Influencers: The 21st Century Lemming Herder

 

So What Is An Influencer?

 

Influencer marketing is nothing new, and has been around for many years before the Internet was commonplace. Do you remember those crazy chain letters in the 90’s? How about those spammy adverts on television with some big-shot in a suit preaching about life goals and getting rich quick with one simple trick? That was the beginning of influencer marketing. And the idea is that if you listen to someone “important” their choices and experiences with service will be the same as yours.

 

By dictionary definition an influencer is:

“[something or someone with] the capacity to have an effect on the character, development, or behaviour of someone or something, or the effect itself”.

So realistically, any person, place, or thing that has any sort of cognitive impact on one’s decision making abilities is an influencer.

However, within marketing, an “Influencer” tends to be a person of authority, or has a large following (sphere of influence) who they are then able to influence to follow their advice or recommendations.

You see a lot of influencers who share content and material that makes either themselves or their brand or company, if they work for a brand or company, look good. So those types of ego baiting can be successful at times. It’s tough if it’s too overt or too flashy or not credible enough. But it can work. – Rand Fishkin

 

 

How Can My Business Leverage An Influencer?

 

Influencer Marketing depends on your brand’s ability to connect with a person of authority/with a large sphere of influence in order to showcase the product or service you are offering in a positive way in order to drive purchase consideration among their followers.

Influencer Marketing can go as broad as leveraging your past customers to leave positive reviews on a social sharing platform such as Facebook, Google Maps, or Yelp in order to inspire new, prospective customers to reconsider your brand’s offerings over another’s. People don’t like to take risks, by leveraging your brand’s positive image with real-world testimonials, the cognitive dissonance felt by the prospective customer fades and allows for consideration.

Influencer marketing can also follow a more targeted approach. One of the most commonly leveraged strategies for influencer marketing is a sponsored partnership/endorsement from a YouTube or Instagram “celebrity”. For example, if you run a cosmetic brand you may want to consider partnering with a Beauty Vlogger, or if you run an auto body repair shop maybe consider partnering with an Instagrammer within the Auto industry to showcase a custom piece of work, or barter your services for exposure on their platform. Just make sure you are defining the right type of influencer for your product or service, otherwise it might not work out.

The point to all this is to understand how your brand can use a leader, or a figure of authority within particular social circles in order to bring your brand to the forefront of their following’s attention. Apparently, when people hear someone say something is good, they’ll probably buy it and you’ll make $6.50 on every dollar you back an influencer with.

Contact Us to discover how lionEater can get your Influencer Marketing campaign off the ground.