It’s no real secret that recent years have seen a boost in influencers on a wide variety of platforms. It seems that anyone with a channel where they can create content has been able to share products and services in ways that we didn’t quite imagine back when I started blogging in 2012, and even long before that when I started using the internet. Popular platforms for influencers over the years include Instagram, blogging, youtube, and (of course) TikTok. Over the past 3-4 years the use of social media influencers to generate revenue has grown significantly. Highly paid celebrity Instagrammers can average $1 million just for a single post! While smaller influencers, also called micro-influencers, can post to smaller more niche followings for less money. Many types of influencer have been found valuable in a variety of ways at growing the audiences and sales of the companies they share for. Using social media and a variety of people to spread the word about products and services has become a booming marketing trend.
Thanks to the popularity of social media and sharing just about every aspect of our day to day lives, businesses have found this more creative way to reach audiences than merely placing ads that can be blocked on sites, commercials that don’t get watched now with the rise of streaming services, or billboards that aren’t getting noticed due to people being at home more often since the start of 2020.
Details from 2018 show that 73% of influences used sponsorships or sponsored content, 68% used sponsored social media posts (myself included!), 38% used free products to generate revenue. Due to this increase in social influencer content, many companies increased their influencer marketing budgets and roughly 80% of them found influencer marketing to be effective.
Brands have found that working with influencers over a variety of platforms have had the following benefits:
1. Building Brand Awareness
By getting your brand in front of targeted audiences, influencers tell their communities about your products and what’s so great about them. Since they’ve earned the trust of their following, they can in turn get them to trust you as well. Making it far easier to gain potential customers in the future.
2. Boosting Sales
Influencers aren’t only out there building brand awareness, we also manage to drive purchases too! A rough 75% of customers purchase by clicking on promotional links shared by influences. By using special links and exclusive discount codes to their followers, first time customers can be enticed to press that checkout button far easier.
3. Unique content
Influencers have become experts at creating the type of content that people want to see and engage with. Companies gain specialized content that has expert quality that is tailed to their brand voice. Using this type of marketing brings uniqueness and diversity that target audiences appreciate and look for even more from companies nowadays.
4. Boosting SEO
By having links to your products and services shared a variety of platforms by numerous people with authoritative sites and content is key to improving search engine ranking. Since having their target audience trust them, they’ll by extension be more likely to trust you as they find your line on their website.
I feel lucky to be an influencer even though my following is as big in some places as others. I’ve been able to work with brands and share brands I love and care about, and provide for my family and do things that make me feel good at the end of the day. I am glad for the way being an influencer has changed over the years, and look forward to growing my following and continuing to grow as a blogger and person in general.
Do you have an influencer you absolutely love and try to follow everything they might do? Let me know what you think about this trend in digital marketing in the comments below.
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