Influencer Trends Report

As the year comes to a close, our influencer team gives one last gift of Five Big Trends. From news to reviews and LinkedIn to C-suite buy-in, What are the Top Five (+ One!) Influencer bits & bytes your organization needs to know? Have a read:?

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1. Influencers Influence Diversity. YouTube is helping advertisers connect with a more diverse pool of creators through a new “Inclusive Media Initiative.” The initiative, spearheaded by YouTube, Pixability, and Whalar, allows YouTube creators to self-select how they identify regarding race, ethnicity, sexuality, gender, and disabilities. Because generating ad revenue for diverse creators is far more difficult in comparison to other creators who identify as white, straight, and/or cisgender, a streamlined process like the “Inclusive Media Initiative” may help advertisers understand creators with multiple identities and experiences, and more significantly understand the impact of their audiences.? ?
2. Influencers Influence Regulation? At the pinnacle of the industry, top creators enjoy millionaire status, benefiting from lucrative partnerships with advertisers that afford them the luxury of selecting brands strategically and achieving a balanced workload. However, the vast majority of creators, positioned in the lower mid-tier to micro-level range, lack institutional support and operate without any assurance that their content will yield a steady income. With no established laws or regulations, smaller creators find themselves continuously striving to elevate the quality of their content, adapt to cultural shifts, and maintain marketability in the absence of a safety net. Until the creator economy is formally acknowledged as a legitimate workforce by entities like the U.S. Census Bureau, smaller creators will persist in their efforts to ensure a successful and profitable career by staying adaptable and responsive to the dynamic nature of the industry.???
3. Influencers influence LinkedIn. LinkedIn’s unique algorithm offers organic visibility for sponsored posts, as most LinkedIn users are already looking to consume content focused on sharing knowledge and insights on specific topics. The platform holds the ability to make sponsored content feel organic within every user’s feed, resulting in a much larger reach compared to other platforms. This has attracted B2B advertisers to leverage LinkedIn creator partnerships. Utilizing text-based content, HootSuite produced its most successful influencer campaign to date, “earning more than 1.2 million impressions, some 5,600 link clicks, and more than 18,800 engagements,” as outlined by Fast Company. LinkedIn relies heavily on long-term partnership structures, which transform creators into subject experts, which further empowers their sponsored content and messaging.? ?
4. Influencer Influence the C-Suite. Influencers have a knack for articulating messages and creating authentic relationships with their audiences. For C-Suite executives to gain a similar influence, they must look toward the unique abilities content creators possess and enact those strategies in their own campaigns for change. They must cultivate authenticity to foster trust, listen to their audience and build a sense of community. This can be done by embracing vulnerability, sharing their own personal journey, and outlining their apprehensions and aspirations - creating a deeper connection with their employees. Most importantly, executives must focus their message on a dedicated subset to spark change among their workforces.?
5. Influencers Influence the News. Consumers today are more likely to turn to social media influencers for news than traditional news outlets. This shift is driven by consumer desire for more accessible, informative, and entertaining news formats, as well as the increased distrust around traditional news outlets like CNN, Fox, and New York Times. Creators, on the other hand, have a unique ability to deliver news in a more palatable way to consumers, providing resources, visuals, and explanations that the everyday person can better digest, creating a deeper trust between the creator and their audience. Gathering news from influencers can be highly beneficial, as most influencers tend to do mass amounts of research and provide many different perspectives on important topics. However, the opportunity for the spread of misinformation also increases if consumers follow the wrong creators, who are not looking to inform their audience but sway them to a specific opinion. When looking at creators as news outlets, practicing media literacy is imperative.? ?+1. Influencers Influence Reviews. Amazon is encouraging shoppers to post influencer style content in place of product reviews, to promote collaborative shopping within its app. This TikTok-inspired content feed will be a place where consumers can ask for feedback on purchases, find detailed product reviews, or even watch try-on hauls before deciding to purchase. The intention of in-app collaborative shopping is to create a sense of community among Amazon shoppers while tailoring their shopping experience specifically to individuals. This could potentially pull away consumers from utilizing other apps like TikTok and Instagram as ways of online shopping.? Amazon’s homepage already tracks a person’s shopping history and creates custom recommendations just for them. But now, customers will be able to consume content and other user pages via the collaborative shopping tab that improves their specific feed the longer they shop and interact with other consumer content.?

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In short, Influencer Influence continues to impact our lives and businesses in new, ever-more engaging ways. If you or your organization would like more information about any of these Influencer Trends & Headlines, please reach out to Kayla Fortin . Thank you for an amazing year and Happy Holidays from the Access Influencer Team.??