Current scenario of Influencer Marketing:

The lure of influencer marketing:

New social media platforms are getting launched almost every year with new ideas for content creation and engagement possibilities for users. Some of these platforms grew exponentially within a very short time, amassing a mind-boggling number of users. Influencers smart enough to catch the early trend earned a huge and loyal fan base. Brands are using such influencers to reach out to their large audience, hoping to turn them into customers and generate more sales.

In 2019, the word ‘influencer’ was officially added to the ‘Oxford Dictionary’ indicating the high prevalence of the word’s usage in daily life. Then, the pandemic taught us that most traditional marketing strategies are ineffective for the modern audience. At the same time, the pandemic period also witnessed several new influencers (aka social media celebrities) coming to the limelight. Today, influencer marketing is enormous and getting bigger and bigger with each passing year.

The trends which are shaping the influencer marketing industry:

These are some of the trends that will drive the social media influencer industry in 2023 and beyond.

• Successful content creators with multiple social media accounts have fans following them across all the platforms

• The interconnection between affiliate marketing and influencer marketing and the differences between the two are increasingly getting blurred.

• The ever-growing love for video content fuelled by the upgrade to high-speed internet technology.

• ‘Live shopping’ which started two years ago and is growing in popularity is a new trend to look out for. It is already acknowledged by e-commerce brands that have launched tools for live shopping on their respective platforms and formed partnerships with content creators.

• A higher engagement and conversion rate due to the deep connection with their audience made by content creators with a few thousand (Nano and Micro-Influencers) followers, is making them the darlings of brands.

• Brands looking for long-term partnerships instead of one-time projects

• Marketers shelling out more money on influencer marketing

• Performance-based deals may become more popular

• Performance-based deals may become more popular

• Increase in the number of niche influencers who are experts in their field or a particular topic

The Perks of Being a Social Media Influencer:

Here are some of the benefits which are attracting more and more people to become social media influencers.

First and foremost, there is no specific time frame within which you are required to work. In other words, you are no longer employed by someone who sets the rules for you. Influencers get to decide their working hours and leisure time, which allows them to enjoy a healthy work-life balance.

• Freedom to choose your work: As an influencer, you are free to choose your niche or area of interest, from food to cooking, travel and leisure, beauty and wellness, clothing, technology, and many other topics.

• Collaborating with top brands: Once you decide on your niche and build your identity, you can get an opportunity to work with popular and well-established brands in the area of your interest and get to promote them.

• Freebies and promotional events: You get to receive products from collaborating brands for promotional purposes and also a chance to participate in the events organised by them, where you can build your business connections and collaborate with prospective brands.

• Being an inspiration to others: If you are successful as an influencer in building a loyal fan base for yourselves, you can inspire a thousand others and build communities of like-minded people to connect, share, and inspire others.

The following are the cons:

• Expectations and behaviour: Influencers are expected to post on social media regularly and consistently, failing which the engagement rates may fall. The audience also expects the influencers to act and behave in a certain way, both online and offline. So, the influencers need to be alert constantly. Audiences tend to get easily disappointed if the influencers are unable to live up to their expectations.

• Criticism and trolling: As the saying goes, it is not possible to please everyone. The risk of criticism and trolling is always lurking around the corner for every influencer. So, being an influencer takes a lot of courage and patience to handle criticism.

• Uncertainty of career: The competition in influencer marketing is fierce, and hence the influencer needs to always be creative and come up with new content ideas to engage and grow their audience. Influencers often earn their income through short campaigns, and hence they are supposed to be on the lookout for new brand partnerships and long-term partnerships to ensure financial stability and achieve their goals.

• Authenticity and trust: It takes a lot of time and effort to grow as an influencer, but only seconds to lose credibility. So, influencers need to be cautious about what they share.

Conclusion:

Like any other regular job, social media influencer marketing too comes with its share of merits and demerits. Hence, it will be interesting to see how long this trend will survive. Only time will prove if it is a ‘real trend’ or just ‘a fad’. As of now, there are no signs of the trend slowing down soon.

- Blog by Amith Raj S