Written By: Account Executive, Savannah Lowry
Like an Olympic athlete on a cereal box, Instagram influencers are the individuals that give a face to a brand, but in the most media-savvy facet. In this modern, digitally-charged and social media dominated era, it is important to understand the pressing influence the celebrity population sect known as Instagram influencers has as facilitators of business branding and marketing.
As stated in Instagram Marketing by David J. Green, over 70% of brands are active on Instagram, over 1 million people are actively advertising their product or service on Instagram, and more than 60% of Instagram users make more than $50,000 annually. These numbers, in regards to Instagram’s user population, directly display the business opportunities within the app, and the money held by the users within the bounds of the digital platform - emphasizing the users role as consumer. These numbers level up Instagram from just a tool for socialization, to a tool for business success if used strategically.
At the most basic level of understanding, there are the influencers almost everyone knows. Kim Kardashian is one such example who promotes large brands at a million dollar price tag. However, not as widely recognized but equally as effective, are the more B-List celebrities that can provide marketing gain to an audience. Using influencers to have the greatest and most positive impact for a business truly comes down to knowing said business’s audience and employing an influencer that caters to such an audience.
For example, it would make sense for a makeup company to do a brand deal with influencer Zoe Sugg, or “Zoella,” who has a beauty focused brand, but it would not be a smart choice for that beauty company to do a brand deal with influencer Jake Paul, who has an action/adventure brand. Even though Paul has more followers, those followers would most likely not be consumers of beauty products and therefore not a strategic advertisement for the makeup company.
In reference to the point that influencers with millions of followers are not always needed, a business should think in terms of the advertising context. If a product is targeted towards moms, someone such as mommy-blogger Eva Amurri Martino would be plenty effective in boosting sales, and most likely more effective than an influencer with millions of followers because a wholesome mom brand would be more trusted than a glamorous LA celebrity brand.
In more of a philosophical sense, influencers are needed in marketing because consumers consistently look for an authority source when purchasing a product, and that authority approval pairs with those who hold a sense of celebrity. At an age when advertising is shifting from a majority television platform to a digital one, those that hold an online celebrity status are going to be the most useful in marketing for businesses.