This article is by Patrick Barry, marketing student and upcoming marketing professional.
How the average person is becoming marketers latest weapon.
2017 is the year where influencer marketing is becoming a part of core strategy that is used by brands and organisations across the whole marketing industry. Marketing always seems to have a trending topic of style and 2017 is the year of the influencer marker. All brands want to be involved with influencer marketing with over 60% of brands in 2017 implementing it into their respective strategies.
Innovative technology and applications for mobile devices are offering increasing smarter and more relevant information, they are becoming more involved into our daily lives and are creating new forms of connectivity to products and brands.
Every millennial with a a smartphone and an attractive instagram feed seems to think that they can be one, and the exciting thing is, they actually can! Due to the increasing rise of worldwide use of social media platforms such as instagram, snapchat, facebook & youtube anyone who can build a following on the respective platform have a reach to a specific group of consumers which is usually unique to differing individuals. Brands are starting to realise the potential of the common individuals social medias followings and increasingly leveraging their unique reach to market their products and brands.
Consumers and especially millennial are becoming increasingly less trusting of main stream media. They are turning from traditional sources of media such as cable TV and newspapers to platforms to platforms such as YouTube. Youtube is designed to facilitate social influencers to grow and create specific online communities of like minded individuals (potential consumers). Thus enabling organisations and marketers to leverage these new communities that are interactive and more specific audiences for advertisement.
But How Does This Work?
PewDiePie is a famous youtuber and social influencer. He has grown an crazy 50 million subscriber number, which from a marketers point of view is an incredible reach.
Type of channel: entertainment & gaming.
Subscriber type: Younger & likely to be interested in gaming products.
Benefits: Reach a large specific audience that are likely to be interested in the product, rather then advertisement on cable TV where they are not sure if the consumer is actively involved in the content that the advertisement is featured on. Also the consumers is more likely to trust the entertainer (PewDiePie) as he is actively engaging in a conversation with his subscribers by the often directly speaking to his subscribers via his video content,or replying and staying active in the youtube comments section. Thus increasing their feeling of belonging, as well as making they feel like they are part of a community. This makes it very easy and effective for marketers to either advertise on his youtube page through google adsense or even via product placement in his videos.
If a ‘nerdy’ and self-proclaimed socially awkward young kid from Sweden can do this, why can’t you? 2017 is the year of opportunity!
You could be the next big social influencer!
exploring the dynamic world of digital marketing 
Good blog post!! In terms of youtube, I think it’s really effective to advertise there as the advertisements can be somewhat tailored to the consumer segments based on the kind of channel video it is. However, I find myself instantly exiting the pop up ads on youtube as well as skipping the video ads at the start, unless it does not give me the option. What do you think about being able to do this, does it make it impact upon a marketers decision to use this platform for digital marketing?
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I think it does impact the marketers decision, however doesn’t limit it. Marketers can use leverage youtube not just to run their ads pre video, but embed a message into the content creators video. This may be subtle or obvious to the audience but always effective.
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I think there’s a big difference between social media influences when comparing Instagram to Youtube. Instagram you often see pretty people promoting products saying its the “best thing they’ve ever used” and you know it’s because they were paid to post. However on Youtube, I see a lot of people with large followings who do product reviews instead. They disclose that the product was given to them for free by the company, but they give us an honest review of the pros and cons and allow us to make up our own minds, which I think is a lot better and way more genuine.
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Yes 100% agree, the relationship that is formed on youtube and the interaction between the audience and the creator often feels more authentic than instagram!
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Interesting look at how social media can be used as a platform for anyone to engage in marketing activities, whether it be from promoting themselves vie Youtube or promoting another brand as seen on various Instagram accounts. Is this a trend that will continue to grow and eventually replace traditional marketing means or is this a fad that will eventually die? It’s interesting to think about the future of this form of marketing!
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I think it is the start of something new, ie a path to the new form advertising, whatever that will be!
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An interesting read. I’m wondering what you see as the best platforms for rhe not for profit sector including social enterprises. Do you think there’s opportunities for social influencers in this sector?
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It depends, i guess you’re not trying to sell a product, just trying to increase awareness. You could use public figures social following to promote awareness of your organisation, however these figure must have the right “fit” with your organisation.
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Another interesting post. I guess an effective marketer has a great understanding of which particular platform will be the most effective for each generational group. As a “gen Xer” I’d have to say that I am most responsive to Instagram I wonder if I am typical in this regard?
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Magic Mirror has only one feature which is free games.
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