Today, everyone knows of social media “influencers.” On Instagram, they have that big letter K or M next to their number of followers or maybe even the little blue circle with a check to signify they’re kind of a big deal. They have lots of followers, often team up with people sporting matching letters and checks and many follow posts with “#ad” or “#sponsored.” When you see that hashtag, it usually means those influencers are getting paid to promote whatever brand they are showcasing. In case you still don’t know what I am talking about:
These are all examples of influencer marketing which is becoming a huge asset for billions of brands around the world. According to Quora, 94% of brands said working with influencers was a success. It is undeniably true that social media plays an incredibly large role in our lives. In fact, the number of social media users worldwide in 2018 is 3.196 billion, up 13 percent year-on-year (Global Digital Report 2018). So why wouldn’t companies be using these social media mavens to market? People follow influencers for a reason. They actually care what these social media leaders think and do—and it shows. Teagen West explains, “84% of consumers make a purchase after reading about a product or service on a blog – that’s almost 9 in 10 people (scrunch.com).” Influencers have authority and the ability to impact so many people. They not only have a lot of people watching them, but have built trusted relationships with their followers and know how to engage the public on a personal level. A consumer review survey by BrightLocal found 88% of consumers are trusting online peer reviews more than traditional advertising which makes sense when you think about it. Wouldn’t you trust what your friends are saying to buy over what a brand is saying?
Many of you may think the idea of influencers is new but I hate to break it to you, influencers have been around for a long time. While the marketing sense of influencer is definitely newer, the word itself dates all the way back to the 1660s, when Henry More referred to ‘The head and influencer of the whole Church’ (Oxford Dictionary). Celebrities have long been used in campaigns and advertisements but social media allows people just like you and me to reach others and build a following, eventually becoming celebrities in their own right. Social media is rapidly growing so you can bet influence marketing will also grow as companies realize its power.
-Claira Carnevale
IMC Hawks Blog 
This is a very informative and well-written article. I agree that social media is equalizing the playing field–allowing people who are not famous in the traditional sense to become major influencers. It is a platform that allows anyone with talent to compete in this market. This allows the public to choose who succeeds and fails rather than being subjected only to celebrities who were ordained by someone else’s choosing.
I completely agree with your post. I think that most companies and brands rely solely on influencers getting their message or product across to the consumers. Having an influencer/celebrity wear a certain brand makes you want to wear it as well because many people look up to them as many of them set good examples. I think companies that are not incorporating this into their marketing strategy will fall behind the ones that are. Although, many companies may not benefit from the influence marketing right away they still have their foot in the door and I think this sets them up for success.
It really is amazing how must influence social media influencers have on their followers. It is also amazing that people you may have went to high school with are now being paid to post photos on Instagram wearing a brands clothes or holding their skincare products. Anyone can become an influencer in this day and age. We are constantly marketing ourselves even on social media and creating our own “brand”.
I think this post was very well written and gave a lot of goof information. I would have liked to know the percentage increase of using influencers since social media has started. There are a ton of different social media influencers and I would have chosen to stay away from Logan Paul. His name has lost a lot of respect and credibility since he posted that video of finding a dead body. I would not want my blog post to be associated with his name in any sort of way.
I found this post to be very interesting. Influencer marketing is very popular and is a good way for businesses to market to people thru social media. I like how you noted that people thought influencer marketing was a new thing and how social media is growing by thirteen percent each year. Influencer marketing is only going to keep increasing, so having someone who is famous is a smart tactic because it is going to be seen by a much larger audience.
This is a really accurate and well written article, I think this topic is so interesting. It’s crazy that today normal people can build up enough of a following through social media to be considered an ‘influencer’ and that their followers are actually influenced by them. I’ve experienced this in my own life when I find a really cool Instagram page of a person around my age, I’ll follow them and eventually it feels like I actually do know them, so whatever they promote I tend to trust their opinion; I’m not blindly following them though since I still consider my opinion on whatever they’re advertising.
Social media influencers have a great effect on this generation and those following. The idea of marketing on social media platforms is still evolving and is not fully developed yet. I personally like marketing and advertising on Instagram because I get a look at what people are using and buying. I expect big time followers to post ads and to partner with brands but I think it’s more interesting when ‘local influencers’ post to their sites/accounts. There are some smaller influencers here in Wilmington that I follow that I much rather read about than Selena Gomez telling us to drink a Coke.
Social media influencers have a great effect on this generation and those following. The idea of marketing on social media platforms is still evolving and is not fully developed yet. I personally like marketing and advertising on Instagram because I get a look at what people are using and buying. I expect big time followers to post ads and to partner with brands but I think it’s more interesting when ‘local influencers’ post to their sites/accounts. There are some smaller influencers here in Wilmington that I follow that I much rather read about than Selena Gomez telling us to drink a Coke.
This post was well put together and extremely informative. I like that more people are speaking up about the “influencer” trend that we’ve seen more prominently within the past couple of years. As a business owner, social media is a great way to reach out to your target audience. My only fear, being on the consumer side of social media is that most of these people are using their power in the wrong ways. I wish more people discussed how Jeffree Star, or others like him that are so brutally honest about products, that most companies refuse to send him PR packaging! I think his honesty builds a real relationship with his following, and it makes him stand out even more as an influencer. We need more people willing to step outside of the box, more people willing to speak about how they actually feel rather than being made into puppets for their sponsored companies, instilling their following with false reviews.
Great article! I really find the idea of influencer marketing interesting, and I feel like it is a resource that IMC will be heavily focusing on in the next few years. It is important for brands to understand how to utilize influencer marketing and how to target the right influencer. Social media celebrities become famous essentially by branding themselves, so marketers should look for an influencer with a brand congruent to their own.
I agree with this post. I believe that all brands and companies who rely on social media influencers for marketing products are the most effective way to make money and appeal to consumers. I have social media accounts, and when I see celebrities I look up to wearing a brand or using a cool new skin product, that makes me want to hop on my laptop or hop in my car and make a purchase. I think all companies can benefit from this because most people in today’s society are glued to their phones. Magazines and newspapers are dying off quicker and quicker because of cell phones. Celebrities/influencers are at the palm of our hands telling us what the next best thing to get is through pictures and videos and we as the consumers buy into it, and with the tap of our finger, we instantly can make that purchase.
In my own experience of social media use, I’ve come to realize that no matter the age of the influencer, the targeted audience almost always seems to be teens and young adults. This could just be based off my own personal feed, but the bigger social media platforms that are most widely used by millennials today, such as Instagram and Twitter seem to lack an older population. I would say that Facebook is the most largely used social media platform for adults, but I haven’t seen nearly as many influencers use this site compared to the others. That leaves me to wonder if older populations are targeted with different strategies than younger generations, or again, if this is just my own personal feed. I tend to see a much higher number of standard ads through Facebook than I do through any other platform. This could simply be due to the way the site works, where you only see content posted by your added “friends”, but Instagram works pretty similarly and I see much more marketing content posted on a daily basis.
I really enjoyed reading this post. It is really interesting to see truly how much influence social media influencers have in today’s society. I love makeup so I am constantly looking for reviews online. If I see an influencer review something well or rave about a product I often find myself wanting to go out and buy the product and test it for myself. I was not aware that 9 out of 10 people make a purchase after reading a good review online or seeing something that an influencer has reviewed. That is a lot of people but I am also not surprised because influencers are constantly promoting brands very successfully. This was a great post and very informative!
Very interesting article that clarifies this topic of influencers of social networks and particularly on Instagram which remains quite vague for the general public.
It is true that today, brands base a very significant percentage of their communications and promotions actions through social networks and that rightly so.
They do not hesitate to handsomely pay their influencers to properly promote their products.
It even comes to ask our friends and ourselves whether they buy a product for what it really is or because it is this or that personality who uses it..
Hello, this was an interesting post to read. I found the information written clearly and to the point on the topic you were writing about. Who would’ve thought that from selling news papers starting in the pennies, that people would be making thousands, even millions just from being a brand influencer. The only thing I could think of that may have made the article a little bit more interesting is if there were numbers and percentages of how much these influencers are actually making on a yearly to monthly basis. Other than that, nice post!