The rise in social media influencers – a trend or fad?

In 2022, the influencer marketing industry was valued at approximately USD 16.5 billion. It is predicted that the global influencer marketing platform will touch USD 85 billion by 2028, with 2023 being no exception to this astronomical growth. Another survey has predicted a 25% annual growth rate for the influencer marketing industry. So, what are the factors driving the phenomenal growth of influencer marketing? Let us take a closer look.

An astronomical number of people have quit their jobs in the US and other parts of the world since the pandemic started. Increasing stress and tiredness, a lack of work-life balance, and extended emotional and mental stress induced by the pandemic are thought to be the contributing factors to this great resignation drive. Many companies laid off employees due to the pandemic and the consequent cost-cutting measures.

Many of these people, who either resigned from their jobs due to the pandemic-induced burnout or were laid off by the companies, found a better job in the same industry, while some even changed their work domains. However, a surprisingly high number of such people decided to try their hands at becoming social media influencers, resulting in a new job trend. This trend is popular even today and is gaining traction every day. Thousands of people who already have full-time jobs in their hands are considering quitting their jobs to become social media influencers or taking it on as a side hustle (and an additional source of income).

So, what is influencer marketing after all?

According to Encyclopedia Britannica, the definition of the word influence (noun) goes like this: the power to change or affect someone or something: the power to cause changes without directly forcing them to happen. The verb form of “influence” (Merriam-Webster Dictionary) typically means “to affect or change someone or something in an indirect but usually important way.” An “influencer” is “a person with the ability to entice prospective consumers of a product or service by

A brief history of influencer marketing:

While ‘influencer’ in itself is not something new to the world, it is the union of ‘marketing’ and ‘influencer’ that has triggered a new concept and gained rapid momentum in the last 2 decades.

Many claims that ‘influencer marketing’ started way back in the 18th century or even in the medieval ages. For practical purposes and relevance’s sake, promoting or recommending the items on social media,” as per the Oxford Dictionary. we will consider the history from the time when the internet was born. The birth of the internet in the 1990s saw the dawn of the ‘digital era’ of marketing, which laid the foundations for ‘social media marketing’ (a type of digital marketing) and, subsequently, ‘influencer marketing’ in the mid-2000s.

Influencer marketing blends both modern and conventional marketing strategies. The idea of celebrity endorsement is integrated with contemporary content-driven marketing strategies. Businesses partners with a social media celebrity to advertise one of its products or services by means of influencer marketing.

Celebrity endorsements were a big thing in the 80s and 90s since they had mass fan followings and could influence their fans’ decision-making while making purchases. This thought was effectively put to use by the brands by partnering with celebrities to market their products. However, as smartphones became advanced and social media connected people’s lives, the influencer was born. In comparison to the celebrities, the common man felt more connected to the influencers, who were normal people like you and me. Hence, the influencer marketing concept started gaining popularity, and it was not long before companies took note of this.

In the initial years of the internet, the concept of ‘blogging’ was born, wherein bloggers used to create and share content about their interests such as travel, parenting, and food, to name a few, which ultimately gave rise to a whole new niche called ‘lifestyle’. Soon, blogging became popular, and brands partnered with such bloggers to market their products, in return for a good incentive. In 2010, social media came into existence which took the internet by storm and Millions of users got on the social media bandwagon. The term ‘influencer’ gained a lot of popularity in the early 2010s. Thus, influencer marketing grew from the early years when bloggers were getting paid to create content for brands, to the end of the last decade, when about 86% of brands began setting aside a part of their marketing budget for influencer marketing.