An ever-increasing number of influencers had been shown to rapidly grow over the last decade with the rise of social media. Numerous are young people who engage in influencer marketing seeking to share their expertise in their preferred field of knowledge and specific skilled topics in which they are much more likely at ease. This realm of social media has predominantly gained in popularity, giving an even wide-ranging of opportunities to individuals – consumers, firms, and brands to enter the market of social media influencer. This has undoubtedly become a common phenomenon touching nearly millions of people around the world. By only glimpsing the statistics published in the January 2019 “We Are Social” report, 3.484 billion people were estimated to actively use social media – or 45 percent of the world’s population. Therefore, this percentage inevitably shows that influencer marketing is growing rapidly in importance, and people may likely to rely more on influencers in social media to direct them in their decision making.
Influencers in social media are indeed people who have learnt to build some significant reputation, through what they feel passionate about, interested in, and where they find themselves more skilled and able. The first step for anyone who wants to become a social media influencer is to find their niche. For a more comprehensive knowledge on what truly is social media influencer and how it works more exactly, it is always important to get back to the root of the genuine influencer. Generally, an influencer is “someone who has the power to affect the purchasing decisions of others because of his or her authority, knowledge, position, or relationships with his or her audience; and who has a ‘following’ in a distinct niche, with whom he or she actively engages, and which the size of the following depends on the size of his/her topic of the niche” (Influencer MarketingHub).
Influencer people are not simply considered as marketing tools but are rather proven assets for the brand with which a real social relationship is established. As a result, this link will lead the brand to collaborate with the influencers and in return make it successfully reach its marketing purposes. In contrast, a social media influencer looks the same, except only that the take will go all online, more precisely on social networking platform such as Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and Tik Tok. A social media influencer uses more online marketing strategies aiming at creating more compelling content to attract a large audience.
Considering the number of followers and social media consumers, with regards to social media influencer marketing, there are four types of influencers:
Becoming a social media star changes your life. Here is a testimony from one of the well-known Malagasy social media influencer Antso Bommartin about what it has changed thus far in her life when she became an influencer: “There are so many opportunities in being an influencer. To be honest, it is always pleasing to get paid for your efforts and hard work because it is not easy to keep creating contents and videos. That is why I am very demanding in terms of remuneration. As for the challenges, I find myself to be more careful and selective in what I utter, not to shock and offense the audience. I am really convinced that being an influencer highly requires intelligence and thoughtfulness because your sayings may easily be misinterpreted.”
Sources: Influencer MarketingHub / Forbes
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