T.V. and Radio Commercials at one point were the main channels for reaching consumers. However, as technology has evolved so have the channels utilized to reach consumers. In prior years, business & brands would spend millions of dollars on 30-60 second snippets of airtime on popular T.V. & Radio Channels. This may have worked in the past, but consumer’s attention is shifting. Yet, companies still waste millions of dollars on commercial advertisements that are skipped over by consumers. Think about it, with the introduction of Spotify, Pandora, Tivo, Netflix, etc. consumers have all the content they want WITHOUT the constant short commercial breaks. Can you think of the last time you haven’t skipped through a T.V. commercial and even if the commercial miraculously stays on the T.V. what’s the first thing you grab? Your phone…
Influencer Marketing
Major brands/businesses are becoming alarmingly aware that consumer’s attention is no longer fixated on T.V. or radio. The consumer’s attention is fixated on the 3 inches wide 6 inches tall screen that never leaves their side. Thanks to the widespread introduction of social media, consumer’s are glued to social platforms spending enormous amounts of time absorbing content. The smartphone has become the channel for reaching almost any individual in the world. What exactly does this mean for business & brands?
Businesses/brands are going to start shifting their ad spend from T.V. & Radio to social influencers. Influencer Marketing is going to be the next major push in advertising. Influencers are content creators on social platforms that have active & engaged communities built around them. The big factor that sets Influencers apart from other means of advertisement is the personal connection, loyalty & trust that have already been earned by the influencer. This takes a huge step out of the digital marketing equation! Business/brands can harness the trusting communities of influencers as active audiences to market to. Now, brands simply collaborate with one influencer to reach thousands or even millions of individuals.
What to Look for in an Influencer?
One major difference between viral celebrities and Influencers is the level of trust & reliability that Influencers offer their communities. Communities expect promotions to be well researched on product and brand; instead of being a signed contract between celebrity and brand. That being said there are some key characteristics you want to pay attention to when choosing an influencer.
- Activity: Is the Influencer active within their own content. Do they respond to comments, answer questions and connect with their audience on a personal level?
- Engagement Rate: Engagement rate is something that you need to pay close attention to. Follower count is one thing, activity of the audience is another.
- Reach: Thanks to Instagram, business accounts have Data Analytics that gives detailed breakdowns of content performance based on reach, engagement, shares, etc. Make sure you are choosing an Influencer with sizable reach to increase brand awareness.
- Content Style: One thing that is important is the style of content. Make sure that the overall theme of the page aligns with your brand’s message and mission. The promotional content should fit seamlessly into the feed theme without coming across as a super sales oriented post.
- Notoriety: Is the influencer well liked within the niche or industry. It’s important that the influencer is not only an expert or person of value within the industry, but in addition an individual that is well liked.
In short, when choosing an influencer follower count should not sway your decision in any way. The connections and relationships that the influencer has established with those followers are what count. After all, there are thousands of accounts on social platforms with fake followers that have no real marketing value. Be aware of these accounts and always do your research.
Case Study
Influencer Marketing is still in its infancy we have seen some big brands stepping into this field and as time goes on you can expect to see a major shift from T.V. & Radio to mobile devices. To give you guys an idea on how to utilize influencers to reach new audiences we are going to go over an excellent example from Sprint, which in my opinion is the Snapchat of Phone Companies. However, the video they created to release the new Unlimited Data Plan showcases some extremely powerful Instagram influencers. Check it out below!
This is a perfect example of how to use influencers to promote your product. The collective following from all of these influencers in this video is well over 10 million! That means Sprint is reaching millions of new potential leads in a creative and funny way. This is all thanks to the Instagram Influencers! The combination of their personalities and communities makes them the perfect delivery method for product promotions. This video is not only seen by the followers of these Instagram Influencers, but it is viewed by an enormous amount of other individuals through content sharing. The reach for social media content is reaching an unfathomable height when content goes viral the ability to for users to share it makes it exponentially more effective than traditional means of marketing. If you have not invested in influencer marketing then you are limiting your businesses potential growth greatly!