Influencer Marketing Is Overtaking All Others

by Ivan Serrano, Guest Contributor

The world has gone social and the corporate world is struggling to catch up. As a way to get through to millenials who are the ultimate consumers, organizations are finding the need to involve their fellow influential young people to get to them. While that is perfectly in order, most of these influencers are being misused as organizations pretend to want to give them exposure.

Influencer marketing is expected to continue rising.

The last decade has rendered marketing strategies – as we knew them – quite irrelevant. Marketers have had to find new ways to do things and influencers are in the middle of it. The term “influencer marketing” was searched 325% more times in 2017 than before and that has only progressed into 2018. The trend is expected to continue rising with more organization seeking the help of society influencers to push sales.

Are they a worthy investment, these influencers? Yes, they are, considering that an organization is likely to see an average of $7.65 in media value. While companies can create their own accounts and dedicate entire departments to online marketing, globalization makes it a little hard to reach everyone, and hence the need for established content providers.

These are some of the influencers that are terribly misused.
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Bloggers
Bloggers and other content providers are essential in marketing as long as they have secured a large following. Marketers will want to get them to push their agenda and sometimes without spending a dime. When a blogger is only getting started or has yet to reach as many followers as they may want, they will fall for such offers as free accommodation to attend a conference and write a story for the benefit of the organization that is sending the blogger to the conference. They would set aside a budget for that but they took advantage of the blogger’s need for followers. That is misuse.

YouTube Content Providers
An organization will reach out to a You Tuber to feature them in a segment for free. How will they justify this? Well, we are well-known and respected and organizations will be impressed to see you working with a name as big as us, they will say. At the drop of a hat, they will expect the content provider to shelve their idea and run a different segment because fame will pay the bills, right? Well, it’s about time someone told them it doesn’t work that way. A parasitic relationship only leaves the creative starving while corporations smile all the way to the bank.

Influencers are the Future
Most organizations – the smart ones – have already seen this and are working with influencers to create value. Those asking for freebies in return for fame and exposure are like parents who approach a French Burlington tutoring and request for services to be paid back with conversations in the language. How illogical is that?

Art is at times despised as some people assume it takes little or no effort to put together a great piece of writing, but the time to end that is now.
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