026. Influencer Marketing – Fad or For Real? (Opinion)

Influencer Marketing – Fad or For Real?

As of late the spotlight has been pointed with increased scrutiny, right in the face of Influencer marketing. So, it’s understandable that business owners up and down the country are pondering whether what was once deemed as a fad is around to stay, and whether the money involved in a calculated influencer campaign could show a potential ROI.

For those who aren’t in the know when it comes to the influencer sector, essentially, companies are paying individuals to leverage their social media standing in order to sell products. Initially influencer marketing was something primarily in the fast fashion sector, with globally recognisable brands willing to pay the most successful influencers from £10,000 upwards for one social media post, it certainly isn’t for the faint-hearted. A well-structured campaign has been known to show massive amounts of ROI for those who are not wanting to stand still whilst the world moves around them.

We know cash is king but that being said, brand recognition can prove equally as valuable. The advantage of influencers over large scale celebrities is that influencers often have a loyal following who look forward to innovative and exciting new content on a daily basis.

Compared to the hordes of celebrity followers who simply follow someone because of their status. The flexibility of the influencer sector will always be appealing to brands, why? Well, as social media constantly evolves, as to do the ways a brand can be seen, for example, Instagram based fashion influencers are now making the most of the latest Instagram TV feature within the app, to show their followers how to style a product in a number of ways, rather than your traditional static image format.

Criticism has arisen in the sector, it’s obvious that influencer marketing does have some flaws. As the industry grows so do the number of companies selling budding influencers likes and followers, therefore creating figures that don’t accurately represent an influencers marketability. To address this problem, companies who are conducting a well-thought-out campaign will judge an influencers value by their engagement rate. Engagement rate is a metric that is worked out by calculating the amount of likes and comments against the number of followers a company or individual has. Therefore, creating a metric that allows cross-comparison regardless of company size or following.

What are some other worries? There are plenty of images out there where photoshop wizards have tweaked and twisted reality to make it look as aesthetically pleasing as possible and most of us don’t have a clue. Has editing ever made you question our decision to buy something? Maybe it’s us but we believe intuition and just the slightest hint of FOMO makes us buy something we like regardless. The adverts we have grown accustomed to for as long as we can remember have always been slightly enhanced and that’s something we have grown to accept…

Influencer marketing is here to stay. The variety of life is very much at play when it comes to social media, especially as we see Instagram gear itself towards removing likes from photos. Diversity is something we should embrace, and social media marketing does this more than any other sector. Our main piece of advice would be to go with a forward-thinking company who provides you all the details they possibly can, plan and plan again, and be prepared move constantly with the ebbs and flows of the industry.

Can Create8 help with your marketing needs? Get in touch with our team today, we’re happy to help.