Influencers and AI: How They’re Changing the World

Artificial intelligence has made huge leaps in terms of capability and the general public’s awareness of its existence in the past couple of years. AI isn’t just something that shows up in science fiction anymore; it’s actually real, and you’re using it every day without realizing it (think Amazon Alexa or Siri). But what exactly is AI? And how does it relate to marketing? Why do we need influencers? Learn more about the connection between these two ideas, how they are changing our world and where we can expect them to go from here.

What does it mean to be an influencer?

An influencer is an individual with micro or large following on social media who posts opinions or recommendations about products and services. Many businesses and marketers turn to these individuals to promote their brands because there’s a high correlation between someone seeing an influencer’s post about a brand (such as eating at Joe’s Diner for lunch today!) and actually deciding to eat at Joe’s Diner for lunch. Using influencers to market products has been around since television advertising was invented—but in recent years, it has grown into a multi-billion dollar industry. Some companies have found success by paying Instagram influencers thousands of dollars per post—and those are just regular people with only hundreds of followers! If you want your company to reach its full potential in digital marketing, you need to know how to leverage influencers for maximum impact. There are many ways to find and engage with influencers without spending millions of dollars.?

Here are a few ways to get started:?

1. Find Influencers via Your Network when you first start out; finding and engaging with influencers can seem like a daunting task—how do you identify which people have influence? Whom should I follow? What if they don’t respond? Depending on your budget and objective, I recommend starting with Instagram in your local city. For example, let’s say you run a Joe’s Diner restaurant. If you live in San Antonio, begin by searching for San Antonio restaurants. You will likely see lots of accounts related to food and dining; explore each account until you find one that seems relevant to your business goals.?

2. Build Your List Once; you’ve identified a few influencers, be sure to add them to your list. Some great tools for doing so include BuzzSumo and Followerwonk.?

3. Engage With Them; now that you have a list of relevant influencers, it’s time to take action! Start by reaching out personally through email or direct message on Instagram. Do not try to offer them free services/products in exchange for a shout-out - this tactic no longer works.?

4. Listen to Their Needs After; you’ve engaged with an influencer, it’s important to listen. Did they ask for more information about your product? Are they looking to collaborate with other brands? Keep track of what you learn from each conversation. This information could lead to new partnerships, joint ventures, and new opportunities.?

5. Lock your deal, make sure you understand their agreement and keep track of referrals.?

How is AI disrupting industries?

Artificial intelligence isn’t a small part of technology. Today, it touches all aspects of life, from your phone to education to politics. The amount of resources dedicated to artificial intelligence has increased exponentially in recent years, with serious money being poured into AI research. As time goes on, we’ll see more industries disrupted by advances in AIs as different companies look for ways to improve their productivity. We’re already seeing some of these changes happen today. For example, many small businesses use AI in day-to-day tasks. AI has been a tremendous help in digital marketing, from automation to research.?Google hired an AI?researcher that had previously worked at DeepMind—an AI company that Google acquired in 2014. That researcher is now using his expertise to make Google products better. And he’s not alone; there are plenty of other examples where AI is helping to shape our world. It seems like every industry will be touched by AI eventually. There are still plenty of challenges ahead for those working on advancing AIs, but there’s no doubt that they will continue to change how we live our lives. Have you implemented AI in your business?

Can you describe how people will benefit from this shift?

A big shift is happening in digital marketing, one that few people seem to be talking about. Influencer marketing platforms are now taking over all aspects of digital media, and it’s going to cause a fundamental shift in how brands market their products online. From AI to the never-ending influencing world, where do we go? There are pros and cons to everything, but what are the benefits of using AI or influencers? What does it mean for marketers? What does it mean for consumers? When you try to bring a new idea to your business, always think about how it will affect your employees and customers alike, just as you would with a new hire. AI may not be the right choice for you today, but it will definitely be a must in a few years because it will save you time and money. The same goes for influencers, not everyone is a fan, but some customers can’t get enough of them. With these thoughts, I encourage you to start researching now. The more you learn now, the better prepared you’ll be when it’s time to decide.

Influencer Marketing vs. AI Marketing

Can Influencer Marketing Help You Achieve Success? Influencer marketing and using influencers to promote your product or service are hot trends among marketers. It makes sense because, after all, it’s a low-cost marketing strategy (if you find the right people) that often yields excellent results. But what about AI marketing? Is there a place for AI in marketing? In short, yes—and it may even be more effective than influencer marketing. As AI advances and becomes more widespread, it will continue to take over tasks traditionally performed by humans. These include functions like data analysis, customer service, and sales forecasting. This means we can expect to see an increase in artificial intelligence (AI)-based technologies designed specifically for business use. Marketers are increasingly turning to chatbots and other forms of automation to streamline their efforts, improve efficiency, and increase productivity. That being said, it’s important to keep in mind that while some tasks might be automated, others won’t be—at least not anytime soon.?

What can we expect in the next five years?

Remember when marketing tactics and algorithms used to change yearly? Well... now it is weekly, if not daily. What has worked so great before doesn’t always now? Influencer marketing has become a huge topic of conversation in our industry, but with Artificial Intelligence (AI) being implemented into all aspects of our lives, we have to wonder what will be next? AI is everywhere, from Siri on your iPhone or Alexa on your Amazon Echo to self-driving cars and smart appliances and marketing content generated by AI platforms. The age of artificial intelligence has officially begun.

Here are some ways AI will affect influencer marketing over the next few years:

1. Socialbakers - is an AI-driven social media management platform for businesses. It uses data science to help brands optimize their influencer marketing campaigns by identifying, selecting, engaging with, and tracking influencers across all major social networks, including Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, YouTube, LinkedIn, and Pinterest. The company has also launched a tool that allows users to create their own automated influencer marketing campaigns called AutoPilot Influencer Marketing Campaigns.

2. Cortex - is a platform that helps brands discover, engage with, and activate social media influencers to help promote their products or services. The company’s mission is to help brands grow their businesses by using social media influencer marketing in a way that creates value for both brands and influencers.

3. Phrasee - is a company that uses artificial intelligence to help brands create more engaging content for their social media marketing campaigns. The company’s technology analyzes text, images, video, audio, and other data to identify brand-relevant influencers on social media platforms such as Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, YouTube, and Pinterest. It then identifies potential partnerships between those influencers and brands based on audience overlap and engagement potential.

4. Pattern89 - is an AI marketing tool that helps brands and agencies find, engage with, manage, track, optimize, and measure their influencer marketing campaigns across Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, YouTube, Pinterest, and LinkedIn. The company’s technology uses natural language processing to analyze text-based content on social media platforms to identify relevant influencers for brands’ marketing campaigns.

Don’t get caught up on the next shiny object, do your research, and listen to your customers. They will always tell you what they want from you.