Are Social Media Influencers changing the Marketing Sphere?

Who hasn’t heard of the phrase ‘a picture is worth a thousand words’?

With over a billion people around the globe engaged in social media in one way or another, the relevance of the phrase is without compare.

Digital marketing has incomparable reach. It has paved the way for social media influencers to have a strong voice in endorsements.

Who is a Social Media Influencer?

A social media account that has been successful in establishing its credibility in the chosen niche or a specific industry is categorised as a social media influencer. While it applies to all social media pages, it is immensely popular with the Instagram platform.

There is no hard and fast rule to becoming a social media influencer. The only criteria being that the content they produce has to be something that a large part of the audience relates to. The number of followers an influencer has, directly correlates to the number of brands that will approach them.

But why is it possible for these influencers to have such an impact or their viewers? — Is it only because Social Media Influencers have a wide reach?

Is social media influence actually effective? Do marketers really benefit out of them? Or whether the audience take them seriously?

The answer is a resounding YES! These social media influencers are changing the way marketing strategies are drafted because these influencers are now reaching the people directly and making an impact.

Here are some of the critical reasons, why Social Media Influencers CANNOT be ignored:

1. Niche: Influencers have managed to establish themselves in their chosen niche. They churn out content which works towards them gaining popularity and trust from their audience. The niche-specific products have a huge advantage of getting picked up by the audience.
2. Relatability: Influencers produce content that an audience relates to in some way or another. It creates a bond between them and makes them open to the influencer’s content.
3. Unusual strategy: Influencers create their usual content while incorporating the product into it. Rather than build an entire advertisement promoting a product, influencers usual create content as per the norm and just mention the product once or twice.
4. Effectiveness: In comparison to traditional advertisements, an influencer’s channel offers the audience an immediate chance to get a review on the product. The human sentiment is to believe word-of-mouth reviews. The audience can gauge the real reaction of the influencer by comparing their performance with previous videos.
5. Feedback: Unlike paper media or advertisements, the feedback on the influencers channel is immediate. The audience can ask questions and share their love or indifference for the product instantaneously.
6. Likability: Unlike celebrities with whom the audience feels a distance, most of the influencers today are common people who gained followers through their content. In recent times there is a lack of trust among the audience regarding the genuine nature of celebrities.

TAKEAWAY

How volatile is this social media influencers’ market? How long is this influence going to last? Hard to say, but for what it’s worth if you’re spending time in reading or watching what even one of these influencers have to say; you too are influenced by social media and some brand is getting benefitted because of it.

So yes, social media influencers are definitely edging their craft in the minds of the followers and as long as they are able to do that, marketers HAVE to include them as key players in their marketing sphere.