Let me say that this is not a paid advertisement. A college marketing assignment, yes, but unfortunately I pay them not vice versa.
“The Influencers” (Whitaker, 2016) are the new rage of social media marketing. These digital influencers are mostly young, mid-20 year old millennials, that reach a bigger audience with just one press of a button. Most of these influencers are average people who just started posting for fun, but they are now the new rockstars.
These Influencers are the emerging stars of the tiny screen with a strong presence on YouTube, Instagram, Facebook and Snapchat to name a few of the social media sites. Their “no-budget, low-quality postings” (Whitaker, 2016) have a level of access that is unprecedented. The more followers they have, the more money they can make. “Logan Paul stated, ‘The biggest companies in the world and brands have come to me to help sell their product to the younger generation'” (Whitaker, 2016). These average people turned stars have millions of followers and the power to influence them to buy the brands they get paid to advertise.
“Social media influencers are a small slice of what the advertising industry spends overall on ads” (Whitaker, 2016), and it’s easier to track the millions of people who are watching the ads, where they are located, age and their demo. These followers continue to talk about the videos/postings and even share them over and over. Advertisers are getting advertising without royalties, making it hard to determine an influencers worth, yet the influencers are making enough money to retire, “Andrew Bachelor, aka King Bach, said ‘I can retire if I wanted to'” (Whitaker).
Influencers are the middle person of the company-consumer relationship. Each influencers has some sort of “it” factor that can be relatable to others. It’s like a worldwide popularity contest that matches talent with product brands. According to “Gary Vaynerchuk, ‘It starts with are you good enough, are you pretty enough, model, are you funny enough, comedy'” (Whitaker, 2016) … all you need is an iPhone and a dream.
Personally, when it comes to influencers, I believe they can be of any age, and/or career. There’s a variety of influencers on instagram, with 26.5K followers @newmexicomilkmaid talks truth about farming and has been invited to speak in Rome; @amberfillerup started off as the barefoot blonde posting hair demos and now as 1.4M followers; @harmonize_beauty, with 221K followers, is a makeup and hair junkie. To answer that ONE question, yes I have purchased products recommended by an influeners; have you?
@amberfillerup (2020). Retrieved from https://www.instagram.com/amberfillerup
@harmonize_beauty (2020). Retrieved from https://www.instagram.com/harmonize_beauty
@newmexicomilkmaid (2020). Retrieved from https://www.instagram.com/newmexicomilkmaid
Whitaker, Bill. (2016, October 23). CBS. “The Influencers.” Retrieved from https://www.cbsnews.com/news/60-minutes-kim-kardashian-logan-paul-social-media-influencers.
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