An influencer, also referred to as a social media influencer, is a term traditionally associated with someone who is considered influential. The term has more recently been associated specifically with people who influence and guide the interest of others using social media. [6] The modern referent of the term is commonly a paid role in which a business entity pays for the social media influence-for-hire activity to promote its products and services, known as influencer marketing. [7]
Types of influencers include fashion influencer and virtual influencer. Some influencers are associated with specific social media apps such as TikTok influencers, [8] Instagram influencer, [9] [10] or Pinterest influencer, and many are also considered internet celebrities. As of 2023 [update] , Instagram is the social media platform on which businesses spend the most advertising dollars towards marketing with influencers. [11] However, influencer can exert their influence on any type of social media network. Thus, Instagram's leadership in the influencer marketing space has been under assault by platforms such as LinkedIn, TikTok and Roblox. [12] [13] [14]
Influencers may be celebrities of any type with large social media followings, including people who are mainly internet celebrities.
There is a lack of consensus about what an influencer is. One writer defines them as "a range of third parties who exercise influence over the organization and its potential customers." [15] Another defines an influencer as a "third party who significantly shapes the customer's purchasing decision but may never be accountable for it." [16] According to another, influencers are "well-connected, create an impact, have active minds, and are trendsetters". [17] And just because an individual has many followers does not necessarily mean they have much influence over those individuals, only that they have many followers. [18] [19] A 1% increase in influencer marketing spending can lead to a 0.5% increase in audience engagement. [20]
Market-research techniques can be used to identify influencers, using predefined criteria to determine the extent and type of influence. [17] "Activists" get involved with organizations such as their communities, political movements, and charities. "Connected influencers" have large social networks. "Authoritative influencers" are trusted by others. "Active minds" have a diverse range of interests. "Trendsetters" are the early adopters (or leavers) of markets. According to Malcolm Gladwell, "The success of any kind of social epidemic is heavily dependent on the involvement of people with a particular and rare set of social gifts". [21] He has identified types of influencers who are responsible for the "generation, communication and adoption" of messages; connectors network with a variety of people, have a wide reach, and are essential to word-of-mouth communication; [22] mavens use information, share it with others, and are insightful about trends. [23] [22]
Following the National Collegiate Athletic Association v. Alston ruling by the Supreme Court of the United States in 2021, pre-college and college athletes became eligible for student athlete compensation for use of their personality rights as influencers without loss of athletic eligibility and education-related benefits, which broadened the influencer landscape to people who might not yet be celebrities. [24]
The origins of online influencing can be traced back to the emergence of digital blogs and platforms in the early 2000s. Nevertheless, recent studies demonstrate that Instagram, an application with more than one billion users, harbors the majority of the influencer demographic. [25] These individuals are sometimes referred to as "Instagrammers" or "Instafamous." A crucial aspect of influencing lies in their association with sponsors. The 2015 debut of Vamp, a company that links influencers with sponsorships, transformed the landscape of influencing. [26] [27]
There is much debate about whether social media influencers can be considered celebrities, as their path to fame is often less traditional and arguably easier. Melody Nouri [28] addresses the differences between the two types in her article "The Power of Influence: Traditional Celebrities vs Social Media Influencer". [29] Nouri asserts that social media platforms have a greater negative impact on young, impressionable audiences compared to traditional media like magazines, billboards, advertisements, and tabloids featuring celebrities. Online it is thought to be simpler to manipulate an image and lifestyle in such a way that viewers are more susceptible to believing it. [28] [29]
The early 2000s showed corporate endeavors to leverage the internet for influence, with some companies participating in forums for promotions or providing bloggers with complimentary products in return for favorable reviews. A few of these practices were viewed as unethical for taking advantage of the labor of young individuals without providing remuneration. [30] In 2024, The Blogstar Network was established by Ted Murphy of MindComet. Bloggers were encouraged to join an email list and receive remunerated offers from corporations in exchange for creating specific posts. For instance, bloggers were compensated for writing reviews of fast-food meals on their blogs. Blogstar is widely regarded as the first influencer marketing network. [30]
Murphy succeeded Blogstar with PayPerPost, which was introduced in 2006. This platform compensated significant posters on prominent forums and social media platforms for every post made about a corporate product. Payment rates were determined by the influencer's status. [30] Though very popular, PayPerPost, received a great deal of criticism as these influencers were not required to disclose their involvement with PayPerPost as traditional journalism would have. [31] With the success of PayPerPost, the public became aware that there was a drive for corporate interests to influence what some people were posting to these sites. [30] The platform also incentivized other firms to establish comparable programs. [32]
Despite concerns, marketing networks with influencers continued to grow throughout the 2000s and into the 2010s. The influencer marketing industry is expected to be worth up to $15 billion by 2022,[ needs update ] up from as much as $8 billion in 2019, according to estimates from Business Insider Intelligence, which are based on Mediakix data. [32] Evan Asano, the Former CEO and founder of the agency Mediakix, previously spoke with Business Insider and said he believed influencer marketing on Instagram would continue to grow despite likes being hidden. [33]
By the 2010s, the term "influencer" described digital content creators with a large following, distinctive brand persona, and a patterned relationship with commercial sponsors. [34] Consumers often mistakenly view celebrities as reliable, leading to trust and confidence in the products being promoted. [35]
A 2001 study from Rutgers University discovered that individuals were using "internet forums as influential sources of consumer information." The study proposes that consumers preferred internet forums and social media when making purchasing decisions over conventional advertising and print sources. An influencer's personality strongly impacts their audience's purchasing decision, with those who engage with their audience being more persuasive in encouraging product purchases. Companies today place great importance on feedback and comments received through social media platforms as consumers trust other consumers. Reviews are often relied on to persuade consumers to make a purchase, highlighting the impact of a negative review on a business's revenue. [36]
A typical method of marketing between the influencer and the audience is "B2C marketing". B2C marketing, meaning Business to Consumer marketing, entails the strategies which a business would undertake to promote themselves and their services directly to their target audiences. This is typically through advertising and creating content through the influencer themselves. The intention is that their followers, who relate or look up to certain influencers, will be more inclined to purchase an item because their favorite "Internet celebrity" recommended it. [37] Social media influencers typically promote a lifestyle of beauty and luxury fashion and foster consumer–brand relationships, while selling their own lines of merchandise. [38]
David Rowles explains the methods online influencers employ to increase their audience and brand visibility. Digital branding encompasses all online experiences and necessitates value provision." [39]
Self-branding, also known as personal branding, describes the development of a public image for commercial gain or social or cultural capital. [40] The rise of social media has been exploited by individuals seeking personal fame and product sales. Platforms such as Instagram, Twitch, Snapchat, VSCO, YouTube, and TikTok, are the most common social media outlets on which online influencers attempt to build a following. Fame can be attained through different avenues and media forms, including art, humor, modeling, and podcasts. Marketing experts have concluded that anyone can build websites easily without any technical knowledge or complex coding languages. They can upload text, pictures, and videos instantly from personal computers or phones. With technological barriers diminishing, the web has become the ideal platform for personal branding. [41]
In 2023 in the United States, 27 million people were paid content creators. [42] [43] Of those, [42] 12 million did content creation as their full-time profession. [43] 8 million did it as part-time work, and 7 million did it as a hobby. [43] Influencers can make money in various ways, but most of them earn money from endorsements or sponsorships. Social media influencers can use their fame to promote products or experiences to their followers, as a method of providing credibility to products. [44]
Influencers can also expand their source of revenue by creating their own products or merchandise to sell. [45] By doing this, and by using their platform to promote their products to an established audience, influencers can earn money by developing their own reputable brands. Bloggers can feature sponsored posts in social media to make profits. [46] For instance, fashion blogger Chiara Ferragni started as an online blogger, and then gained millions of followers on Instagram. She later created her brand, the Chiara Ferragni Collection. Like many other Instagram celebrities, Ferragni started by charging money per post for promoting brands. She earns revenue from promotional Instagram posts and the sale of her own products. [47]
In 2020, a report by venture-capital firm SignalFire stated that the economy spawned by internet creators was the "fastest-growing type of small business". [48]
Despite the recent emergence of influencer culture, influencer marketing and advertising it is left highly unregulated by existing legislation. This became a prevalent concern when users on social media platforms were finding it difficult to distinguish any differences between advertisements and sponsorships with personal posts. This was evident with the mismanagement of Fyre Festival, where numerous Instagram influencers were sanctioned for their lack of transparency. [53] This led to a massive backlash from the public, who felt the promotion of the event deliberately misled and confused target audiences. As a result, numerous advertising bodies sought to introduce strict regulations and guidelines around influencer marketing. This includes the AANA (Australian Associations of National Advertisers), who states that influencer advertising must be "clearly distinguishable". [54]
In August 2024, the Federal Trade Commission voted unanimously to ban marketers from using fake user reviews created by generative artificial intelligence chatbots (such as ChatGPT) and influencers paying for bots to increase follower counts. [55]
Most influencers are paid before the start of a marketing campaign, and others are paid after it ends. [56] Consensus exists about how much an influencer should be paid. Compensation may vary by how many people an influencer can reach, the extent to which they will endorse the product (a deliverable), and the success of their past endorsements have performed. [57] [58]
Top-tier influencers and celebrities may receive a six- or seven-figure fee for a single social-media post. [59] In addition to (or in lieu of) a fee, payment may include free products or services. [58] [60] While top-tier influencers generate attention, only 4% of all influencers make more than $100,000 a year. [61] For influencers with smaller followings, free products or services may be the only form of compensation. [62] Advertisers are increasingly inclined to see influencers with a small but dedicated follower base as a more efficient use of marketing dollars. [61]
Forrester Research analyst Michael Speyer notes that for small and medium-sized businesses, "IT sales are influenced by several parties, including peers, consultants, bloggers, and technology resellers." [63] According to Speyer, "Vendors need to identify and characterize influencers inside their market. This requires a comprehensive influencer identification program and the establishment of criteria for ranking influencer impact on the decision process." [64]
Follower Count | Percent of total US Marketing Spend in 2024 |
---|---|
>100,000 | 30% |
20,000-100,000 | 25% |
< 20,000 | 45% |
Influencers are categorized by the number of followers they have on social media. They include celebrity endorsements from those with large followings, to niche content creators with a loyal following on social-media platforms such as YouTube, Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter. [65] [66] Their followers range in number from hundreds of millions to 1,000. [62]
Businesses pursue people who aim to lessen their consumption of advertisements, and are willing to pay their influencers more. Targeting influencers is seen as increasing marketing's reach, counteracting a growing tendency by prospective customers to ignore marketing. [17] [71]
Marketing researchers Kapitan and Silvera find that influencer selection extends into product personality. This product and benefit matching is key. For a shampoo, it should use an influencer with good hair. Likewise, a flashy product may use bold colors to convey its brand. If an influencer is not flashy, they will clash with the brand. Matching an influencer with the product's purpose and mood is important. [72]
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Viral marketing is a business strategy that uses existing social networks to promote a product mainly on various social media platforms. Its name refers to how consumers spread information about a product with other people, much in the same way that a virus spreads from one person to another. It can be delivered by word of mouth, or enhanced by the network effects of the Internet and mobile networks.
Celebrity culture is a high-volume exposure to celebrities' personal lives on a global scale. It is inherently tied to consumer interests where celebrities transform their fame to become product brands.
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Influencer marketing is a form of social media marketing involving endorsements and product placement from influencers, people and organizations who have a purported expert level of knowledge or social influence in their field. Influencers are someone with the power to affect the buying habits or quantifiable actions of others by uploading some form of original—often sponsored—content to social media platforms like Instagram, YouTube, Snapchat, TikTok or other online channels. Influencer marketing is when a brand enrolls influencers who have an established credibility and audience on social media platforms to discuss or mention the brand in a social media post. Influencer content may be framed as testimonial advertising, according to the Federal Trade Commission in the United States.
Digital marketing is the component of marketing that uses the Internet and online-based digital technologies such as desktop computers, mobile phones, and other digital media and platforms to promote products and services. It has significantly transformed the way brands and businesses utilize technology for marketing since the 1990s and 2000s. As digital platforms became increasingly incorporated into marketing plans and everyday life, and as people increasingly used digital devices instead of visiting physical shops, digital marketing campaigns have become prevalent, employing combinations of search engine optimization (SEO), search engine marketing (SEM), content marketing, influencer marketing, content automation, campaign marketing, data-driven marketing, e-commerce marketing, social media marketing, social media optimization, e-mail direct marketing, display advertising, e-books, and optical disks and games have become commonplace. Digital marketing extends to non-Internet channels that provide digital media, such as television, mobile phones, callbacks, and on-hold mobile ringtones. The extension to non-Internet channels differentiates digital marketing from online marketing.
Social network advertising, also known as social media targeting, is a group of terms used to describe forms of online advertising and digital marketing that focus on social networking services. A significant aspect of this type of advertising is that advertisers can take advantage of users' demographic information, psychographics, and other data points to target their ads.
An internet celebrity, also referred to as an internet personality, is an individual who has acquired or developed their fame and notability on the Internet. The growing popularity of social media provides a means for people to reach a large, global audience, and internet celebrities are commonly present on large online platforms such as Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, and YouTube, which primarily rely on user-generated content. Some internet celebrities are also social media influencers, known simply as influencers, due to their social influence online.
Social media marketing is the use of social media platforms and websites to promote a product or service. Although the terms e-marketing and digital marketing are still dominant in academia, social media marketing is becoming more popular for both practitioners and researchers.
Sponsored post, also known as a promoted post, is a post to any community-driven notification-oriented website which is explicitly sponsored as an advertisement by a particular company in order to draw a large amount of popularity through user promotion and moderation to the most active or most viewed page on the website. The model has become adopted by various ad-supported but community-driven websites as an addition, substitute or replacement of other pay-per-click advertisement formats, such as web banners, text and rich media. Sites and services which utilize sponsored posts include Digg, Reddit, Twitter, and Instagram.
Social media in the fashion industry refers to the use of social media platforms by fashion designers and users to promote and participate in trends. Over the past several decades, the development of social media has increased along with its usage by consumers. The COVID-19 pandemic was a sharp turn of reliance on the virtual sphere for the industry and consumers alike. Social media has created new channels of advertising for fashion houses to reach their target markets. Since its surge in 2009, luxury fashion brands have used social media to build interactions between the brand and its customers to increase awareness and engagement. The emergence of influencers on social media has created a new way of advertising and maintaining customer relationships in the fashion industry. Numerous social media platforms are used to promote fashion trends, with Instagram and TikTok being the most popular among Generation Y and Z. The overall impact of social media in the fashion industry included the creation of online communities, direct communication between industry leaders and consumers, and criticized ideals that are promoted by the industry through social media.
Online presence management is the process of creating and promoting traffic to a personal or professional brand online. This process combines web design, development, blogging, search engine optimization, pay-per-click marketing, reputation management, directory listings, social media, link sharing, and other avenues to create a long-term positive presence for a person, organization, or product in search engines and on the web in general.
Native advertising, also called sponsored content, partner content, and branded journalism, is a type of paid advertising that appears in the style and format of the content near the advertisement's placement. It manifests as a post, image, video, article or editorial piece of content. In some cases, it functions like an advertorial. The word native refers to the coherence of the content with the other media that appear on the platform.
Chiara Ferragni is an Italian blogger, businesswoman, fashion designer and model who has collaborated with fashion and beauty brands through her blog The Blonde Salad.
House of CB (House of Celeb Boutique) is a women's fashion retailer founded by British Conna Walker in 2010 and headquartered in London, UK. Since the start of the brand, Walker wanted to design clothing that would give the illusion of an hourglass silhouette, and continues to be the brand's unique selling proposition. House of CB is known for its form-fitting and tailored pieces, producing designer-inspired party clothing. The company currently has over 40 retail locations, 4.5 million followers on social and achieved in $15 million in 2018 profits. From the start, House of CB has evolved from a simple reselling operation into a globally recognized luxury fashion house. Each garment from the brand is designed in their London studio, focusing on detailed craftsmanship and fits designed to flatter natural body shapes.
The wanghong economy [internet celebrity economy] refers to the Chinese digital economy based on influencer marketing through social media platforms. Wanghong is the Chinese term for internet celebrity. Chinese wanghong celebrities attract the attention of internet users, which can translate into profit through e-commerce and online advertising.
A personal styleblogger is an individual who manages an online platform that covers several aspects of fashion. These blogs, often produced independently, post pictures of the blogger to show their outfits and lifestyle to a number of followers. They influence consumer taste and preferences, often functioning as an intermediary between businesses and consumer. From a company perspective, the blogger is perceived as a promotional tool. From the consumer side, high-reputation bloggers are considered opinion leaders. This often results in material benefits, rewards, branded fashion clothing and paid sponsorship, as well as status in the field of fashion.
A fashion influencer is a personality that has a large number of followers on social media, creates mainly fashion content and has the power to influence the opinion and purchase behavior of others with their recommendations. Brands endorse them to attend fashion shows, parties, designer dinners and exclusive trips and to wear their clothes on social media. If a salary has been involved, the influencer may be required to label such posts as paid or sponsored content. Before social media "they would have been called 'It girls'".
A travel influencer is an Internet celebrity that creates social media content about travel, tourism and culture, usually sharing their travel experiences. Their content is generally considered as a trusted source of knowledge, influencing their readers’ opinions and perceptions of places and experiences, affecting their travel decisions and “changing the way we think about the world”.
Livestream shopping is used by brands to promote and sell products through livestreams on digital platforms, often in collaboration with influencers.