Social media brand influencers certainly have a place in online marketing today, and can in fact be ... [+]
Consider this "chicken and egg" debate: can a brand help build an influencer as much as the influencer builds a brand? If a social media influencer grows so much in popularity does that person even really help the brand in the long run?
Social media brand influencers certainly have a place in online marketing today, and can in fact be more effective than traditional advertising.
"Paid social media influencers can be a good choice to kick-start a brand or campaign," said Nicole Amsler, vice president of marketing at Formation.
"However, while paid influencers may be effective for short-term customer acquisition, any loyalty from these new customers will be to the influencer and not the brand," she warned. "This short-term approach won't help with customer retention, so brands need to shift focus to a customer champion approach. Using a paid social media influencer to build up the brand in the short-term is a fine strategy as long as brands are simultaneously creating customer champions."
In addition, the momentum behind social commerce is growing because it closes the gap between discovery and purchase said Harry Chemko, CEO and co-founder of Elastic Path.
"In order for brands to most effectively leverage this channel for commerce, they need to be able to create a consistent experience across commerce and promotions on social as well as across all other platforms where their customers engage with their brand," added Chemko. "As social commerce ramps up, brands will need to find a way to ensure that the influencers they work with are well integrated into the rest of a brand's experience. If they are able to do that in an authentic way, social media influencers can be another effective touch point in a brand's overall commerce and marketing experience."
Updating The Endorsement Guide
One important aspect to consider too is the transparency involved. This actually has the Federal Trade Commission concerned, so much so that FTC Commissioner Rohit Chopra addressed his concerns via a written statement.
"When individual influencers are able to post about their interests to earn extra money on the side, this is not a cause for major concern," wrote Chopra. "But when companies launder advertising by paying someone for a seemingly authentic endorsement or review, this is illegal payola. If these companies are also pressuring influencers to post in ways that disguise that their review or endorsement is paid advertising, those advertisers especially need to be held accountable. I am concerned that companies paying for undisclosed influencer endorsements and reviews are not held fully accountable for this illegal activity."
Chopra added that he had concerns "that companies paying for undisclosed influencer endorsements and reviews are not held fully accountable for this illegal activity."
In other words brands need to ensure that influencers are making it clear that they are being paid. In the long run it could be something that could hurt both a social media influencer and a brand!
Valid Career
In many cases being an influencer can turn into a very real and very full-time job.
"While many influencers make six figures, there are thousands who make closer to $30-$40k annually – and that's with very little production costs," said Stephen Smyk, SVP of podcast and influencer marketing at Veritone One.
"Scaling a large audience is less important than the ability to influence follower action," Smyk added. "Becoming a successful influencer is realistic if you have a unique voice and are willing to put in the ongoing time and effort that it takes to create new content."
The question is whether an influencer can be as lasting then as the brand.
"We see many burn out after the first year or two," warned Smyk. "As long as influencers create engaging content on platforms where individuals spend time, then, yes, the hard-working and talented individuals will continue to have influence."
Long Term Relationships
The final consideration in the brand/influencer relationship is in how to make it long term. An influencer who jumps from brand to brand could see to be chasing trends on a whim, while brands that jump to only the hottest influencer at the moment could be seen to lack loyalty.
"By building long-term relationships with the most engaged customers brands can create organic 'influencers' out of brand champions," explained Amsler.
"As these customers are the most engaged with the brand and often both spend the most, and share their love of the company with others, any change in their behavior can have a disproportionate impact on a company's bottom line," Amsler added. "If companies can keep these customers engaged and coming back, that can have a major, compounding impact on long-term sales."
