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How brands’ use of online celebrity influencers is maturing

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By Stephen Lepitak

The search by brand marketers for consumer engagement has led to the continued growth and funding of the social media influencer that has made millionaires of some vloggers and online celebrities the world over.

However, as these seemingly normal people have grown their fame, demand by brands for their audiences has similarly grown and the rules and regulations around their ability to promote products became a problem for marketing regulators. And in that time some have developed that relationship to become the face and voice of individual brands they truly connect with. Examples are endless, from Cole LaBrant and Mackenzie Davis to Maia Mitchell, who have used different platforms and shared their own life skills and insights to develop personal fan bases. And as Facebook changes its newsfeed algorithm to drive more personalised content to the fore, over media content, those organic relationships will become more coveted by advertisers.

According to research by blog discovery website Bloglovin’ 32% of marketers saw influencer campaigns as being essential to their strategies, with 41% admitting to seeing more success from their influencer campaigns over their traditional advertising.

“Brands are learning,” states Peter Willems, head of marketing activities and sponsorship for world footballing body, Uefa, while speaking on a panel organized by FCB Inferno about influencers and his experience of working with them through the launch of a new project alongside freestyle soccer skills channel, F2.

“Brands are more and more trying to put the objective first. We believe in data but we struggle a little bit with specific target groups, especially youngsters, and therefore one of the objectives of working with F2 was to grow our database within that specific target group. We believe at the moment that influencers can help us there.” he continues to explain, adding that sharing the objective with the influencers who are involved in the collaboration is now crucial too.

Willems also cites the comparison over the share prices of Adidas and main rival Nike as examples of how powerful the use of influencers can be in delivering sales, with Adidas having spent years now working with online personalities to achieve global growth and product awareness.

“For me, the biggest problem has to be how you measure success, which is still in its infancy to show what it can bring and what it can do,” Willems continues.

That problem around measuring return on investment is definitely to be an issue that brands entering this burgeoning sector face, agrees Laura Visick, head of social for FCB Inferno.

“There are soft and hard metrics that we can put in place such as reach and engagement which can be given to the influencers themselves to benchmark against their own content and to identify how things are resonating. One of the most important things is upfront identifying what the objective is and articulating what success looks like to ensure that everyone is on board.. there are a huge number of ways to work with influencers,” she explains of the clearly maturing marketing strategy, where one celebrity tweet is not seen as success in itself.

“The ASOS model is a good one. They are building a group of influencers that are engaging with and advocating the brand all of the time, and there are a few campaigns that we are seeing coming through that the moment that are very similar. They are building a group of ambassadors who are engaging with the brand and creating a very authentic relationship rather than a ‘one-hit-wonder’,” she continues, adding that that course helps create more robust measurements.

Using tools to help monitor and achieve return on investment is an obvious route. Verena Papik, director of marketing EMEA of Musical.ly, says it is important for brands to understand why each tool is being used and used to meet specific set goals and objectives.

She also advises that brands and influencers set objectives that see both succeed together.

“When brands and influencers really collaborate together, and they include a tool like Musical.ly, it is to add value to each other. Everyone is getting lost in setting goals and achieving data numbers, numbers of posts; but in reality is actually about adding value to each other,” she explains. “For a long term relationship you definitely have to understand what benefit the other party can actually bring to this partnership.”

Influencer, Bangs Carey-Campbell, fitness editor at Elle Magazine and blogger, advises that brands recognise the importance of not just paying online celebrities to pose with one-off products but to agree an ongoing strategy and to really follow through on the partnership for the most successful collaborations. She also advises that influencers understand the brand’s perspective rather than forcing their own ways of working fully, too.

“It’s about finding that middle ground when creating content. Especially if you are being paid to do that. You do have to understand from a brand’s perspective that they have a certain job description and certain markers that they have to achieve even if they are not 100% clear on them. It can be tough from the creative’s point of view as you have a way that you like to produce your content, but that’s why the brand got in touch with you. It can be tough to find that middle ground but as a creator, if that is the direction that you want to take your brand in, and you want to be more involved with other brands, you have got to be willing to meet in the middle somewhere. It’s not compromising your material. It’s finding a way to work together and find a way to be flexible,” she relays but later offers a reminder to brands that they are working and partnering with individual people, and not to forget that and treat them as a soulless commodity.

There is a long way still to go for the brand and influencer model, and the bubble has far from burst judging by the growing numbers offering their services and audiences to brands, however another piece of advice that all contributors agreed with was that influencers were more successful if they offered authentic insights and had achieved success in the fields their audiences held interests in. Otherwise it was likely that such influence would be fleeting and of little long-term commercial value in tandem.

By Stephen Lepitak

Sourced from THE DRUM

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Can influencers create the right Budget buzz?

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By Seow Bei Yi

Critics say they may not be the best people to raise awareness

They have helped cafe owners to draw in the crowds by posting pictures of food on Instagram and have sold lipsticks and eyeshadows with videos of themselves using the make-up.

But are social media influencers the best people to help raise awareness of government policies and programmes? Not to the critics of a recent campaign by the Ministry of Finance (MOF), which tapped this new breed of marketers who endorse products and services on their social media channels.

The move to hire 50 or so influencers through marketing firm StarNgage to promote the Budget process has generated debate on whether the strategy is effective and if taxpayers’ money is well spent.

The ministry said this was part of its outreach efforts, adding that “given the significance of the Budget to all Singaporeans, MOF employs a mix of communication channels and platforms”, including holding dialogues and collecting feedback in high-traffic areas.

But people have lampooned some of the social media posts, such as one in which an influencer called the MOF the “Sg govt of finance”.

Others pointed out that the posts on the Budget are out of place among the influencers’ regular posts on, for instance, exercise routines, overseas holidays and pets. They asked if these influencers even knew anything about finance.

For the MOF campaign, the ministry worked with a group known as “micro-influencers”. A spokesman described them as “personable everyday individuals, with at least 1,000 followers on social media”.

Ms Evangeline Leong, director of influencer marketing technology platform Kobe, said micro-influencers typically have fewer than 100,000 followers.

Mr Dennis Toh, co-founder of public relations agency The Influencer Network, said they can command $100 to $800 a post.

According to an invite sent out by StarNgage for the MOF campaign, each influencer could be paid up to $100 at the end of the campaign.

This is affordable relative to what the ministry would have had to pay for a TV or print advertisement, said Associate Professor Ang Swee Hoon of the National University of Singapore Business School.

The MOF said the Instagram campaign is part of its overall public communications for Budget 2018, adding that it wanted to “encourage youth participation in the overall Budget process”.

“It is important for us to continually update and refresh our approach, based on reach and effectiveness, and to try new channels and platforms,” said its spokesman.

Ms Cheryl Chan, an MP who sits on the Government Parliamentary Committee for Finance and Trade and Industry, said it seemed the MOF was trying to use as many different avenues as possible to direct people to the Government’s feedback points.

“These individuals, being media influencers, have a following ,” she said. “Having them put up a post is better than us putting up an advertisement or banner in one location, as it may not reach as many people, and as many youth.”

The ministry, which has also worked with business and community groups to raise awareness of the Budget, among other things, expects to reach 225,000 Instagram users through the campaign.

While some have questioned if this is possible, with the micro-influencers having only 1,300 to 35,000 followers, StarNgage chief community officer Terrence Ngu said the campaign has exceeded the target, based on insights from Instagram.

The number of followers that micro-influencers have may be small, said Ms Leong, but they are typically first-or second-degree friends. This translates to higher engagement rates, meaning a follower is more likely to click on a link that was shared or post a comment, she said.

Prof Ang said others who have reached celebrity status may have been used in so many publicity campaigns that their following, though large, may not be as committed.

Most of the posts put up for the MOF campaign, though, have not attracted more than a few hundred “likes”, with even fewer comments.

A micro-influencer involved in the campaign, Ms Chelsea Teng, is unfazed. “Despite the criticism received, there were people who approached us to find out more about the campaign, which I thought was great,” said the 24-year-old, who works in the events industry.

In her post, she asked followers to join her at a listening point and share their views with the Government. She told The Sunday Times: “Prior research was done to ensure we had sufficient knowledge on the topic before sharing on our socials.”

Experts said that for such campaigns to work, the messages have to be seen as genuine.

Prof Ang said: “Having an influencer who has a business background or who has discussed more cerebral issues before would be more appropriate.”

Ms Fiona Cher, 27, a blogger known as SG Budget Babe, who has written posts sponsored by the Ministry of National Development, said she takes on such jobs only if the message a client wants is something she would already write or say even if she were not paid to do so.

Noting that other campaigns have also come under fire, such as one for a KrisFlyer UOB card last April in which the influencers involved were slammed for lacking product knowledge, she said: “With brands being criticised for their lack of authenticity, the Government needs to tread even more carefully.”

Prof Ang said: “If the influencer’s personality is not a fit… then the buzz becomes about the misalignment instead of the Budget process.”

A version of this article appeared in the print edition of The Sunday Times on January 21, 2018, with the headline ‘Can influencers create the right Budget buzz?’. Print Edition | Subscribe

By Seow Bei Yi

Sourced from The Straits Times

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What We Can Learn from a YouTube Influencer Goddess

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This is how you do it. Watch and learn, people.

By Nicole Buckler

How do you make yourself a global sensation without having to get the approval of media chiefs of any industry or sit on every casting couch going? You do it yourself. And if you do it well, fans will come. Self-made beauty and lifestyle star Wengie is a perfect example of this. She is smashing it on just about every piece of internet real estate.

Wengie is an international YouTube sensation, and she is the #1 most subscribed channel in Australia, hitting 10 million subscribers in 2017. But it is not only in her native Australia that she is smashing it. With over 700 million video views, Wengie’s global fan base of ‘Wengiecorns’ continues its unprecedented growth. Wengie started her YouTube channel in 2010, to express her passion for truly fluffy videos that give viewers helpful advice, DIY/life hacks, music, reactions and more. The videos have become immensely popular around the world, in places like the UK, and the United States. And of course, here in Ireland.

Anyone with tween daughters knows just how much influence this unicorn in human form has. Born in China, but brought to Australia as an infant, Wengie could recommend anything from a rubbish bin to a doormat and tweens MUST HAVE IT.

Wengie’s global social media following is currently:

  • 10 million YouTube subscribers
  • 1 million Instagram followers
  • 251k Facebook likes
  • 169k followers on Twitter

These are stats that mainstream media channels can only dream of.

Wengie is not stopping at influencer smashing. She is using it as a stepping stone for global domination. Her music and television career have already gained a substantial audience. In 2017, Wengie recorded her first music album in China. And we all know how big the Chinese market is. She is also currently involved in several on-screen projects including being the voice of the 4th PowerPuff Girl (Bliss) on the Cartoon Network. And the thing to remember here is that she has done this all herself, starting with just a computer in her bedroom. What this means is that ANYBODY can do this. ANYONE. Even you.

The Wengie phenomenon is also interesting for marketers. Placing your product with someone like Wengie is a good bet. Her fans love her and she’s entirely unlikely to get herself involved in any scandals or end up in jail with cocaine all over her face. She is a compelling competitor to any other marketing channel, especially if you are selling anything aimed at tweens and teens. Her growing celebrity status has already made her a very much sought-after collaborator for both high-profile and emerging global brands.

The reason for her popularity is that she understands tween and teen girls perfectly. She knows what they need to relax and switch off from their day on the school battlefront. She’s happy, she’s bright, everything is fluffy, and it’s all rainbows. It is devoid of politics, there’s no lecturing, there’s no drama. Just smiley, cutsie, happy hints and tips, in short ten-minute bursts of fragrant goodness. It’s all good. And, she is a sponsors’ dream.

Go the Wengiecorns.

 

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Millennials Trust Social Media Influencers Less

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By MediaStreet Staff Writers

Millennials rely on social media influencers more than ever for fashion shopping ideas and inspiration, but say they trust them less.

This is according to a Dealspotr survey of Millennial shoppers, conducted to better understand the shifting dynamics between consumers, lifestyle influencers and retailers in today’s digital economy. They say, “Perhaps more than any other industry, fashion retail has been upended by social media and the rise of digital influencers. Millennials are increasingly reliant on social media and the influencers who dominate them to curate trends, new brands, and the styles they wear.”

This year’s edition, Dealspotr’s Millennial Fashion Shopping Study, underscores some surprising shifts in Millennials’ perceptions of social media influencers. Notably, in 2017, Millennials are starting to trust influencers less than they used to. Millennials are also becoming more sophisticated in how they evaluate influencers – a previously important indicator of trust, an influencer’s number of followers, is now largely ignored by this demographic. At the same time, Millennials are now more reliant than ever on lifestyle influencers for fashion ideas and inspiration, creating a critical yet challenging landscape for fashion brands to navigate.

“Millennials now trust social media influencers more than their friends and family for fashion picks and recommendations,” says Michael Quoc, founder and CEO of Dealspotr. “However, as the influencer economy matures, brands must be hyper-aware of shifting perceptions and increasing skepticism towards online influencers when crafting an influencer marketing strategy.”

Highlights from the report:

  • Social media influencers are now the #1 factor driving fashion shopping decisions among female Millennials (41% selected as their primary influence). Lifestyle influencers now have greater impact than more traditional factors such as friends and family (37%), TV / magazines / advertisements (20%) and celebrities (19%).
  • At the same time, 52% of Millennials say they trust social media influencers less these days.
  • Millennials no longer judge influencers by their number of followers. Only 7% primarily care about an influencer’s number of followers, far outweighed by the influencer’s sense of style (60%).
  • Millennials are extremely price conscious when it comes to fashion brands. 70% of Millennials say price and value are the most important attributes of a fashion brand, above the brand’s style at 43%.
  • 36% of Millennials say the availability of a discount code is their primary factor determining whether they would try purchasing from a new or unfamiliar fashion brand.
  • 65% of Millennials primarily make fashion purchases in-store, compared to 41% who primarily buy online.

 

To download the full report, click here.

 

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Myanmar is Using Micro-Influencers to Flog Their Tourism Story

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The question is, will it work?

By MediaStreet Staff Writers

Myanmar Tourism Marketing is using traditional channels to hawk its tourism message: an updated national website for consumers, plus enthusiastic blogs, and festival information. They also have a YouTube channel, a Twitter account, Instagram and a Facebook page. Okay, standard practice these days.

But thrown into the marketing mix is now bait for micro-influencers. They want to attract travel journalists and Instagrammers to visit the country and share their experiences. English-born travel writer Andrew J. Wood recently published an article mentioning that “visiting Myanmar is the right thing to do” while Instagrammer Hayley Anderson, with more than 120K followers, said, “Love how everywhere we have visited has been so different!”

So far, Myanmar Tourism Marketing is happy with their influencer efforts, and are continuing to invite bloggers, Instagrammers and other social media influencers to share their experiences under @visit.myanmar or by using the hashtag #MyMyanmar.

What they want is for paid and unpaid influencers to convince mainstream travellers that Myanmar is a magical place to visit all-year-round. The launch of this media campaign comes at a time when the country is in the world’s media spotlight. Myanmar Tourism Marketing’s first posts were initially focused on expressing its support for all displaced people in Northern Rakhine State and Bangladesh and indicating that traveling to Myanmar continues to be safe. But more than that, they also want to keep people interested in spending their tourist money in the country. The tourist board needs influencers to bang the drum of “business as usual” on their behalf.

The message is that Myanmar offers safety and security; the temples and food are exquisite, there are festivals and warm and friendly people.

For travellers with moral concerns, Myanmar wants you to know that it continues to support people all over the country from any race of religion. “Myanmar is a huge, multi-racial country offering colourful festivals, beautiful beaches as well as stunning nature for tourists,” says May Myat Mon Win, Myanmar Tourism Marketing Chairperson. “Missing out on this would be a big loss for yourself as tourists, but also a big loss for those thousands of people working in tourism in Myanmar who have nothing to do with the issue in Northern Rakhine State.”

So the question is, will this new campaign work? Let’s keep a bead on it and see for future reference.

 

 

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5 ways to generate leads quickly

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By Lilach Bullock.

So, you’re looking to generate new leads and you’d like them generated yesterday? Well you’ve come to the right place. If you’re eager to generate leads ASAP, you’ll find five practical suggestions in this guide plus plenty of tips to optimise your campaign and maximise the ensuing conversion rate. As for why any business would be in such a hurry to bolster its list of prospects, well, pick any reason you like. The faster you can grow your database, the faster you can start marketing to them.

Fast lead generation

Express lead generation will particularly appeal to:

  • New start-ups that haven’t had a chance to organically develop leads
  • Established businesses whose lead acquisition rate has stagnated
  • Businesses preparing to launch a new product or service
  • Brands that are seeking to promote an imminent event, campaign or webinar
  • Businesses that have just been acquired, are under new management or have just received an investment in capital

In short, most businesses can benefit from shortening their lead generation cycle. You can’t grow a successful business overnight, but what you can do with the right strategies is grow your audience and then develop a content marketing strategy that addresses their needs and interests. To paraphrase Field of Dreams, “If you build it, they will come”.

1. AdWords

Quick leads

Okay, let’s start with the most obvious one: Google AdWords. There are lots of well-meaning articles on the web about fast lead generation strategies, but the truth is that starting a blog, creating an infographic and posting on forums don’t constitute express solutions. This sort of stuff is fine if you’re following a two-year lead generation strategy, but when you’re in a hurry, you need instant results. Basically, you need Google AdWords or failing that Bing Ads or possibly even both.

Yes, it’ll cost you, but that’s the price you pay for the luxury of being able to directly tap into a ready-made audience. When you’ve just started a new business, getting your first few followers, leads and customers is the hardest part. After all, no one wants to engage with a business whose social channels look like a ghost town. That’s unavoidable at first, not just on social but also with your email database. To ensure your marketing newsletters go out to more than just your secretary and your mum, a well-targeted AdWords campaign will work wonders. This could be for a landing page on your site complete with a lead generation form and ads that appear in paid search, on YouTube or the Display Network. Paid advertising is sometimes what’s required to get the ball rolling – the organic traffic will come later.

2. Sponsored Content

Speaking of paid advertising, another lead generation strategy that will yield rapid results is paying for sponsored content. LinkedIn and Facebook are the two most obvious platforms where this approach can be effective, but there are also other channels such as Instagram and Twitter which may be suitable depending on your business model. If your content is strong, promoting it on the right channels can give it the critical momentum it needs to start accruing reads, shares and – oh yes – conversions.

LinkedIn’s sponsored content is particularly good for attracting B2B customers. Since the network introduced Lead Gen Forms, capturing the details of your readers, especially on mobile, has gotten a whole lot easier. Then there’s Facebook, which is now a genuine rival to Google as an advertising platform. Oh, and don’t think that Facebook is for B2C only: it’s also a great B2B platform thanks to precise targeting options that allow you to zero in on the sort of prospects who constitute your ideal customer.

3. Product Videos

Quick leads

If you’re a bold and brand new business with big ideas that are going to disrupt your industry, change your space and generally make the world a better, more exciting place, video is the platform to get your genius across. Creating a strong product video will likely be a far more effective use of your time and resources than a corresponding blog post, white paper or webinar. ‘Strong’ doesn’t mean producing a generic whiteboard animation that you bought off Fiverr before crossing your fingers and praying it goes viral incidentally. It doesn’t work like that.

Once – or rather if – you’ve created an epic video, the first place it should go is on the homepage of your website. Most people tend to be visual learners and a short video will convey your product or service far more effectively than a wall of text ever could. You should also pin that video to the top of your Twitter and Facebook pages or even use it in place of a cover image on Facebook. And that’s just for starters. If you’ve got the budget to give it a bump, your content can be promoted everywhere from YouTube to Insta.

4. Influencers

Quick leads

Number four on this list is another suggestion that – wait for it – is gonna cost you. If you’re smart though, enlisting the services of influencers can provide a substantial return on your investment. It’s commonly assumed that influencers – typically thought leaders or social media personalities with a sizeable following – are only good for promoting products. While it’s true that influencers will do a great job of bigging up your snazzy collection of lip balms or trainers, they can also be used as a lead generation tool.

Whatever it is you’d like them to shout about, be it a forthcoming webinar, a landing page, an e-book or industry event, rope in the right influencers and tap into an engaged audience that would be the envy of any business in your sector. Tools such as Grapevine, Shoutcart and Famebit will enable you to link with influencers who’ll be a good fit for your brand.

5. SlideShare

We’ll finish with a free option, because some businesses won’t have the budget at first to pay for traffic. With tens of millions of visitors a month, SlideShare is a platform that rewards strong content. The most popular SlideShares can generate hundreds of thousands of views; if your slide deck links to your landing page, that’s a whole lot of potential leads. Realistically, you’re unlikely to strike gold with your first attempt at publishing content on SlideShare. That’s okay though: you don’t need that level of traffic. Even a few thousand views can generate substantial referral traffic. In fact some businesses have reported in case studies how SlideShare is one of their most potent referral sources.

With all that traffic that will be hitting your landing pages, be it through paid advertising, organic or a combination of both, you’ll want to make sure your lead generation forms are working smoothly along with your marketing automation software. With a targeted audience engaging with strong content and everything shipshape behind the scenes, it won’t be long before that trickle of leads becomes a torrent.

By Lilach Bullock.

Sourced from Jump Lead

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For Online Retailers, ‘Net Stars’ are the Next Big Thing in Advertising

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Discount e-commerce fashion sites are using YouTube celebrities to promote their products.

By MediaStreet staff writers.

Internet advertising has become a moving target and these days, it’s moving faster than the speed of light.

Not very long ago Google AdWords and Facebook ads were the rage, supplanting more traditional advertising options on websites, radio, TV and in print media. As smartphones and tablets became more mainstream, social media has evolved into an increasingly popular medium.

AdWords and Facebook are still viable marketing tools but a good chunk of advertising dollars are being shifted to videos and live streams viewed on YouTube and other digital outlets.

Having a well-known face touting your brand on YouTube or a testimonial from a vlogger with a large following has become a viable marketing strategy. For this reason, online fashion retailers are shifting their advertising focus to “net stars” more and more.

In many cases, YouTube celebrities and vloggers are paid directly by major brands. Smaller companies, like Zaful and Sammydress, send products to the “net stars” for their endorsements and compensate them based on the Internet traffic that is created. Sometimes there is a small upfront payment to cover video production costs. Here, they have sent some bikinishave been sent to a vlogger called “Sweetest Peach.”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mDiShOqd06w

Pros and cons

There are advantages and disadvantages to this type of advertising. The cost is lower than traditional advertising, which attracts smaller companies with niche products. There is no guarantee, however, that a “net star” will provide a positive review of the product. Over the long haul, this approach is worth the risk and generally yields positive results.

“We see this as a big opportunity to be part of the conversations that are happening naturally and organically in social media,” said Sara Lau, Marketing Director of Zaful. “By tapping into customer conversations about lifestyle and fashion, we feel we can promote our brand. So we’ll continue to seek out v-bloggers and YouTube stars.”

Here a vloggger called Madeofchanel trying on the clothing samples.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=edhpOg3v934

Positive results

In 2016, Zaful established a partnership with several well-known YouTube stars, including Tana Mongeau, Kelsey Simone and Jasmine Brown, each of whom have around 1 million YouTube subscribers. This year, Zaful is also partnering with YouTube celebrities in Spain and other non-English-speaking countries.

In the first quarter of 2017, sales generated by net stars represented nearly 10 percent of Zaful’s total revenue. Sammydress, which generates more than half of its sales from repeat customers, has not seen similarly positive results but does report a small spike in overall sales over the past 12 months.

YouTube celebrities for Sammydress include Dymond Goods (310,000 subscribers) and Nury Jimenez (770,000 subscribers).

Other e-retailers, like ASOS and Forever 21, have also jumped on the “net stars” bandwagon, finding that this new approach works. “The way shoppers get information is changing,” noted Sara. “As a smaller market player, we need to be aware of these trends.”

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Instagram Dominance Unlikely to Let Up According to Top Influencers

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Influencer marketing is evolving and fast.

By MediaStreet staff writers.

#HASHOFF, a micro-influencer marketing platform, today released a report detailing key industry trends driving the increasing popularity and viability of influencer marketing.

To understand the changing face of influencer marketing, and gain insight into where influencers are headed, #HASHOFF surveyed hundreds of vetted influencers on its platform. The #HASHOFF platform has over 150,000 opt-in influencers who partner with brands and work hard to grow and maintain their organic audiences every day.

With 25% of internet users employing some form of ad blocking, and consumers continuing to trust word of mouth over all other forms of marketing, influencer marketing is proving to be a powerful channel for targeted marketing.

The report found that micro-influencers are emerging as a critical marketing channel for brands large and small, enabling brands to grow awareness and drive sales. Brands are increasingly relying on micro-influencers to share their brand messages, since these influencers have higher engagement rates and are perceived as more passionate, creative and authentic by audiences.

Here are just a few of the highlights from the report:

  • While most respondents work across multiple platforms, nearly all respondents (92%) selected Instagram as their #1 platform of focus, followed by Facebook.
  • The majority (56%) of influencers surveyed spend at least four hours per day on social media, and more than 20% spend 7-8 hours or more.
  • Nearly one-third of influencers have grown their audience by 20%-50% in the past year, while one-fourth have grown their audience by 50%-100%, and 17% have more than doubled their audiences.
  • Platform of choice for influencers – Last year, 80% of respondents said Instagram was #1, while this year, a full 92% cite Instagram as their top platform, a 12%-point increase. A similar number of influencers (87%) predict Instagram will remain #1 for them next year.

“The time, energy, passion and creativity that goes into each influencer post is exactly why brands choose influencers to deliver content to their communities,” said Joel Wright, President of #HASHOFF. “These numbers not only confirm the viability and strength of the micro-influencer channel, but show that brands are increasingly aware that driving authentic and organic content over this medium increases brand-consumer engagement. Creating impactful brand experiences in a crowded media market that combines targeting, analysis and brand safety is vital for brand-consumer engagement, and the #HASHOFF platform delivers all three.”

“The number of followers has no relevance in this day and age, where followers and likes can be bought,” said influencer @AlishaMarie (despite having nearly 3M Instagram followers, 2.45M Twitter followers and 1.9 YouTube subscribers herself). “Content should be king.”

“Influencer marketing grows brands,” said micro-influencer @throughjakeseyes. “Even influencers with fewer than 10K Instagram followers can still have a big impact on the brand and create ROI.”

“I love Instagram for the inspiration and creativity it offers and for the real friendships I’ve made through it!” influencer @ChrissyJPowers said.

Echoed @EdiCaves, “I love Instagram because of the community. Instagram allows me to connect with locals that I would have never met otherwise. As my following has grown, brands have begun to contact me about work.”

 

 

 

 

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