Who do you turn to when you need any recommendations or opinions on let’s say a new brand or a new trend? Some of us might seek out expert advice or some might seek friends, but most of us go to the “Influencers”.
Influencers are those who have a high social media following and are well versed in their field. It can be any field ranging from shopping, make-up, and lifestyle to exploring new and bizarre places to eat. They have a high following on multiple social media platforms. Anyone can be an influencer, a model, an actor, someone famous in a specific field or anyone with enough knowledge and the ability to grasp people’s attention. However, we must not confuse influencer sponsorships as celebrity endorsements.
Being an influencer means that you have the power to reach many people at once. People listen to you and want to follow you. This gives influencers’ power, the power of persuasion – A power that almost all brands are now yielding. Every brand wants to sponsor the biggest influencer to market their product. It seems easy, find the right influencer, tell them about your product, have them tell their followers about your product, and be done with it. However, the process is not as simple as it seems. When it comes to advertising, a brand must be very careful about what image it projects to the viewer. Whatever the views and beliefs of the influencer are, they would be associated with the brand as well. This puts a certain pressure on the influencers as well.
“Influencers are a whole new kind of currency,” said Lyle Stevens, chief executive officer for Mavrck, an influencer marketing firm in Boston that he founded with two other Northeastern graduates, Sean Naegeli and Chris Wolfel.
The brand with the biggest influencer gets the most viewership and deep market penetration. They are now equivalent to big assets to a firm.
Anushka Singh