The Use of Influencers To Promote Business on Social Media.

Introduction.

An influencer has a large social media following and presence capable of swaying public opinion. Influencers are increasingly becoming popular in modern marketing as the world is increasingly dependent on the Internet for various services. Using influencers on social media is an increasing trend where marketers use influencers and their ability to sway public opinion, inspire interaction with the product, and eventually lead to purchases (Attri & Pranjal, 2023). The marketing avenue is increasingly becoming an essential feature in the sector with numerous brands regardless of their size.

The number of followers or subscribers usually ranks five categories of influencers depending on the platform. According to (Attri & Pranjal, 2023), influencers can either be categorized as nano-influencers, have up to 5000 followers, and are very niche, with such subscribers being probably those close to them, micro-influencers those with up to 20,000 followers, power or mid-tier influencers who have up to 100,000 followers, mega influencer level which reaches up to a million followers and bonified celebrities with over a million followers.

Trends in Social Media Influencer Marketing.

The social media and influencer sector is a versatile sector that incorporates changes in technology and emerging trends (Attri & Pranjal, 2023). Companies and influencers need adaptability to successfully align their marketing techniques to the emerging changes to maintain their competitive advantage. Some of the emerging trends in social media influencer marketing include:

• Personalized partnerships through affiliate marketing-production, the companies use affiliate marketing programs to promote their products and services by ensuring the influencers can offer specialized rewards for users who interact with them via their recommendation (Masuda et al., 2022).
• Highlighting diversity and representation in marketing as companies find it more necessary to include the topic of diversity and equality in their messaging.
• Hyper-niching is an approach to designing a product or service specifically for the influencer’s audience (Attri & Pranjal, 2023).
• Partnering with brand influencers for co-production refers to situations where the influencer participates creatively in manufacturing and creating products and services to add a personal touch and appeal to the target audience (Vrontis et al., 2021).
• Focusing on data-driven influencing programs.
• Growth in social searching occurs when people abandon the traditional use of conventional search engines in favor of a user’s favorite platform (Masuda et al., 2022).
• Influencer-generated content, which occurs when the company entrusts the creation of marketing content to the consumer, considers instances like participating in a viral dance challenge for promotional purposes.

Considerations Before Engaging in Social Media Marketing.

There are many considerations a company must appreciate when selecting the type of marketing partner to associate with their brand. The standard consideration every brand must acknowledge includes the following:

• Reach and relation to the target audience: Companies must ask themselves what the influencers reach, the potential number of people likely to interact with the campaign, and if it aligns with the target audience.
• Brand goals and objectives, the influencers’ content, presentation, messaging, and other aspects must align with the company’s goals and objectives (Attri & Pranjal, 2023).
• Brands value the influencer’s image and online persona. The brand image and perception associated with the influencer must also align with the companies to ensure there is no contradiction in the messaging and presentation of the advertisements.
• Engagement rate refers to the likelihood that a customer will interact with the advert. For instance, a potential client clicks on a link that leads directly to the company’s site (Vrontis et al., 2021).
• Regarding the frequency of posts, how frequently does the influencer post content on socials across any platform? The posts should be regular but not too reoccurring to be burdensome.
• Costs to facilitate the relationship, how much the influencer charges per post, and the cost-profit ratio of sustaining the relationship.
• Duration of the relationship, whether long-term or short-term.
• Relevance of the influencer. How relevant is the influencer not only to the brand but also to the target audience? The influencer must ensure their influence over their followers and can effectively solicit a reaction from them.
• Can the influencer maintain consistency and adhere to all the company’s requirements regarding reliability?
• Influencer’s content quality: The company should determine if the influencer’s content is of the desired quality in all facets of its presentation.

Advantages and Opportunities in Social Media Influencer Marketing.

Some of the advantages of using social media influencers include the following:

• Easy to establish trust and credibility: The company can rely on the influencer’s established image to generate trust and credibility among the influencer’s target audience.
• Improves brand awareness: partnering with specific influencers, prevalent persons with tremendous reach
• Reaches a broad audience on multiple platforms: Influencers tend to have followers across numerous social media platforms; therefore, associating with them allows the brand to reach multiple people simultaneously across numerous platforms (Attri & Pranjal, 2023).
• Effectively reaches the target market and adds value to the audience: Influencers allow the company to reach the target market. The company can analyze the influencer’s audience and market characteristics like age, income level, and other critical demographic statistics that can be gathered and utilized later.
• Cost-effective for niche markets: The company can save on costs, especially for niche products, as they do not have to produce general content for a broad market.
• Enables outsourcing of marketing campaigns, which is time-saving: the company can successfully outsource their marketing to the influencer, saving on time and other costs associated with running conventional advertisements.
• Suitable for any size of business as it matches the business to the target audience, especially for niche businesses: using influencers is suitable for any business regardless of the size. All the company has to do is enlist the help of the right influencer.
• Increases the brand’s social media and internet presence: Influencers can help the brand increase its social media presence, allowing it to reach a wider audience.

Disadvantages of Using Social Media Influencers in Marketing.

Companies must also consider the potential demerits of utilizing social media influencers in marketing before committing to the campaigns. Some of the considerations include the following:

• Influencers’ influence can fluctuate: numerous instances where an influence hits a peak and begins to regress, thus reducing their popularity and influence, making them an ineffective avenue for marketing (Attri & Pranjal, 2023).
• Ethics and morality conflicts: The company’s ethical image becomes intrinsically tied to the influencers; therefore, they cannot engage in some campaigns if the influencer has a history of conflicting oral practices (Masuda et al., 2022).
• Matching a brand with influencers can be challenging: sometimes, finding an influencer who fits the brand’s image (Attri & Pranjal, 2023).
• Measuring results on the impact of influencers is challenging: there are no established avenues to measure the exact influence of the influencer on the target audience (Masuda et al., 2022). Therefore, the company might pay for the services, but there needs to be more return on investments.
• High risks associated with the practice: The practice can be risky, especially as there are no evaluation mechanisms and no guarantee that the campaigns will work or that the influencers will succeed in reaching the target market (Masuda et al., 2022).
• Brand identity becomes intrinsically tied to the influencer: the influencer and the brand are intrinsically tied; therefore, if an influencer has an established persona, the company must ensure their brand reflects the persona (Vrontis et al., 2021).

Conclusion.

In conclusion, a social media influencer is an effective tool organizations can utilize to reach their target market. Social media marketing is a growing avenue for contemporary marketing as it aligns with the prevalence of social platforms in today’s society. Contemporary society prefers social media over conventional avenues; thus, social media marketing is an effective tool to reach modern consumers (Attri & Pranjal, 2023). However, after considering the potential threats and disadvantages of the approach, proper investigation into the influencer and their online perception, among other considerations, is necessary for understanding. Companies must consider multiple threats and disengagements in relying on social media influencers; issues like ineffective influencers are potential deterrents to the trend’s growth.

References.

Attri, S., & Pranjal, P. (2023). I was influenced by the ‘Influencer ‘ when I bought this! International Journal of Law Management and Humanities, 6(2), 1333-1338. https://pure.jgu.edu.in/id/eprint/5766

Masuda, H., Han, S. H., & Lee, J. (2022). Impacts of influencer attributes on purchase intentions in social media influencer marketing: Mediating roles of characterizations. Technological Forecasting and Social Change, 174, 121246. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.techfore.2021.121246

Vrontis, D., Makrides, A., Christofi, M., & Thrassou, A. (2021). Social media influencer marketing: A systematic review, integrative framework and future research agenda. International Journal of Consumer Studies, 45(4), 617-644. https://doi.org/10.1111/ijcs.12647