Influencer marketing is no doubt, a leading element of online marketing. Also, Influencer marketing is changing only for the better. It is a phenomenon that will most likely never stop due to the increasing interest in online marketing. Therefore, there is a need to learn more about it.
That said, this article will look into everything you need to know about the changes in influencer marketing in 2021.
Table of Contents
- What is Influencer Marketing?
- Changes in Influencer Marketing
- 2021 Influencer Marketing Trends
- Influencer creator funds
- Restaurants using Influencers to market.
Key Takeaways
Being a social media influencer is one of the quickest and easiest ways to earn extra income. With the rising changes in influencer marketing, brands are in constant need of influencers.
You mustn’t be a celebrity to be an influencer. That is one of the changes in influencer marketing in 2021 and years to come. Fortunately, established platforms like the influencer creator fund can reward social media influencers for their content.
What is Influencer Marketing?
Influencer marketing is a combination of old and new marketing tools. It uses ideas of celebrity endorsement to create modern-day content-driven marketing campaigns.
Influencer marketing doesn’t only revolve around celebrities. In fact, influencer marketing is focused mainly on “influencers.”
An influencer is an online personality (who isn’t a celebrity outside online realms). Nevertheless, they can control the opinions of their audience concerning goods or services offered by organizations.
Social media influencers have such authority due to a hard-earned reputation and trust from their audience. Interestingly, you don’t need to have a million followers to be an influencer. All you need is just a good reputation and online fame.
Most influencers aren’t even verified on social media. Furthermore, celebrities are influencers, but all influencers aren’t celebrities.
Changes in Influencer Marketing
The changing tide of influencer marketing in 2021 is high. As days go, more social media platforms emerge. Therefore, influencers adapt to the methods of these platforms to promote influencer marketing.
During the 2020 pandemic, organizations discovered virtual means to reach their customers. Consequently, influencers and brands found new ways to relate with their audience whose movements were restricted.
Other than the CoronaVirus pandemic, different situations in the nearest future will give rise to a change in influencer marketing methods.
2021 Influencer Marketing Trends
The process of influencer marketing changing is observed in specific trends, especially in 2021. A few of these trends are listed below.
1. Increasing attention on Micro and Nano influencers
Influencers are usually classified based on how many followers they have.
- Nano-influencers (1k-10k followers)
- Micro-influencers (10k-100k followers)
- Macro-influencers (100k-1M followers)
- Mega-influencers/Celebrities (1M followers and above)
Lately, it has been observed that influencers in the first two categories have higher engagement on their posts than influencers with a higher number of followers.
This newly derived theory has made brands use micro and nano influencers for their brands. That way, the brands have their products reach a large audience and pay little for the job.
2. Partnership with brands other than one time jobs
In 2021, brands and influencers are making long-term agreements. This means, other than being paid for a single post for a job, the influencer works for the brand for a stipulated period.
In addition, a partnership with a brand gives the influencer more time to acquire customers who will patronize the organization.
Also, the influencer involved in this long-term partnership with a brand is known as an “ambassador” of the brand. This is because they represent the brand for the whole period of the agreement.
3. More social media platforms
The number one app for influencer marketing is Instagram. Over the years, Instagram has built its reputation as the best social media app for influencers. Therefore, all its features exist to enhance influencer marketing.
However, despite Instagram’s superiority, new apps are coming up. A popular example is Tiktok, which stands to compete with Instagram in the near future.
A lot of people talk about the rise of TikTok influencer marketing. Tiktok, being an only video app, provides content creators the perfect environment and platform to advertise products for brands.
Tiktok started rising in 2020 during the pandemic. While everyone was at home, it was the perfect app to make videos at home and help users live the outside world inside.
Therefore, Instagram now has its competition in 2021, Tiktok.
There are other changes to note in influencer marketing in 2021. However, these three trends are the most popular and most observed.
Influencer creator funds
There has been an existing talk about influencer creator funds like Snapchat and TikTok. Platforms that ensure that influencers do not labor in vain. So, what are creator funds?
Creator funds are monetary rewards for influencers and content creators. Each social media platform has been giving its creator fund to help support influencers on the platform.
Tiktok, for example, has $70 million set for creator funds. The money is to reward Tiktok influencers, depending on how good their content is. Furthermore, Tiktok has stated that in the next 1-2 years, it hopes to have $300 million specifically for creator funds.
In competition, Snapchat raised about $770 million for creator funds through its spotlight feature.
Restaurants using Influencers to market.
Influencers genuinely have a lot of influence. People talk about how Restaurants like Mcdonald’s are now leveraging influencers to create happy meals to drive sales. For Instance, when restaurants feature people’s favorite celebrities on certain meals and within days, the meal goes in high demand.
Such a method has been trending for years now. However, McDonald’s seems to be at the top of the challenge. They have used celebrities like Travis Scott, J Balvin, and many others to promote their products.
The system had truly worked as millions of people engage on such posts and rush to acquire whatever the post is talking about.
Conclusion
The changing Influencer marketing has made online marketing easier. Therefore, both parties, the brand, and the influencer win. That said, if you have a considerably high amount of followers and you are considering going into influencing, do it. Furthermore, use whatever talent you have and earn via influencing.
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