Under the Influence of Social Media
Social media has drastically impacted marketing and advertising in recent years. Social media influencers are up and coming and are the ideal source of marketing for businesses who aim to target social media users, impacting their buying decisions.
Advertising a product through social media influencing creates an effective approach to reaching a large audience. With their platform, they can promote products to thousands of people who trust them as endorsers. This can be done with real time updates through pictures, videos, blog posts, tweets, and more.
Why do influencers have such an impact on the products we buy, and why do we put so much trust into these people we’ve never met?
Influencers are recognized to have more authority when it comes to knowing a particular topic they promote, and they seem to know what they’re doing. If a food blogger posts a photo promoting a car, it’ll throw the audience off and might make them suspicious.
Having good audience engagement leads to trust and credibility. A high amount of likes and followers will reassure viewers that this person is right, because a large majority of people think so. The truth is, if a social media influencer has a low following, they seem less trustworthy. A company looking to promote their product will inevitably seek out an influencer that is relatively famous.
People are more apt to listen to people who share their interests. Although it is the same product the ad was trying to sell, they find the influencer’s post to be more interesting and honest.
It all comes down to relatability. These influencers are just normal people who are open about their lives on social media. Well known or not, they attract groups of people who share the same interests. Certain audiences will pay attention to these products the influencers are raving about, and most importantly, buy the products.
