge base of loyal followers are ideal candidates for sponsored posts on multiple Social Media platforms or rather Gold Mines if you will. Depending on the celebrity status and trend levels, they could charge anywhere between the range of a few thousand to millions per post.
The societal influence they can bring related to brand awareness and creating a tribe culture within their fan-base is enormous. Take the Indian sporting apparel brand, HRx for instance. It is endorsed and owned by popular Bollywood superstar Hrithik Roshan, perceived as an epitome of handsomeness and fitness. During the lockdown, he started a group workout video posting trend on Instagram, where the users shared their workout video clips wearing and tagging HRx brand. A call for fitness, what the brand stands for along with the brand image was shared across the Instagram community using posts and statuses.
The food industry was no stranger to the presence of Influencers in recent months. Restaurant chains, Bars and Cafe owners closely collaborated with popular Social Media influencers, providing freebies in return for Vlogs showcasing their lip-smacking delicacies and emphasizing on hygienic food to be had, without any worries of the prevailing health situation. Food and lifestyle bloggers took over Twitter using some schemes like #EatOutToHelpOut with the intention of higher footfalls in the select restaurants. Travel and tourism is another niche area where upcoming hotels and resort chains provided free stay packages to the Influencer community for kickstarting their operations.
Numbers back up the impact of Influencing as clear as a crystal. The Nielsen survey showed 92% of the customers trust the Influencer promoted products over advertisements. As per the Twitter analytics survey, every time a celebrity tweeted positively regarding a product, about 40% of their followers purchased it. This is just behind purchase after a friend’s good recommendation, which is at 56%.
It is imperative to select the right influencer to boost the sales of your product or service. A thorough deep dive of their profile in the product or service domain, public perception of the person and recent trend analysis of customer behaviour in the specific segment would be the game-changer. The audience being their loyal followers clearly appreciate an unbiased review of the item they are trying to promote, with a personal touch making it even more appealing and relatable to them. The cosmetics product line, for example, is something that never fails to attract the female consumer base. When a popular celebrity having a common perception of being good looking, uploads a post with her actually applying the product, sharing the desired positive results along with a smooth storyline, the sales are going to jump skywards, more often than not. In essence, the art of Influencing elevates the traditional ‘Word of Mouth’ mode of marketing to another dimension, both psychologically and technologically.
With optimum use of SEO (Search Engine Optimization) techniques and precise use of trending Hashtags, this will eventually lead to more traffic on your website or application. As per Forbes, the diverse market of Influencing is said to touch 22 Billion Euros by 2022.
Not everything is ideal in the Influencer world though, like any other competitive business area. Last few years have seen the Influencer space getting over-crowded. Literally, any person with a smartphone can allegedly become an “Influencer” with hardly any know-how on the endorsed product or service. Eventually, it does take a toll on the credibility of those who take this line of work sincerely. Undoubtedly, Social Media influencing is here to stay. But the real grey area lies around whether this rapidly rising community of Influencers promote responsibly, keeping in mind the value addition for their loyal fan base or to just exploit the seamless power of social media for mere vanity.
“People influence people. Nothing influences people more than a recommendation from a trusted friend. A trusted referral influences people more than the best broadcast message. A trusted referral is the holy grail of advertising.”
— Mark Zuckerberg, CEO, Facebook
