Introduction
Social media influencers refer to people who have a remarkable ability to control their followers’ opinions, behaviors, and decisions based on what they say (Evans et al., 2021). Therefore they contain many social media followers on their social accounts. Therefore, social media influencers’ role is to create content regarding specific niches, industries, or interests. They post it on their social platforms, increasing loyalists following the number of individuals who see the content.
There are various forms of influencers, such as vloggers, Instagrammers, TikTokers, YouTubers, and bloggers. The influencers are known through their capacity to capture people from the content they write. This content may be informed of product reviews, tutorials, and lifestyle content that resonate with their audience. The content can be original or reused based on the source. The influencers enter into deals with companies and create this content that promotes the companies’ services. Sometimes, even the brands for individuals can be sponsored to promote more followers.
Everyday people verse Celebrity Influencers.
Everyday influencers refer to the people very common on social media platforms; a situation that has been created by the engaging content they create on their social platforms that attract the audience. They mostly have no outside influence or brand outside the social media platform that can be followed. They gather followers from particular interests and hobbies or thriving comments (Ilicic & Brennan, 2020). This differs from celebrity influencers with background followers due to their celebrated lifestyles or day-to-day actions. Celebrity influencers have a high status outside social media, therefore, already have followers. They are mostly known for their music, television, or film work, and they leverage their existing popularity to build their social media following. These include footballers, musicians, politicians, authors, preachers, and motivational speakers.
The impacts of influencers can be measured in different methods, such as follower growth, engagement rate, brand mentions, conversions, and revenue. This should be the specific social media they are. For instance, follower growth refers to the number of new followers an influencer gains over a specific period. This can be checked through the number of followers in the individual account that has increased over time. For instance, Ronaldo, who is a social media influencer and a player, increased his Facebook followers in 2014 to 100 million (Tiago et al., 2016). This was the most enormous number that footballers have ever achieved. In this regard, Ronaldo’s influence is high. Either his action, such as removing two Coca-Cola bottles from the table on 16th June 2022, had a significant effect on the Coca-Cola brand. Either the partnering of the Guinness-made of Black initiative brand with Thierry Henry in 2006 led to increased brand recognition. Engagement measures the interaction level between the influencer and their followers, such as likes, comments, and shares. For instance, David Beckham has over 515,405 likes. This means his value in social media influence is high. Brand mentions referring to the number of times an influencer mentions a particular brand in their content. For instance, Disney is among the brands that have been mentioned many times. Another brand mentioned is Red Bull. The final measure is revenue, which refers to the amount of money generated from an influencer’s sponsored content. The higher the revenue from the sponsored content, the higher the influencer capacity.
Cancel Culture and Influencer Marketing:
Cancel culture refers to a phenomenon where groups or individuals criticize or boycott a brand for its controversial or offensive behavior (Ramto & Farajallah, 2022). In this context, there are adverse effects on brand followers due to the cancel culture. The brand may also decrease sales or damage the brand image among people. For instance, the pushing way of two bottles of Coca-Cola by Cristiano Ronaldo- a prominent player, led to a reduction in the brand’s followers (OGOSI et al., n.d). Once the influencer is canceled, they also lose the earnings they were to get from the brand since then. Therefore the effect is on both the brand and the influencer.
In conclusion, the marketing landscape in social media platforms such as Facebook and Twitter is highly controlled by social media influencers. Social media influencers can be either everyday influencers or celebrity influencers. Everyday influencers refer to the people very common on social media platforms; a situation that has been created by the engaging content they create on their social platforms that attracts an audience. On the other hand, celebrity influencers refer to the influencers with high status outside social media, therefore, already have followers. Their impact on consumer behavior for the product is significant. The significance of a social media influencer can be measured through follower growth, engagement rate, brand mentions, conversions, and revenue.
References
Evans, D., Bratton, S., & McKee, J. (2021). Social media marketing. AG Printing & Publishing.
OGOSI, F., ETUK, S., WENIEBI, Z., & ANDEM, F. INFLUENCE OF HIGH PROFILE CELEBRITIES ON GLOBAL BRAND PRODUCTS.
Tiago, T., Tiago, F., Faria, S. D., & Couto, J. P. (2016). Who is the better player? Off-field battle on Facebook and Twitter. Business Horizons, 59(2), 175-183.
Ilicic, J., & Brennan, S. M. (2020). Looking at you: Celebrity’s direct eye gaze influences social media post effectiveness. European Journal of Marketing, 54(12), 3051–3076.
Ramto, O. B., & Farajallah, M. (2022). Risks of Cultural Marketing in the Era of” Cancel Culture .”International Journal of Advanced Research in Economics and Finance, 4(4), 74-87.
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