Welcome to the blog of Dr. Lisa Burns' Media Studies senior capstone class (3:30 pm section) at Quinnipiac University. If you're looking for the latest on media industry trends and insightful media analysis, you've come to the right place!
Tuesday, February 13, 2018
Lifestyle & Niche Media Blog 4, Question 3 (Feb. 20th)
How are brands and advertisers using
social media influencers to target audiences? What are the plusses and minuses
of using YouTubers and Instagram stars to promote products?
Brands and advertisers are using social media influencers to target certain demographics and their niche audiences. They pay social media “celebrities” to post pictures while wearing or using their products.
The plusses of using influencers to promote products are that brands and advertisers are able to choose exactly who, when and where they want to target. Wiley writes, “The most strategic marketers and agencies will look into their influencers’ audiences so they can target niches within verticals. Let’s say you’re looking to market a home decor product or service. Is your ideal audience interested in DIY, high-end, eco-friendly, modern? When you have the ability to drill down to find the right influencer, your brand aligns with their personal brand and the result is an authentic (and persuasive) content experience for audiences” (Wiley). At my internship at a fashion brand, they used influencers to show off a new line of products. This worked well for the company that I worked at because it was a cheap way to advertise products to a niche group of people – those that were adventurous, young and liked keeping up with recent fashion trends. The company chose influencers that were in their mid-20’s and had over 100,000 followers on Instagram. These influencers had a style that was representative of the brand and had to shoot in a location that matched the brand’s aesthetic.
The benefit of using social media influencers is that the advertising platforms are free and it looks more natural than an advertisement with a celebrity. As Meltzer writes, “In recent years, traditional celebrity endorsements have taken a back seat to brands' influencer-created content. So stars like Paris Hilton and Kim Kardashian have been replaced by that familiar, yet unfamiliar face that popped up in your feed moments ago” (Meltzer). This is very common because celebrity endorsements come with a large price tag. Those with many followers but are not a household name, do not require such high pricing and they have more one to one engagement with their followers.
Not only do the brands benefit by going with an influencer, but the influencer benefits as well. CBS News published an article that said, “Earlier this year Forbes released a comprehensive list of the world's top influencers. In the field of fitness alone, the top 10 influencers have a combined reach of 106 million followers. They calculated top YouTubers can fetch up to $300,000 for a video partnership and at least $150,000 on Instagram” (CBS News). Influencers are making a killing off of advertising products and they can do it all right from their homes. An issue for these Youtubers and Instagram stars is that it can eventually look unauthentic when they promote many of the same kind of brands or products. Viewers are not stupid and know that they are being paid to post reviews about their products.
Another minus of influencers is that sometimes if you follow a lot of the same kind of people, you can be bombarded with one product and it becomes annoying because you know it is forced. For example, Fit Teas and Sugar Bear Hair are constantly promoted on accounts I follow. Most of these accounts are teenage girls and young woman because the companies know that young girls and women will follow them and want to be like them, therefore they will buy the products.
I wouldn’t mind being a social media influencer. You get to work with awesome brands, and get paid to test out products. My fear would be that I didn’t support a product and would only discover this after posting.
Works Cited:
CBS News. “Inside the Big Business of Being Social Media Influencer.” CBS News, CBS Interactive, 23 Sept. 2017.
Meltzer, Lauren. “Social Media ‘Influencers’ Add a New Twist to Advertising.” CBS News. CBS Interactive, 8 Feb. 2018.
Brands and advertisers are using social media such as Youtube and instagram influencers to target audiences in many ways. There are both plusses and minuses of using social media starts to promote products. The most significant way for a brand to advertise itself is through celebrity endorsements, which are, “when an actor, musician, athlete or other pop culture figure promotes a business’s products, series or brand” (Influencer Marketing vs. Celebrity Endorsements: Which is better?). Influencer marketing is a new advertising model that uses popular online presences to promote businesses. The influencer promoter pulls the power of “Youtubers,” and “Instagrammers,” who are known as popular, “social media influences,” to sell products (Influencer Marketing vs. celebrity Endorsements: Which is better?). The more time consumers spend on social media, the easier it is for advertisers to reach the consumers. A benefit of celebrity advertising is that due to their “likeness,” celebrities are capable of appealing to bigger and more, “diverse,” audiences (Influencer Marketing vs. Celebrity Endorsements: Which is Better?). Celebrity use was once constrained to only media and advertising such as radio, television, and magazine advertisements; they can now be used to promote on all types of media platforms (Influencer Marketing vs. Celebrity Endorsements: Which is Better?). a major disadvantage of promoting using celebrities is that it is not cost efficient. The cost to hire celebrities to endorse products can often be too great for a specific marketing budget (Influencer Marketing vs. Celebrity Endorsements: Which is Better?). Additionally, the celebrity endorsements and marketing influencers both try to conquer the power of specific pop-culture personalities. Because of the conventional demand, “celebrity endorsements are usually intended to reach as broad an audience as possible (Influencer Marketing vs. Celebrity Endorsements: Which is Better?). PewDiePie, YouTube’s biggest star found himself in trouble when brands realized the, “potential perils of social influencer marketing,” (Main). The Wall Street Journal addressed the fact that PewDiePie had posted specific videos with, “anti-Semitic messages” (Main). This type of advertising is frowned upon in the media and YouTube and Disney decided they would distance themselves from PewDiePie even though he was digital media’s, “biggest,” celebrity (Main). Many of the videos that PewDiePie posted were over the top, making fun of different religions and therefore, advertisers had strong reasoning to distance themselves from him. Although this specific celebrity claimed that the making of these videos was for, “entertainment,” most advertisers have a no tolerance policy for this type of material, because it is offensive and turns away viewers (Main).
The list of celebrities who have made millions of dollars by sponsoring products on social media goes on and on, but in this day and age an individual doesn’t necessarily need to be a “household name to be a social media influencer” (CBS). Ryan Clark has become the head of a one-man ad agency that has the help of a photographer, but otherwise is all on his own. Clark is paid to post photos and videos on social media for brands such as Armani and BMW (CBS). He stated that, “It might seem like a hobby, but running two instagram accounts with nearly three million followers is serious business” (CBS). One of the most interesting points that Clark makes about Instagram is that companies should be earning an equivalent to the number of followers that they have. For example, for the fashion and beauty industry, 100,000 followers on Instagram should be equivalent to $100,000 a year (CBS). Finding influencers who are not celebrities might help a company’s bottom line.
Works Cited
“INFLUENCER MARKETING VS. CELEBRITY ENDORSEMENTS: WHICH IS BETTER?” Mediakix, 6 Dec. 2017, mediakix.com/2017/12/influencer-marketing-vs-celebrity-endorsements-pros-cons/#gs.M4tIHkw.
Main, Sami. "PewDiePie and the Potential Dangers of Social Influencer Marketing for Brands." Adweek. N.p., 15 Feb. 2017. Web. 14 Feb. 2018.
News, CBS. “Inside the Big Business of Being a Social Media Influencer.” CBS News, CBS Interactive, 23 Sept. 2017, www.cbsnews.com/news/business-behind-being-a-social-media-influencer/.
A lot of times when you are scrolling through social media, you see social media influencers advertising a product of a certain company. This is a new way of marketing. A lot of times, social media influencers are sponsored or get sent free products to advertise them. This is a really smart way to get your product out there. Social media influencers typically have a large following so it makes sense to use them for marketing. Although this might be a great idea, there are also cons about this. A lot of times when Youtubers or Instagram influencers advertise products, we are unsure whether or not they are genuine. They are getting paid regardless, so obviously they will say something good about the products. In the Social Media ‘Influencers’ Add a New Twist to Advertising article, Lauren Meltzer says, “As the power of social media continues to grow, it's arguably fair to say influencers will continue to have a stronger impact on consumer brand awareness. In turn, brands will be required to shift their strategies, conforming to this new norm as influencer-follower relationships expand. “ (Meltzer 2018.) Meltzer begins to explain how important social media marketing is especially when trying to target millennials and Gen Zers. Meltzer also mentions in the article that having someone with high engagement versus followers is a plus to influencer marketing. This is a bonus when you want people to buy your items rather than just get impressions. As a social media influencer myself, some minuses to this sort of marketing would have to be the authenticity of the product, company, and influencer. A lot of times, I get sent free products in return for an Instagram post or a mention in my YouTube videos, but for getting these free things, there are typically key points I must say in my posts. For many influencers, they could just hit these key points but not really agree with it. Personally, I like to be genuine and if I don’t agree with the product or think it is good, I will not endorse it. This will build an authentic audience with my followers and I. In the Forbes Top Influencers: Meet The 30 Social Media Stars of Fashion, Parenting and Pets (Yes, Pets)” article, Clare O’Connor talks about how these average people became top influencers. This list of influencers features many YouTubers that I remember watching back when they did not have much of a following. This shows how these social media influencers gain money from their content and sponsorships and advertisements. Sujan Patel wrote an article for Inc. titled, Should You Pay for Social Influencers? The Pros and Cons of Paid Promotions, and talked about various pros and cons of having influencers being your marketing tool. Some pros were that you can make a contract with them, request to review the content, and essentially get powerful results. Some cons mentioned were that it could be inauthentic, it would cost more to pay the influencer than the ROI of a partnership, and results are not guaranteed.
Meltzer, Lauren. “Social Media ‘Influencers’ Add a New Twist to Adverting.” 8 February 2018.
O’Connor, Clare. “Forbes Top Influencers: Meet The 30 Social Media Stars of Fashion, Parenting and Pets (Yes, Pets)” 26 September 2016. https://www.forbes.com/sites/clareoconnor/2017/09/26/forbes-top-influencers-fashion-pets-parenting/#1eefd7aa7683
Patel, Sujan. “Should You Pay for Social Influencers? The Pros and Cons of Paid Promotions.” 1 July 2017. https://www.inc.com/sujan-patel/should-you-pay-for-social-influencers-the-pros-and.html
Over the years social media has become a powerful tool for brands and advertisers. Celebrities are constantly recruited and paid by brands to post photos with their products and rave about how much they love them, but not without stating that it is an ad of course.
When it comes to promoting products, Instagram and YouTube are the most popular social media platforms to use, “They calculated top YouTubers can fetch up to $300,000 for a video partnership and at least $150,000 on Instagram. (CBS News). The celebrities promoting products aren’t always the celebrities we see in the headlines every day. Youtube bloggers have grown to be increasing popular and have just as strong as a following as some household name celebrities, but can be paid less money to promote a product.
The people who have created a name for themselves solely from their social media postings are referred to as “social media influencers.” A social media influencer isn’t your typical celebrity and the criteria to be a social influencer is very strict; “Influencers can be fitness gurus, gaming addicts, beauty bloggers, fashionistas, foodies, travel experts, etc. They offer an authentic presence on social media based on their copious numbers of followers and level of engagement. Generally speaking, each influencer maintains an audience of at least 10,000 followers on one platform, if not more” (Meltzer). Social media can be very deceiving and create this false idea that they have the ideal lifestyle and that if people use the same products as them, they will have that lifestyle as well.
The brands that choose to promote their products make sure to find a social influencer that shares similar beliefs and look as the brand, along with having a great personality. Everything is done strategically but is still made to look as natural as possible. Instagram model Alexis Ren is the epitome of perfection. She has over 11 million followers and used to make videos with her ex boyfriend of them traveling around the world living the ultimate lifestyle that millennials, and really everyone, craves. She is the perfect endorser because every guy wants her and every girl wants to be her. To make things even better, she apparently loves to play Final Fantasy and has recently become the new face of Final Fantasy XV: A New Empire. By using this seemingly perfect girl next door to promote a video game she supposedly “loves”, the brand is gaining more attention and a following because of Alexis’ popularity on social media and strong fan base. Alexis’ promotion of the game has gained them over $1 million a day (Friederich).
Of course there are many pros and cons of using celebrities and social influencers to promote products. People, millennials especially, are easily influenced by celebrities and are more likely than not to choose a product advertised by a celebrity they like over a product that is not endorsed. At the same time, product endorsements can cause people to lose trust for not only the brand but also the celebrity. If a brand is using a controversial or not well-liked celebrity or social influencer to promote their brand, it can cause a loss of respect from their target audience. If a celebrity or social influencer promotes a product it can cause their fans to lose respect for them for allowing themselves to be paid by a brand to shamelessly promote all over their social media.
Works Cited:
CBS News. (2017, September 23). Inside the big business of being a social media influencer. Retrieved February 19, 2018, from https://www.cbsnews.com/news/business-behind-being-a-social-media-influencer/
Friederich, B. (2017, August 28). Alexis Ren Joins Kate Upton As Latest Super Hottie to Promote Mobile Video Game. Retrieved February 19, 2018, from https://www.maxim.com/women/alexis-ren-mobile-game-ad-2017-8
Meltzer, L. (2018, February 08). Social media "influencers" add a new twist to advertising. Retrieved February 19, 2018, from https://www.cbsnews.com/news/social-media-influencers-brand-advertising/
There are a lot of factors that play into why advertising through social influencers is such an attractive strategy. Influencers are anyone on social channels who has a substantial following base, who shares their lives. People follow influencers because they might enjoy their personality, style, or are generally interested in their lives. The relationship between an influencer and someone they follow is much more intimate than a celebrity and a fan because there is a certain amount of trust and relatability between them. Along with this, influencers have niche audiences which makes targeting messaging towards different consumer groups easier.
According to Adweek, “ influencer marketing's top benefits entail creating authentic content about their brand (87 percent), driving engagement around their brand (77 percent), and driving traffic to their websites or landing pages (56 percent)” (Heine).
The cost for advertising through social influencers is also reasonable, “Earlier this year Forbes released a comprehensive list of the world's top influencers. In the field of fitness alone, the top 10 influencers have a combined reach of 106 million followers. They calculated top YouTubers can fetch up to $300,000 for a video partnership and at least $150,000 on Instagram” (CBS). Considering the amount of followers these influencers are reaching, that is more than most networks are racking up who are charging a lot more for advertisements. Also, the relationship between the influencer and follower consists of a lot of authenticity and trust.
However, influencers are quick to turn down paid partnerships if the product doesn’t represent their brand well. It is about creating an authentic image, and promoting products that you believe in and support (CBS).
Also, being a brand that is oversaturating the influencer sector is risky, because it destroys the organic integrated nature of the strategy. Picking out advertisements on social influencer accounts has also recently been made a lot simpler with #ad labeling requirements, and “Sponsored Posts” Instagram labels, “The conversation suggested that the FTC enables professional athletes to endorse sneakers and Kardashian types to shill for anything without disclosure requirements because audiences assume a material connection by default. Social media stars, who have fewer lines of business and shorter shelf lives, feel unfairly targeted” (Glazer). Now any ordinary person who has successful blogs as a career choice, are being forced to point out their brand partnerships.
It is a careful balancing act, and it takes a lot of research to know which influencers will help to reach goals and reach the right audiences. There are specific categories of influencers that are total gold mines. Beauty, fashion, and lifestyle influencers targeted towards millennial females are a huge market for advertisers. Another category that is filled with a lot of trust and authenticity are “mommy” bloggers.
Works Cited
CBS News. (2017, September 23). Inside the big business of being a social media influencer. Retrieved February 19, 2018, from https://www.cbsnews.com/news/business-behind-being-a-social-media-influencer/
Glazer, MIkey. “Social Media Influencers Stump for More Seamless Product Placement .” Yahoo Entertainment, 6 Feb. 2018, www.yahoo.com/entertainment/social-media-influencers-stump-more-seamless-product-placement-201051638.html+.
Heine, Chris. “8 New Stats About Whether Influencer Marketing Campaigns Actually Work.” – Adweek, Adweek, 1 Dec. 2016, www.adweek.com/digital/8-new-stats-about-whether-influencer-marketing-campaigns-actually-work-174868/.
With social media playing such a large role in our society today, advertising different brands and products have been executed over social media by various social media influencers and celebrities to target specific audiences. Celebrities and influencers are paid by brands to promote their products on social media. Many times the celebrity promoting the product talks about why they recommend the product and why they use it over another. But, I find it interesting that although they speak about why the love the product they always have the word “ad” or “advertisement” somewhere on their post. So, sometimes it makes it hard to believe if they are just saying they enjoy the product because they are being paid or if they actually enjoy it. Though this can seem like a downfall, it doesn’t seem to be one. Even just from celebrities showing a specific product on a social media page it makes their followers want to try it just because their celebrity crush or favorite celebrity uses it. Social media influencers in my opinion are the best people to promote products because, they are different from celebrities. Social media influencers have become “social media famous” because of their posts and the way they promote themselves not because of fame. So, it makes sense why companies would want social media influences to promote their products given that they are simply good at social media techniques. Social media influencers also have a more personal connection to their followers. Brands want specific social media influencers to promote products that go along with what their social media page is like so that their followers are interested. “Influencers use social media platforms to connect with their audience on a personal level. They brand themselves within a specific industry by promoting content that coincides with their values and interests.” (Meltzer). Brands that create products that want to be targeted to a specific audience use social media influencers and celebrities that fit into that category. Specifically, Instagram and YouTube are largely used social media platforms for advertisements. “They calculated top youtubers can fetch up to $300,000 for a video partnership and at least $150,000 on Instagram.” (CBS News). Companies are willing to pay so much money for an advertisement because it’s such an easy way to get their product out there given that millions of people are guaranteed to see their advertisement instantly. Personally, I believe there are more positives than negatives when it comes to online advertising but one major negative would be that sometimes it can be difficult to tell if the person you want to promote your product is the best person to do so. It is very expensive as well so if it happens that they don’t choose the best person for the job they have unfortunately lost a lot of money on a product that they could have gained profit from someone else who could have promoted the product better. “The influencer marketing industry is relatively new, so many processes have yet to be optimized.” Given that the marketing industry is new on social media it makes it difficult to maintain success so quickly. (Mediakix Team).
Cites: Meltzer, Lauren. "Social Media ‘Influencers’ Add a New Twist to Advertising," CBS Marketplace 8 Feb. 2018. Web.
"Inside the Big Business of Being a Social Media Influencer," CBS News 23 Sept. 2017. Web.
MediaKix Team. “Influencer Marketing Vs. Celebrity Endorsements: Which Is Better?” Www.mediakix.com, 6 Dec. 2017. Web
Brands and advertisers are using social media influencers, like bloggers and Youtubers, to target a specific type of audience. They’re doing this by having the influencer post photos of themselves using/wearing/ or with the brand’s product. Additionally, some Youtubers will even make sponsored videos showing themselves using a certain product or reviewing a product that they were paid to use.
Of course there are pros and cons to this method of advertising. Brands are able to use a Youtuber, who’s general audience is typically on the younger side, to sell their products. This is partially because younger people are more impressionable and more likely to buy something because their “favorite youtuber” said so. I’ve done this before too… one of the beauty guru’s I watch on Youtube said she used a Lush product that really helped her skin. Since we have similar skin types, I went to Lush and purchased the product (it has worked wonders so far). The point is, simply because I trust this person, for whatever reason, I went out and bought a product she uses. The video was not sponsored by Lush so they did not pay her to say the things she did and Youtuber still gave Lush free advertising because of it.
The influencer I was watching is considered a Macro influencer, which means she between 50k and 2 million subscribers on Youtube (Meltzer). She has 1 million subscribers and frequently has sponsorship deals with makeup brands. Advertisers look at how successful an influencer is before they decide if they want to use them to advertise their products. It is important that the person they are paying will actually be able to increase sales to an extent. Additionally, they look for influencers with the highest level of engagement on various media platforms (Meltzer). This is important because someone could have a lot of followers but no engagement. I have 3,000 followers on twitter but very low engagement. A macro influencer usually has a steady stream of engagement, especially because fans view them as celebrities so they get treated as such. Advertisers know that the higher the level of engagement, the more likely fans are going to be to purchase the product the influencer is advertising.
Something that is impacting the success of influencers being paid to sponsor a product is that with new rules on social media platforms, they must disclose to their audience that the post or video is a paid sponsorship. On instagram they either have to put in the location section that the post is a paid sponsorship with xyz company or they can hashtag #ad somewhere in the caption. On Youtube, in my experience the Youtuber will disclose in the beginning of the video and additionally in the title of the video it will say #ad. If they don’t do that, #ad will be in the description box. The problem with this is that it causes a big disconnect with viewers (Glazer). I know for a fact that I am 10x less likely to like a post or watch a video all the way through if it’s sponsored. For example, I was scrolling through instagram once and saw Michael Phelps posted a photo with his family all smiling. I thought it was cute and liked it, however, once I realized it was a paid sponsored photo for Colgate toothpaste I unliked it. I was sort of annoyed because Colgate has nothing to do with Michael Phelps’ brand.
Additionally, these top influencers get paid a ridiculous amount of money for these paid sponsorships. Typically, influencers on Instagram are paid around $300 per post. That number can vary though depending on the amount of followers someone has (Morrison). Knowing someone is getting paid a large sum of money to simply pose with a product they probably don’t even use (because usually the brand or company will send them the product for free, so how does anyone know if they mean what they’re saying about the product?), is extremely frustrating. I find for that reason alone, a lot of people don’t enjoy liking those posts because they think influencers shouldn’t be making that much money by simply posting a photo.
There is nothing wrong with taking a paid sponsorship with a brand, especially if it’s one you like. However, it creates a divide between the influencer and the viewers that will only continue to grow with the more sponsorships influencers get.
Works Cited:
Glazer, Mikey. “Social Media Influencers Stump for More Seamless Product Placement.”Yahoo!, Yahoo!, 6 Feb. 2018, www.yahoo.com/entertainment/social-media-influencers-stump-more-seamless-product-placement-201051638.html.
Meltzer, Lauren. “Social Media ‘Influencers’ Add a New Twist to Advertising.” CBS News, CBS Interactive, 8 Feb. 2018, www.cbsnews.com/news/social-media-influencers-brand-advertising/.
Morrison, Kimberlee. “Sponsored Instagram Posts Average $300 Each. Here's a Look at Who Makes More (or Less).” – Adweek, Adweek, 15 Feb. 2017, www.adweek.com/digital/what-is-the-real-cost-of-instagram-influence-infographics/.
Over the years, influencers on social media have become increasingly popular for promoting products and spreading brand awareness. It is so large that it’s a 1 billion dollar industry and expected to grow to a 2.4 billion dollar industry in two years (CBS News). Almost every single person on social media that has a substantial number of followers has done some type of promotion for a brand, for which they received compensation. However, most of these companies don’t just pick a random person and ask them to promote their product. They typically use someone who would reach their target audience and make sure to choose the right social media platform. The author of a blog post on Onalytica about influencers and choosing the right platform says, “Each channel has a different audience and culture, meaning that content differs highly- in style, value and the way in which it’s shared” (Influencer Marketing). For example, if a makeup brand wants to use an influencer, they should choose either a popular makeup artist/guru on YouTube or Instagram, since that’s where most of their audience would be watching makeup videos/reviews and looking at makeup looks.
YouTube and Instagram are very large platforms to promote products on. According to CBS News, top YouTubers can get up to $300,000 for a video partnership and people on Instagram have a one to one ratio with followers to dollars per year, such as people with 100,000 followers make around 100,000 a year (CBS News). The advantages of using influencers to promote products and spread brand awareness is the easiness of reaching a large audience. If a company partners with someone who has 10 million followers on Instagram, that post will be seen by thousands of eyes. People will become quickly familiar with the brand and they also get to see someone they idolize use the product. The chance of them purchasing the product increase by quite a lot. Using influencers can increase sales and get the public more familiar with the brand, but there can also be some disadvantages to using them. One downside is that these influencers are still just regular people. With that, comes the danger of controversy. One of the most popular YouTubers recently tried making light of the Holocaust, leaving many brands associated with him questioning their next step (Heine). In a post about this incident, Sami Main says, “But at what point does it become too risky for a brand to partner with a bona fide global influencer like PewDiePie, who has 53 million YouTube subscribers?” (Main). And this is a good point and reality for many brands. When controversy happens, they have to determine the right steps to take, otherwise it could be catastrophic for their brand and image. There are both advantages and disadvantages to using influencers to promote a brand. The company just needs to figure out the right steps to take and ensure that the risk doesn’t outweigh the payoff for them.
CBS News. “Inside the Big Business of Being a Social Media Influencer.” CBS News, CBS Interactive, 23 Sept. 2017, www.cbsnews.com/news/business-behind-being-a-social-media-influencer/.
Heine, Chris. “YouTube's Biggest Star, PewDiePie, Has Been Dropped by Disney's Maker Studios Over Anti-Semitism.” – Adweek, Adweek, 13 Feb. 2017, www.adweek.com/digital/disney-studio-has-dropped-youtube-star-pewdiepie-after-an-expose-reveals-anti-semitic-videos/.
“Influencer Marketing: Where Are Your Target Audience Being Influenced?” Onalytica, 5 Jan. 2018, www.onalytica.com/blog/posts/influencer-marketing-where-are-your-target-audience-being-influenced/.
Main, Sami. "PewDiePie and the Potential Dangers of Social Influencer Marketing for Brands." Adweek. N.p., 15 Feb. 2017. Web. 14 Feb. 2018.
When scrolling through your Instagram feed, you are bound to see an advertisement at least three posts in. I personally follow a lot of instagram influencers. Whitney Simmons, for example, is a fitness guru. She has a public Youtube account, Instagram, and Snapchat. I have been following her since before she became verified; since then, she has made a strong name for herself in the fitness world and along with 1.4 million followers on Instagram, now has her own clothing line.
Along with having her own workout line, Whitney is also an ‘ambassador’ for Gym Shark. Gym Shark is a clothing company that sells workout apparel for men and woman. They have a list of ambassadors on their website who all refer to themselves as ‘Gym Shark Athletes’ in their social media bios. These fitness junkies all post videos of their workouts wearing strictly gym shark apparel as a kind of advertisement. This relationship is mutually beneficial. Gym Shark most likely sends them discounted, possibly free, apparel, and in turn, all the ambassadors have to do is wear them and post videos in the apparel. This is a prime example of how brands are using social media influencers to target audiences. All of the ambassadors have large followings, therefore, a significant amount of people are seeing the companies’ clothing.
Without these ambassadors it is possible that Gym Shark would have significantly less sales and reach a lot less people. I did not know about the brand until Whitney became an ambassador. Gym Shark successfully spreads the word about their clothing line through the use of influencers. In the article, Social Media Influencers Add a New Twist to Advertising, author Ryan Detert discusses the inevitable benefits of using influencers for advertising. “There is no one that I’ve seen that has said, ‘No, It’s not for us.’ There’s too much ROI. There’s too much money you can make off of this, its too integral to the branding, the persona of a brand, to not be on these social platforms and to not integrate or collaborate with a partner that can speak to their audiences.”
This quote proves the success of marketing by influencers, In fact, this advertising tactic receives “twice as many sales as paid ads and costumers that find a company through influencer marketing have a 37 percent higher retention rate” (Grossman).
One of the plusses of this particular influencer relationship is the authenticity. Simmons, for example, is a very genuine influencer in the sense that she has a good connection with her followers, posting what they want to see and replying to their comments. Her message seems sincere and she makes an effort to help people trying to reach their fitness goals. Despite Simmons’ efforts, this authenticity can also be influencers’ downfalls. Oftentimes, there are influencers who don’t care about what the product is, or if they even support it. As long as they’re getting paid, they don’t care. It is not authentic in the slightest. Influencers should not only want their followers’ trust, but also promote products that are aligned with their own needs and beliefs.
continued: In a CBS news article, one social media influencer and product relationship is outlined, saying, “One of our first big deals, and we were able to offer a beauty vlogger $30,000 for a video. And I was super excited to send the offer, because it's like, it's kinda fun -- that's a lot of money to give somebody to make a five-minute YouTube video. And she turned it down, because the shade of foundation didn't match her skin tone. And she said, 'If I do this video, all of my followers will go out and buy this, and then I will lose their trust,' and I was so impressed that you could turn down $30,000, because I would have, I mean, give me that foundation. I'll make that video today," Nord said” (CBS news.) This influencer is displaying the proper attitude and mind set for a successful influencer. She made the right decision by sticking by her followers. I see so many influencers post ads about ‘fit tea’ and ‘sugar bear gummies’ when it has been said that these products do not work. It does not look good on their part to be posting and ignoring the fact that they are fooling their followers. The over arching negative theme for influencers is that it is easy to be falsely advertised. In a time where people are making thousands of dollars by just promoting a product, there is going to be some people who aren’t doing it for the right reasons.
Page Grossman. The Good and the Bad of Influencer Marketing. relate.zendesk.com/articles/good-bad-influencer-marketing/.
Cites: Meltzer, Lauren. "Social Media ‘Influencers’ Add a New Twist to Advertising," CBS Marketplace 8 Feb. 2018. Web.
"Inside the Big Business of Being a Social Media Influencer," CBS News 23 Sept. 2017. Web.
Brands and advertisers are using social media influencers in order to increase brand awareness as well as promote their products. By using social media influencer such as bloggers and youtubers, with the use of analytics, they are able to gauge who their messages will be broadcasted to when relying on social media influencers to promote their business. It is very clear that "brands want to go where the eyeballs are," (News, CBS.) stated by James Nord, the founder and CEO of Fohr Card. and they can quickly reach their target audiences this way! While some influencers are quick to jump at opportunities to partner with brands to obtain revenue, most influencers are strict in decided which brand they will promote and who they will actually partner with. These partnerships typically align very symmetrically with their lifestyles. In an article written by Lauren Meltzer she states that “Influencers use social media platforms to connect with their audience on a personal level. They brand themselves within a specific industry by promoting content that coincides with their values and interests. For example, someone who correlates with fashion would be more inclined to promote a clothing company's T-shirt as opposed to a travel agency's sale on a vacation package to an exotic destination.” (Meltzer.) This is important because an audience member who identifies as a “gamer” and plays gaming consoles frequently is not likely to be following a fashion blogger. It is about finding the right fit for the audience that the influencer targets. There are pros and cons to advertising through social media influencers. When done correctly and through the right platform and the right influencer, making sure that lifestyles and content match the product or business, influencer marketing can be extremely successful and can be beneficial to businesses as well as influencers who can ultimately receive a portion of sales or revenue, a deal for the initial promotion, as well as the ability to offer their subscribers a unique and exclusive discount! But, if a blogger who focuses mostly on baking posts something about a BMW, it just doesn’t make any sense and then proposes a ‘lack of realness.’ Speaking on the ‘lack of realness’ an article written by insightpool.com, it was expressed that “[the] reason the FTC guidelines could be a problem is that it makes potential customers skeptical about the endorsement. The report states that “eMarketer found that more than 30% of women think that posts disclosed with a required #ad or #spon (“sponsored”) tag are inauthentic.” In order to make the ad legal, companies must sacrifice authenticity.” (“The Pros and Cons of Paid Influencer Marketing.”) When audience members do not believe their favorite influencers are being authentic, they can quickly lose interest making it extremely hard for the influencer to post anything without skepticism. While it is beneficial if the influencer actually uses the product or likes the brand that they are promoting, that is not always the case, but authenticity is key, people are more likely to be receptive to your brand or message if it is someone that they consider to be trustworthy. All in all, social media marketing and influencer marketing are becoming extremely popular ways to reach audiences and has shown us to follow where the target population is the most accessible. For an adult between 50-60 years old who is probably not on social media, this method does not seem to be very appropriate, but if your target is teens and young adults, you may have just reached the best place to market yourself – the place where the lives of young adults are digitally documented and accessed multiple times throughout any given day.
Meltzer, Lauren. “Social media "influencers" add a new twist to advertising.” CBS News, CBS Interactive, 8 Feb. 2018, www.cbsnews.com/news/social-media-influencers-brand-advertising/.
News, CBS. “Inside the big business of being a social media influencer.” CBS News, CBS Interactive, 23 Sept. 2017, www.cbsnews.com/news/business-behind-being-a-social-media-influencer/.
“The Pros and Cons of Paid Influencer Marketing.” Insightpool, 1 May 2017, insightpool.com/pros-and-cons-of-paid-influencer-marketing/.
While digital media is still in its early years, brand advertising has become more and more prevalent on the new media platforms. Digital media has quickly taken over the world, and companies recognize how many people have converted to smartphones, and just how valuable that is to their brand. Using social media in a variety of ways has quickly become one of the best, if not the best, ways to reach your audience and beyond.
It is no secret why the digital audiences are continuing to see more and more advertisements on their digital mediums. According to CBS news, social media has grown to a 1-billion-dollar industry and is expected to continue growing into a 2.4-billion-dollar industry (CBS News). Companies have multiple strategies for targeting audience data. Advertising through social media versus traditional media like television is much different. Not only must social media advertisements be quicker and more instantly captivating than TV ads, but they oftentimes need to relate to the specific user viewing them. Now more than ever can our smartphones track our interests, leaving advertisements on Instagram, Twitter, and Facebook to be specific to one users collection of data. The use of celebrity social media accounts has also quickly become a great way for companies to not only reach millions of viewers, but to also reach very specific sets of audiences. This is explained well in an article by Onalytica in which it explains how “each channel has a different audience and culture, meaning that content differs highly – in style, value and the way that it is shared (Onalytica). This is essentially explaining how celebrity endorsements through social media are a great way for companies to directly target a very specific audience. If you want to reach a large amount of men who like sports, for example, you might target LeBron James as a promoter to offer compensation tor posting about a product. The hit Netflix show Stranger Things, for example, did just that to promote the start of the new season. One of his posts received millions of views and over half a million likes which said “Man o Man I can’t wait for this!! So EXCITED!!! #StrangerThings” (USAtoday). This post may seem casual, but that’s the point. While LeBron James may actually enjoy the show, this is clearly a paid plug by Netflix.
While there are some negatives to advertising through social media, I believe that the positives currently far outweigh the negatives. Using social media as an advertisement medium is an unbelievably effective way to reach millions of potential customers in an efficient and cost effective way. Using celebrity endorsements is an added benefit to social media advertising that is unlike any other medium. Social media posts seem more sincere than commercial endorsements. One of the few negatives that can come from social media advertising is the risk of a post receiving negative backlash. When this happens, it can be a huge hit to a company’s brand perception. However, with all of the instant attention an advertisement gets on social media, I believe it is currently the most effective way to advertise. Companies know their digital audience like no other audience in any other medium. This makes for a very effective way of targeting specific people in order to make as much money as possible. While the amount of data collected should be concerning to consumers, there is no doubt that companies will continue to take advantage of social media as the newest and most effective method of advertising and reaching a large and dynamic consumer base.
1. CBS News. “Inside the Big Business of Being a Social Media Influencer.” CBS News, CBS Interactive, 23 Sept. 2017, www.cbsnews.com/news/business-behind-being-a-social-media-influencer/. 2. “Influencer Marketing: Where Are Your Target Audience Being Influenced?” Onalytica, 5 Jan. 2018, www.onalytica.com/blog/posts/influencer-marketing-where-are-your-target-audience-being-influenced/. 3. “LeBron James is excited for TV show Stranger Things to return.” USA Today, Gannett Satellite Information Network, 2 Oct. 2017, lebronwire.usatoday.com/2017/10/02/lebron-james-the-tv-man-excited-for-stranger-things/.
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Brands and advertisers are using social media influencers to target certain demographics and their niche audiences. They pay social media “celebrities” to post pictures while wearing or using their products.
ReplyDeleteThe plusses of using influencers to promote products are that brands and advertisers are able to choose exactly who, when and where they want to target. Wiley writes, “The most strategic marketers and agencies will look into their influencers’ audiences so they can target niches within verticals. Let’s say you’re looking to market a home decor product or service. Is your ideal audience interested in DIY, high-end, eco-friendly, modern? When you have the ability to drill down to find the right influencer, your brand aligns with their personal brand and the result is an authentic (and persuasive) content experience for audiences” (Wiley). At my internship at a fashion brand, they used influencers to show off a new line of products. This worked well for the company that I worked at because it was a cheap way to advertise products to a niche group of people – those that were adventurous, young and liked keeping up with recent fashion trends. The company chose influencers that were in their mid-20’s and had over 100,000 followers on Instagram. These influencers had a style that was representative of the brand and had to shoot in a location that matched the brand’s aesthetic.
The benefit of using social media influencers is that the advertising platforms are free and it looks more natural than an advertisement with a celebrity. As Meltzer writes, “In recent years, traditional celebrity endorsements have taken a back seat to brands' influencer-created content. So stars like Paris Hilton and Kim Kardashian have been replaced by that familiar, yet unfamiliar face that popped up in your feed moments ago” (Meltzer). This is very common because celebrity endorsements come with a large price tag. Those with many followers but are not a household name, do not require such high pricing and they have more one to one engagement with their followers.
Not only do the brands benefit by going with an influencer, but the influencer benefits as well. CBS News published an article that said, “Earlier this year Forbes released a comprehensive list of the world's top influencers. In the field of fitness alone, the top 10 influencers have a combined reach of 106 million followers. They calculated top YouTubers can fetch up to $300,000 for a video partnership and at least $150,000 on Instagram” (CBS News). Influencers are making a killing off of advertising products and they can do it all right from their homes. An issue for these Youtubers and Instagram stars is that it can eventually look unauthentic when they promote many of the same kind of brands or products. Viewers are not stupid and know that they are being paid to post reviews about their products.
Another minus of influencers is that sometimes if you follow a lot of the same kind of people, you can be bombarded with one product and it becomes annoying because you know it is forced. For example, Fit Teas and Sugar Bear Hair are constantly promoted on accounts I follow. Most of these accounts are teenage girls and young woman because the companies know that young girls and women will follow them and want to be like them, therefore they will buy the products.
I wouldn’t mind being a social media influencer. You get to work with awesome brands, and get paid to test out products. My fear would be that I didn’t support a product and would only discover this after posting.
Works Cited:
CBS News. “Inside the Big Business of Being Social Media Influencer.” CBS News, CBS Interactive, 23 Sept. 2017.
Meltzer, Lauren. “Social Media ‘Influencers’ Add a New Twist to Advertising.” CBS News. CBS Interactive, 8 Feb. 2018.
Wiley, Danielle. “Critical Strategies For Successful Influencer Marketing Campaigns.” Forbes, Forbes Magazine, 17 Jan. 2018.
Lauren Tuckman
ReplyDeleteBrands and advertisers are using social media such as Youtube and instagram influencers to target audiences in many ways. There are both plusses and minuses of using social media starts to promote products.
The most significant way for a brand to advertise itself is through celebrity endorsements, which are, “when an actor, musician, athlete or other pop culture figure promotes a business’s products, series or brand” (Influencer Marketing vs. Celebrity Endorsements: Which is better?). Influencer marketing is a new advertising model that uses popular online presences to promote businesses. The influencer promoter pulls the power of “Youtubers,” and “Instagrammers,” who are known as popular, “social media influences,” to sell products (Influencer Marketing vs. celebrity Endorsements: Which is better?).
The more time consumers spend on social media, the easier it is for advertisers to reach the consumers. A benefit of celebrity advertising is that due to their “likeness,” celebrities are capable of appealing to bigger and more, “diverse,” audiences (Influencer Marketing vs. Celebrity Endorsements: Which is Better?). Celebrity use was once constrained to only media and advertising such as radio, television, and magazine advertisements; they can now be used to promote on all types of media platforms (Influencer Marketing vs. Celebrity Endorsements: Which is Better?). a major disadvantage of promoting using celebrities is that it is not cost efficient. The cost to hire celebrities to endorse products can often be too great for a specific marketing budget (Influencer Marketing vs. Celebrity Endorsements: Which is Better?). Additionally, the celebrity endorsements and marketing influencers both try to conquer the power of specific pop-culture personalities. Because of the conventional demand, “celebrity endorsements are usually intended to reach as broad an audience as possible (Influencer Marketing vs. Celebrity Endorsements: Which is Better?).
PewDiePie, YouTube’s biggest star found himself in trouble when brands realized the, “potential perils of social influencer marketing,” (Main). The Wall Street Journal addressed the fact that PewDiePie had posted specific videos with, “anti-Semitic messages” (Main). This type of advertising is frowned upon in the media and YouTube and Disney decided they would distance themselves from PewDiePie even though he was digital media’s, “biggest,” celebrity (Main). Many of the videos that PewDiePie posted were over the top, making fun of different religions and therefore, advertisers had strong reasoning to distance themselves from him. Although this specific celebrity claimed that the making of these videos was for, “entertainment,” most advertisers have a no tolerance policy for this type of material, because it is offensive and turns away viewers (Main).
Lauren Tuckman continued....
ReplyDeleteThe list of celebrities who have made millions of dollars by sponsoring products on social media goes on and on, but in this day and age an individual doesn’t necessarily need to be a “household name to be a social media influencer” (CBS). Ryan Clark has become the head of a one-man ad agency that has the help of a photographer, but otherwise is all on his own. Clark is paid to post photos and videos on social media for brands such as Armani and BMW (CBS). He stated that, “It might seem like a hobby, but running two instagram accounts with nearly three million followers is serious business” (CBS). One of the most interesting points that Clark makes about Instagram is that companies should be earning an equivalent to the number of followers that they have. For example, for the fashion and beauty industry, 100,000 followers on Instagram should be equivalent to $100,000 a year (CBS). Finding influencers who are not celebrities might help a company’s bottom line.
Works Cited
“INFLUENCER MARKETING VS. CELEBRITY ENDORSEMENTS: WHICH IS BETTER?” Mediakix, 6 Dec. 2017, mediakix.com/2017/12/influencer-marketing-vs-celebrity-endorsements-pros-cons/#gs.M4tIHkw.
Main, Sami. "PewDiePie and the Potential Dangers of Social Influencer Marketing for Brands." Adweek. N.p., 15 Feb. 2017. Web. 14 Feb. 2018.
News, CBS. “Inside the Big Business of Being a Social Media Influencer.” CBS News, CBS Interactive, 23 Sept. 2017, www.cbsnews.com/news/business-behind-being-a-social-media-influencer/.
A lot of times when you are scrolling through social media, you see social media influencers advertising a product of a certain company. This is a new way of marketing. A lot of times, social media influencers are sponsored or get sent free products to advertise them. This is a really smart way to get your product out there. Social media influencers typically have a large following so it makes sense to use them for marketing. Although this might be a great idea, there are also cons about this. A lot of times when Youtubers or Instagram influencers advertise products, we are unsure whether or not they are genuine. They are getting paid regardless, so obviously they will say something good about the products.
ReplyDeleteIn the Social Media ‘Influencers’ Add a New Twist to Advertising article, Lauren Meltzer says, “As the power of social media continues to grow, it's arguably fair to say influencers will continue to have a stronger impact on consumer brand awareness. In turn, brands will be required to shift their strategies, conforming to this new norm as influencer-follower relationships expand. “ (Meltzer 2018.) Meltzer begins to explain how important social media marketing is especially when trying to target millennials and Gen Zers. Meltzer also mentions in the article that having someone with high engagement versus followers is a plus to influencer marketing. This is a bonus when you want people to buy your items rather than just get impressions.
As a social media influencer myself, some minuses to this sort of marketing would have to be the authenticity of the product, company, and influencer. A lot of times, I get sent free products in return for an Instagram post or a mention in my YouTube videos, but for getting these free things, there are typically key points I must say in my posts. For many influencers, they could just hit these key points but not really agree with it. Personally, I like to be genuine and if I don’t agree with the product or think it is good, I will not endorse it. This will build an authentic audience with my followers and I.
In the Forbes Top Influencers: Meet The 30 Social Media Stars of Fashion, Parenting and Pets (Yes, Pets)” article, Clare O’Connor talks about how these average people became top influencers. This list of influencers features many YouTubers that I remember watching back when they did not have much of a following. This shows how these social media influencers gain money from their content and sponsorships and advertisements.
Sujan Patel wrote an article for Inc. titled, Should You Pay for Social Influencers? The Pros and Cons of Paid Promotions, and talked about various pros and cons of having influencers being your marketing tool. Some pros were that you can make a contract with them, request to review the content, and essentially get powerful results. Some cons mentioned were that it could be inauthentic, it would cost more to pay the influencer than the ROI of a partnership, and results are not guaranteed.
Meltzer, Lauren. “Social Media ‘Influencers’ Add a New Twist to Adverting.” 8 February 2018.
O’Connor, Clare. “Forbes Top Influencers: Meet The 30 Social Media Stars of Fashion, Parenting and Pets (Yes, Pets)” 26 September 2016. https://www.forbes.com/sites/clareoconnor/2017/09/26/forbes-top-influencers-fashion-pets-parenting/#1eefd7aa7683
Patel, Sujan. “Should You Pay for Social Influencers? The Pros and Cons of Paid Promotions.” 1 July 2017. https://www.inc.com/sujan-patel/should-you-pay-for-social-influencers-the-pros-and.html
Over the years social media has become a powerful tool for brands and advertisers. Celebrities are constantly recruited and paid by brands to post photos with their products and rave about how much they love them, but not without stating that it is an ad of course.
ReplyDeleteWhen it comes to promoting products, Instagram and YouTube are the most popular social media platforms to use, “They calculated top YouTubers can fetch up to $300,000 for a video partnership and at least $150,000 on Instagram. (CBS News). The celebrities promoting products aren’t always the celebrities we see in the headlines every day. Youtube bloggers have grown to be increasing popular and have just as strong as a following as some household name celebrities, but can be paid less money to promote a product.
The people who have created a name for themselves solely from their social media postings are referred to as “social media influencers.” A social media influencer isn’t your typical celebrity and the criteria to be a social influencer is very strict; “Influencers can be fitness gurus, gaming addicts, beauty bloggers, fashionistas, foodies, travel experts, etc. They offer an authentic presence on social media based on their copious numbers of followers and level of engagement. Generally speaking, each influencer maintains an audience of at least 10,000 followers on one platform, if not more” (Meltzer). Social media can be very deceiving and create this false idea that they have the ideal lifestyle and that if people use the same products as them, they will have that lifestyle as well.
The brands that choose to promote their products make sure to find a social influencer that shares similar beliefs and look as the brand, along with having a great personality. Everything is done strategically but is still made to look as natural as possible. Instagram model Alexis Ren is the epitome of perfection. She has over 11 million followers and used to make videos with her ex boyfriend of them traveling around the world living the ultimate lifestyle that millennials, and really everyone, craves. She is the perfect endorser because every guy wants her and every girl wants to be her. To make things even better, she apparently loves to play Final Fantasy and has recently become the new face of Final Fantasy XV: A New Empire. By using this seemingly perfect girl next door to promote a video game she supposedly “loves”, the brand is gaining more attention and a following because of Alexis’ popularity on social media and strong fan base. Alexis’ promotion of the game has gained them over $1 million a day (Friederich).
Of course there are many pros and cons of using celebrities and social influencers to promote products. People, millennials especially, are easily influenced by celebrities and are more likely than not to choose a product advertised by a celebrity they like over a product that is not endorsed. At the same time, product endorsements can cause people to lose trust for not only the brand but also the celebrity. If a brand is using a controversial or not well-liked celebrity or social influencer to promote their brand, it can cause a loss of respect from their target audience. If a celebrity or social influencer promotes a product it can cause their fans to lose respect for them for allowing themselves to be paid by a brand to shamelessly promote all over their social media.
Works Cited:
CBS News. (2017, September 23). Inside the big business of being a social media influencer. Retrieved February 19, 2018, from https://www.cbsnews.com/news/business-behind-being-a-social-media-influencer/
Friederich, B. (2017, August 28). Alexis Ren Joins Kate Upton As Latest Super Hottie to Promote Mobile Video Game. Retrieved February 19, 2018, from https://www.maxim.com/women/alexis-ren-mobile-game-ad-2017-8
Meltzer, L. (2018, February 08). Social media "influencers" add a new twist to advertising. Retrieved February 19, 2018, from https://www.cbsnews.com/news/social-media-influencers-brand-advertising/
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ReplyDeleteThere are a lot of factors that play into why advertising through social influencers is such an attractive strategy. Influencers are anyone on social channels who has a substantial following base, who shares their lives. People follow influencers because they might enjoy their personality, style, or are generally interested in their lives. The relationship between an influencer and someone they follow is much more intimate than a celebrity and a fan because there is a certain amount of trust and relatability between them. Along with this, influencers have niche audiences which makes targeting messaging towards different consumer groups easier.
ReplyDeleteAccording to Adweek, “ influencer marketing's top benefits entail creating authentic content about their brand (87 percent), driving engagement around their brand (77 percent), and driving traffic to their websites or landing pages (56 percent)” (Heine).
The cost for advertising through social influencers is also reasonable, “Earlier this year Forbes released a comprehensive list of the world's top influencers. In the field of fitness alone, the top 10 influencers have a combined reach of 106 million followers. They calculated top YouTubers can fetch up to $300,000 for a video partnership and at least $150,000 on Instagram” (CBS). Considering the amount of followers these influencers are reaching, that is more than most networks are racking up who are charging a lot more for advertisements. Also, the relationship between the influencer and follower consists of a lot of authenticity and trust.
However, influencers are quick to turn down paid partnerships if the product doesn’t represent their brand well. It is about creating an authentic image, and promoting products that you believe in and support (CBS).
Also, being a brand that is oversaturating the influencer sector is risky, because it destroys the organic integrated nature of the strategy. Picking out advertisements on social influencer accounts has also recently been made a lot simpler with #ad labeling requirements, and “Sponsored Posts” Instagram labels, “The conversation suggested that the FTC enables professional athletes to endorse sneakers and Kardashian types to shill for anything without disclosure requirements because audiences assume a material connection by default. Social media stars, who have fewer lines of business and shorter shelf lives, feel unfairly targeted” (Glazer). Now any ordinary person who has successful blogs as a career choice, are being forced to point out their brand partnerships.
It is a careful balancing act, and it takes a lot of research to know which influencers will help to reach goals and reach the right audiences. There are specific categories of influencers that are total gold mines. Beauty, fashion, and lifestyle influencers targeted towards millennial females are a huge market for advertisers. Another category that is filled with a lot of trust and authenticity are “mommy” bloggers.
Works Cited
CBS News. (2017, September 23). Inside the big business of being a social media influencer. Retrieved February 19, 2018, from https://www.cbsnews.com/news/business-behind-being-a-social-media-influencer/
Glazer, MIkey. “Social Media Influencers Stump for More Seamless Product Placement .” Yahoo Entertainment, 6 Feb. 2018, www.yahoo.com/entertainment/social-media-influencers-stump-more-seamless-product-placement-201051638.html+.
Heine, Chris. “8 New Stats About Whether Influencer Marketing Campaigns Actually Work.” – Adweek, Adweek, 1 Dec. 2016, www.adweek.com/digital/8-new-stats-about-whether-influencer-marketing-campaigns-actually-work-174868/.
Audrey Rowe ...
ReplyDeleteWith social media playing such a large role in our society today, advertising different brands and products have been executed over social media by various social media influencers and celebrities to target specific audiences. Celebrities and influencers are paid by brands to promote their products on social media. Many times the celebrity promoting the product talks about why they recommend the product and why they use it over another. But, I find it interesting that although they speak about why the love the product they always have the word “ad” or “advertisement” somewhere on their post. So, sometimes it makes it hard to believe if they are just saying they enjoy the product because they are being paid or if they actually enjoy it. Though this can seem like a downfall, it doesn’t seem to be one. Even just from celebrities showing a specific product on a social media page it makes their followers want to try it just because their celebrity crush or favorite celebrity uses it.
ReplyDeleteSocial media influencers in my opinion are the best people to promote products because, they are different from celebrities. Social media influencers have become “social media famous” because of their posts and the way they promote themselves not because of fame. So, it makes sense why companies would want social media influences to promote their products given that they are simply good at social media techniques. Social media influencers also have a more personal connection to their followers. Brands want specific social media influencers to promote products that go along with what their social media page is like so that their followers are interested. “Influencers use social media platforms to connect with their audience on a personal level. They brand themselves within a specific industry by promoting content that coincides with their values and interests.” (Meltzer). Brands that create products that want to be targeted to a specific audience use social media influencers and celebrities that fit into that category.
Specifically, Instagram and YouTube are largely used social media platforms for advertisements. “They calculated top youtubers can fetch up to $300,000 for a video partnership and at least $150,000 on Instagram.” (CBS News). Companies are willing to pay so much money for an advertisement because it’s such an easy way to get their product out there given that millions of people are guaranteed to see their advertisement instantly. Personally, I believe there are more positives than negatives when it comes to online advertising but one major negative would be that sometimes it can be difficult to tell if the person you want to promote your product is the best person to do so. It is very expensive as well so if it happens that they don’t choose the best person for the job they have unfortunately lost a lot of money on a product that they could have gained profit from someone else who could have promoted the product better. “The influencer marketing industry is relatively new, so many processes have yet to be optimized.” Given that the marketing industry is new on social media it makes it difficult to maintain success so quickly. (Mediakix Team).
Cites:
Meltzer, Lauren. "Social Media ‘Influencers’ Add a New Twist to Advertising," CBS Marketplace 8 Feb. 2018. Web.
"Inside the Big Business of Being a Social Media Influencer," CBS News 23 Sept. 2017. Web.
MediaKix Team. “Influencer Marketing Vs. Celebrity Endorsements: Which Is Better?” Www.mediakix.com, 6 Dec. 2017. Web
Brands and advertisers are using social media influencers, like bloggers and Youtubers, to target a specific type of audience. They’re doing this by having the influencer post photos of themselves using/wearing/ or with the brand’s product. Additionally, some Youtubers will even make sponsored videos showing themselves using a certain product or reviewing a product that they were paid to use.
ReplyDeleteOf course there are pros and cons to this method of advertising. Brands are able to use a Youtuber, who’s general audience is typically on the younger side, to sell their products. This is partially because younger people are more impressionable and more likely to buy something because their “favorite youtuber” said so. I’ve done this before too… one of the beauty guru’s I watch on Youtube said she used a Lush product that really helped her skin. Since we have similar skin types, I went to Lush and purchased the product (it has worked wonders so far). The point is, simply because I trust this person, for whatever reason, I went out and bought a product she uses. The video was not sponsored by Lush so they did not pay her to say the things she did and Youtuber still gave Lush free advertising because of it.
The influencer I was watching is considered a Macro influencer, which means she between 50k and 2 million subscribers on Youtube (Meltzer). She has 1 million subscribers and frequently has sponsorship deals with makeup brands. Advertisers look at how successful an influencer is before they decide if they want to use them to advertise their products. It is important that the person they are paying will actually be able to increase sales to an extent. Additionally, they look for influencers with the highest level of engagement on various media platforms (Meltzer). This is important because someone could have a lot of followers but no engagement. I have 3,000 followers on twitter but very low engagement. A macro influencer usually has a steady stream of engagement, especially because fans view them as celebrities so they get treated as such. Advertisers know that the higher the level of engagement, the more likely fans are going to be to purchase the product the influencer is advertising.
Something that is impacting the success of influencers being paid to sponsor a product is that with new rules on social media platforms, they must disclose to their audience that the post or video is a paid sponsorship. On instagram they either have to put in the location section that the post is a paid sponsorship with xyz company or they can hashtag #ad somewhere in the caption. On Youtube, in my experience the Youtuber will disclose in the beginning of the video and additionally in the title of the video it will say #ad. If they don’t do that, #ad will be in the description box. The problem with this is that it causes a big disconnect with viewers (Glazer). I know for a fact that I am 10x less likely to like a post or watch a video all the way through if it’s sponsored. For example, I was scrolling through instagram once and saw Michael Phelps posted a photo with his family all smiling. I thought it was cute and liked it, however, once I realized it was a paid sponsored photo for Colgate toothpaste I unliked it. I was sort of annoyed because Colgate has nothing to do with Michael Phelps’ brand.
Additionally, these top influencers get paid a ridiculous amount of money for these paid sponsorships. Typically, influencers on Instagram are paid around $300 per post. That number can vary though depending on the amount of followers someone has (Morrison). Knowing someone is getting paid a large sum of money to simply pose with a product they probably don’t even use (because usually the brand or company will send them the product for free, so how does anyone know if they mean what they’re saying about the product?), is extremely frustrating. I find for that reason alone, a lot of people don’t enjoy liking those posts because they think influencers shouldn’t be making that much money by simply posting a photo.
DiModugno Continued:
ReplyDeleteThere is nothing wrong with taking a paid sponsorship with a brand, especially if it’s one you like. However, it creates a divide between the influencer and the viewers that will only continue to grow with the more sponsorships influencers get.
Works Cited:
Glazer, Mikey. “Social Media Influencers Stump for More Seamless Product Placement.”Yahoo!, Yahoo!, 6 Feb. 2018, www.yahoo.com/entertainment/social-media-influencers-stump-more-seamless-product-placement-201051638.html.
Meltzer, Lauren. “Social Media ‘Influencers’ Add a New Twist to Advertising.” CBS News, CBS Interactive, 8 Feb. 2018, www.cbsnews.com/news/social-media-influencers-brand-advertising/.
Morrison, Kimberlee. “Sponsored Instagram Posts Average $300 Each. Here's a Look at Who Makes More (or Less).” – Adweek, Adweek, 15 Feb. 2017, www.adweek.com/digital/what-is-the-real-cost-of-instagram-influence-infographics/.
Over the years, influencers on social media have become increasingly popular for promoting products and spreading brand awareness. It is so large that it’s a 1 billion dollar industry and expected to grow to a 2.4 billion dollar industry in two years (CBS News). Almost every single person on social media that has a substantial number of followers has done some type of promotion for a brand, for which they received compensation. However, most of these companies don’t just pick a random person and ask them to promote their product. They typically use someone who would reach their target audience and make sure to choose the right social media platform. The author of a blog post on Onalytica about influencers and choosing the right platform says, “Each channel has a different audience and culture, meaning that content differs highly- in style, value and the way in which it’s shared” (Influencer Marketing). For example, if a makeup brand wants to use an influencer, they should choose either a popular makeup artist/guru on YouTube or Instagram, since that’s where most of their audience would be watching makeup videos/reviews and looking at makeup looks.
ReplyDeleteYouTube and Instagram are very large platforms to promote products on. According to CBS News, top YouTubers can get up to $300,000 for a video partnership and people on Instagram have a one to one ratio with followers to dollars per year, such as people with 100,000 followers make around 100,000 a year (CBS News). The advantages of using influencers to promote products and spread brand awareness is the easiness of reaching a large audience. If a company partners with someone who has 10 million followers on Instagram, that post will be seen by thousands of eyes. People will become quickly familiar with the brand and they also get to see someone they idolize use the product. The chance of them purchasing the product increase by quite a lot. Using influencers can increase sales and get the public more familiar with the brand, but there can also be some disadvantages to using them. One downside is that these influencers are still just regular people. With that, comes the danger of controversy. One of the most popular YouTubers recently tried making light of the Holocaust, leaving many brands associated with him questioning their next step (Heine). In a post about this incident, Sami Main says, “But at what point does it become too risky for a brand to partner with a bona fide global influencer like PewDiePie, who has 53 million YouTube subscribers?” (Main). And this is a good point and reality for many brands. When controversy happens, they have to determine the right steps to take, otherwise it could be catastrophic for their brand and image. There are both advantages and disadvantages to using influencers to promote a brand. The company just needs to figure out the right steps to take and ensure that the risk doesn’t outweigh the payoff for them.
CBS News. “Inside the Big Business of Being a Social Media Influencer.” CBS News, CBS Interactive, 23 Sept. 2017, www.cbsnews.com/news/business-behind-being-a-social-media-influencer/.
Heine, Chris. “YouTube's Biggest Star, PewDiePie, Has Been Dropped by Disney's Maker Studios Over Anti-Semitism.” – Adweek, Adweek, 13 Feb. 2017, www.adweek.com/digital/disney-studio-has-dropped-youtube-star-pewdiepie-after-an-expose-reveals-anti-semitic-videos/.
“Influencer Marketing: Where Are Your Target Audience Being Influenced?” Onalytica, 5 Jan. 2018, www.onalytica.com/blog/posts/influencer-marketing-where-are-your-target-audience-being-influenced/.
Main, Sami. "PewDiePie and the Potential Dangers of Social Influencer Marketing for Brands." Adweek. N.p., 15 Feb. 2017. Web. 14 Feb. 2018.
When scrolling through your Instagram feed, you are bound to see an advertisement at least three posts in. I personally follow a lot of instagram influencers. Whitney Simmons, for example, is a fitness guru. She has a public Youtube account, Instagram, and Snapchat. I have been following her since before she became verified; since then, she has made a strong name for herself in the fitness world and along with 1.4 million followers on Instagram, now has her own clothing line.
ReplyDeleteAlong with having her own workout line, Whitney is also an ‘ambassador’ for Gym Shark. Gym Shark is a clothing company that sells workout apparel for men and woman. They have a list of ambassadors on their website who all refer to themselves as ‘Gym Shark Athletes’ in their social media bios. These fitness junkies all post videos of their workouts wearing strictly gym shark apparel as a kind of advertisement. This relationship is mutually beneficial. Gym Shark most likely sends them discounted, possibly free, apparel, and in turn, all the ambassadors have to do is wear them and post videos in the apparel. This is a prime example of how brands are using social media influencers to target audiences. All of the ambassadors have large followings, therefore, a significant amount of people are seeing the companies’ clothing.
Without these ambassadors it is possible that Gym Shark would have significantly less sales and reach a lot less people. I did not know about the brand until Whitney became an ambassador. Gym Shark successfully spreads the word about their clothing line through the use of influencers. In the article, Social Media Influencers Add a New Twist to Advertising, author Ryan Detert discusses the inevitable benefits of using influencers for advertising. “There is no one that I’ve seen that has said, ‘No, It’s not for us.’ There’s too much ROI. There’s too much money you can make off of this, its too integral to the branding, the persona of a brand, to not be on these social platforms and to not integrate or collaborate with a partner that can speak to their audiences.”
This quote proves the success of marketing by influencers, In fact, this advertising tactic receives “twice as many sales as paid ads and costumers that find a company through influencer marketing have a 37 percent higher retention rate” (Grossman).
One of the plusses of this particular influencer relationship is the authenticity. Simmons, for example, is a very genuine influencer in the sense that she has a good connection with her followers, posting what they want to see and replying to their comments. Her message seems sincere and she makes an effort to help people trying to reach their fitness goals. Despite Simmons’ efforts, this authenticity can also be influencers’ downfalls.
Oftentimes, there are influencers who don’t care about what the product is, or if they even support it. As long as they’re getting paid, they don’t care. It is not authentic in the slightest. Influencers should not only want their followers’ trust, but also promote products that are aligned with their own needs and beliefs.
continued: In a CBS news article, one social media influencer and product relationship is outlined, saying, “One of our first big deals, and we were able to offer a beauty vlogger $30,000 for a video. And I was super excited to send the offer, because it's like, it's kinda fun -- that's a lot of money to give somebody to make a five-minute YouTube video. And she turned it down, because the shade of foundation didn't match her skin tone. And she said, 'If I do this video, all of my followers will go out and buy this, and then I will lose their trust,' and I was so impressed that you could turn down $30,000, because I would have, I mean, give me that foundation. I'll make that video today," Nord said” (CBS news.)
ReplyDeleteThis influencer is displaying the proper attitude and mind set for a successful influencer. She made the right decision by sticking by her followers. I see so many influencers post ads about ‘fit tea’ and ‘sugar bear gummies’ when it has been said that these products do not work. It does not look good on their part to be posting and ignoring the fact that they are fooling their followers. The over arching negative theme for influencers is that it is easy to be falsely advertised. In a time where people are making thousands of dollars by just promoting a product, there is going to be some people who aren’t doing it for the right reasons.
Page Grossman. The Good and the Bad of Influencer Marketing. relate.zendesk.com/articles/good-bad-influencer-marketing/.
Cites:
Meltzer, Lauren. "Social Media ‘Influencers’ Add a New Twist to Advertising," CBS Marketplace 8 Feb. 2018. Web.
"Inside the Big Business of Being a Social Media Influencer," CBS News 23 Sept. 2017. Web.
Brands and advertisers are using social media influencers in order to increase brand awareness as well as promote their products. By using social media influencer such as bloggers and youtubers, with the use of analytics, they are able to gauge who their messages will be broadcasted to when relying on social media influencers to promote their business. It is very clear that "brands want to go where the eyeballs are," (News, CBS.) stated by James Nord, the founder and CEO of Fohr Card. and they can quickly reach their target audiences this way!
ReplyDeleteWhile some influencers are quick to jump at opportunities to partner with brands to obtain revenue, most influencers are strict in decided which brand they will promote and who they will actually partner with. These partnerships typically align very symmetrically with their lifestyles. In an article written by Lauren Meltzer she states that “Influencers use social media platforms to connect with their audience on a personal level. They brand themselves within a specific industry by promoting content that coincides with their values and interests. For example, someone who correlates with fashion would be more inclined to promote a clothing company's T-shirt as opposed to a travel agency's sale on a vacation package to an exotic destination.” (Meltzer.) This is important because an audience member who identifies as a “gamer” and plays gaming consoles frequently is not likely to be following a fashion blogger. It is about finding the right fit for the audience that the influencer targets.
There are pros and cons to advertising through social media influencers. When done correctly and through the right platform and the right influencer, making sure that lifestyles and content match the product or business, influencer marketing can be extremely successful and can be beneficial to businesses as well as influencers who can ultimately receive a portion of sales or revenue, a deal for the initial promotion, as well as the ability to offer their subscribers a unique and exclusive discount! But, if a blogger who focuses mostly on baking posts something about a BMW, it just doesn’t make any sense and then proposes a ‘lack of realness.’
Speaking on the ‘lack of realness’ an article written by insightpool.com, it was expressed that “[the] reason the FTC guidelines could be a problem is that it makes potential customers skeptical about the endorsement. The report states that “eMarketer found that more than 30% of women think that posts disclosed with a required #ad or #spon (“sponsored”) tag are inauthentic.” In order to make the ad legal, companies must sacrifice authenticity.” (“The Pros and Cons of Paid Influencer Marketing.”) When audience members do not believe their favorite influencers are being authentic, they can quickly lose interest making it extremely hard for the influencer to post anything without skepticism. While it is beneficial if the influencer actually uses the product or likes the brand that they are promoting, that is not always the case, but authenticity is key, people are more likely to be receptive to your brand or message if it is someone that they consider to be trustworthy.
All in all, social media marketing and influencer marketing are becoming extremely popular ways to reach audiences and has shown us to follow where the target population is the most accessible. For an adult between 50-60 years old who is probably not on social media, this method does not seem to be very appropriate, but if your target is teens and young adults, you may have just reached the best place to market yourself – the place where the lives of young adults are digitally documented and accessed multiple times throughout any given day.
WORKS CITED:
DeleteMeltzer, Lauren. “Social media "influencers" add a new twist to advertising.” CBS News, CBS Interactive, 8 Feb. 2018, www.cbsnews.com/news/social-media-influencers-brand-advertising/.
News, CBS. “Inside the big business of being a social media influencer.” CBS News, CBS Interactive, 23 Sept. 2017, www.cbsnews.com/news/business-behind-being-a-social-media-influencer/.
“The Pros and Cons of Paid Influencer Marketing.” Insightpool, 1 May 2017, insightpool.com/pros-and-cons-of-paid-influencer-marketing/.
While digital media is still in its early years, brand advertising has become more and more prevalent on the new media platforms. Digital media has quickly taken over the world, and companies recognize how many people have converted to smartphones, and just how valuable that is to their brand. Using social media in a variety of ways has quickly become one of the best, if not the best, ways to reach your audience and beyond.
ReplyDeleteIt is no secret why the digital audiences are continuing to see more and more advertisements on their digital mediums. According to CBS news, social media has grown to a 1-billion-dollar industry and is expected to continue growing into a 2.4-billion-dollar industry (CBS News). Companies have multiple strategies for targeting audience data. Advertising through social media versus traditional media like television is much different. Not only must social media advertisements be quicker and more instantly captivating than TV ads, but they oftentimes need to relate to the specific user viewing them. Now more than ever can our smartphones track our interests, leaving advertisements on Instagram, Twitter, and Facebook to be specific to one users collection of data. The use of celebrity social media accounts has also quickly become a great way for companies to not only reach millions of viewers, but to also reach very specific sets of audiences. This is explained well in an article by Onalytica in which it explains how “each channel has a different audience and culture, meaning that content differs highly – in style, value and the way that it is shared (Onalytica). This is essentially explaining how celebrity endorsements through social media are a great way for companies to directly target a very specific audience. If you want to reach a large amount of men who like sports, for example, you might target LeBron James as a promoter to offer compensation tor posting about a product. The hit Netflix show Stranger Things, for example, did just that to promote the start of the new season. One of his posts received millions of views and over half a million likes which said “Man o Man I can’t wait for this!! So EXCITED!!! #StrangerThings” (USAtoday). This post may seem casual, but that’s the point. While LeBron James may actually enjoy the show, this is clearly a paid plug by Netflix.
While there are some negatives to advertising through social media, I believe that the positives currently far outweigh the negatives. Using social media as an advertisement medium is an unbelievably effective way to reach millions of potential customers in an efficient and cost effective way. Using celebrity endorsements is an added benefit to social media advertising that is unlike any other medium. Social media posts seem more sincere than commercial endorsements. One of the few negatives that can come from social media advertising is the risk of a post receiving negative backlash. When this happens, it can be a huge hit to a company’s brand perception. However, with all of the instant attention an advertisement gets on social media, I believe it is currently the most effective way to advertise. Companies know their digital audience like no other audience in any other medium. This makes for a very effective way of targeting specific people in order to make as much money as possible. While the amount of data collected should be concerning to consumers, there is no doubt that companies will continue to take advantage of social media as the newest and most effective method of advertising and reaching a large and dynamic consumer base.
Works Cited
Delete1. CBS News. “Inside the Big Business of Being a Social Media Influencer.” CBS News, CBS Interactive, 23 Sept. 2017, www.cbsnews.com/news/business-behind-being-a-social-media-influencer/.
2. “Influencer Marketing: Where Are Your Target Audience Being Influenced?” Onalytica, 5 Jan. 2018, www.onalytica.com/blog/posts/influencer-marketing-where-are-your-target-audience-being-influenced/.
3. “LeBron James is excited for TV show Stranger Things to return.” USA Today, Gannett Satellite Information Network, 2 Oct. 2017, lebronwire.usatoday.com/2017/10/02/lebron-james-the-tv-man-excited-for-stranger-things/.
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