Influencers are people with feelings too?
You remember when we were kids (for those of us 35 and above), we used to use words like ‘fad’ and ‘sweet’ to describe things that were cool and ‘in’?
The terms might have changed, but the behavior these words described haven’t.
Like all things new and exciting, fads fade and sweets sour.
This is not always because the ‘thing’ itself has lost its utility, but instead it was possibly overused, overheard, overplayed, overeaten, etc.
I guess it’s true that anything in excess draws inspiration to a quick climax, then suddenly becomes yesterdays news.
Thanks to news sites like Gawker Media and TMZ, the idea of news changed. Of course, they also helped create the birth of what we call ‘Influencers’ today. Social media helped a bit too (j/k, more like made it happen).
Don’t get me wrong; from the time of cavemen, influencers have always been there — innovating, driving creativity and ingenuity. But mostly to a close knit community of people where everyone knew everyone.
As media reach increased, so did that of influential people and now influencers who market.
Today, they tell us what to eat, where to party and what to fly and where to stay and how to dress.
They influence purchase at a higher rate than ever before.
And as is human nature, we find ways to quickly monetize everything that is remotely monetizable. Like sharing my weekend park trip on IG with my (pretend) 100K Instagram followers, someone out there things that having a can of branded soda in the picture will drive sales because ‘I influence’.
The principle backstory here is simple — we are influenced by people, especially those we know and trust. Take a degree of a step back and it’s people we know of and aspire to be like. As the degrees of separation increase, the farther and less effective influence becomes.
So the rise of the influencer remains successful between what you might call a middle layer that sits between 1st and 2nd degree influencers. The former being the more influential of the two. This is not a factor of followers, but of trust and relationship.
But before this becomes a fad, shouldn’t we also explore the ways we can sustain this strategy and make it go the distance? Instead of saturating the influencer market and go bananas for a quick win 1-hit strategy, consider a long-term series of hits that grow with time and patience. A strategy that builds a relationship between influencer and brand.
Most of the good influencers won’t touch a brand unless they believe in their product/service. This is a good filter, but not a standard across the industry. Some will do a shoutout, no matter their feelings towards the promoted object of presumable desire. Others will be picky and still charge an arm.
Next time you want to influence a promotion, think about spreading your spend over more time, making a lasting impact and create a legitimate bond.
This also keeps the shoutout from looking ‘paid for’ and creates a genuine attraction that is likely to keep you in business longer.
Or don’t.
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Originally published on Medium.com