In the last couple of years, we have witnessed an exponential growth of influencers all across social media platforms. From pico, nano, micro to mega, giga, tera - the terms encompasses a large group of people whether they have 500 or 500k followers.
As apps like Instagram became more popular, so did the people using them. Today, influencers have a stronger social media presence and importance in society than some Hollywood stars.
But the influencer market has experienced changes and fazes of evolution and is currently at an interesting spot. Will it continue to grow or are we all fed up with what we’re presented and ready for a shift?
To call someone an “influencer” may have gained popularity in the last 10-15 years but it is far from a new concept.
In the ‘00s, blogs and magazines (both on and offline) were the biggest places to find inspiration. While magazines had obviously sponsored articles and were filled with ads, blogs were a place where you could find unfiltered and honest opinions.
With that kind of marketing still relatively new, only bigger blogs or very specific niches had the opportunity to work with sponsors and make money.
The internet evolved and so did sites, apps, and ways people share their passions.
The 2010s marked the boom of social media apps used to showcase our everyday lives, most notably Instagram, and just like it’s the case in every other branch, the first adapters grew their following.
Writing a blog post takes more time than hooping on Instagram to share quick news, a cute outfit, or today’s lunch with your followers. Peeking into someone’s life, especially in the way some of these apps enable it, made the connection between influencers and followers seem much more real.
Watching a YouTube video feels a lot more personal than a celebrity interview, interactions are more common, content seems personal, and the relationship a creator builds has a more organic and friendly feel.
Brands were quick to catch on to the fact that celebrities were now not the only ones who could influence the public. Wanting to use the trust content creators have with their audiences brands were ready to use them for advertising purposes.
It was a win-win situation, influencers were able to profit from a hobby, and brands could target the audience easier and save on marketing expenses (paying creators or sending them free products is still considered to be cheaper and more profitable than creating an ad campaign).
Seeing others make money while living their best life and posting about it inspired a huge number of people to give it a try themselves, and so, in the last 5 to 10 years, micro-influencers were born.
Those with a smaller following started getting opportunities that were once only enjoyed by those who were established on the platform. Now, as easily accessible as ever, one can go from being unknown to making a living by posting videos or photos in a matter of months.
As great as it is for all creators to benefit, slowly but surely it led to a few problems, mostly oversaturation.
Wanting to save a few bucks, companies started focusing more on influencer marketing, sending constant PR packages to a large number of creators. That leads to feeds being flooded by the same products (especially if it is a new launch), making users sick of seeing it and shortening its life cycle.
Constantly showcasing products and posting mostly sponsored posts makes their followers lose trust in what they are trying to promote. Knowing that a brand is pulling the strings behind a post makes it hard for the audience to take the influencer’s endorsement seriously and not to doubt the validity of presented claims. Lines become blurry, what is their own opinion and what is a paid script?
TikTok also plays a huge part, and I personally think it currently has the biggest impact on influencer culture, and consequently influencer marketing.
Primarily used by preteens, teens, and older Gen Z (who are now entering the workforce) it instills their first ideas of consumerism and will continue to have a great impact on the market.
Products can now go viral too, and after just one TikTok get sold out in a day, small businesses largely benefit from being able to show their work to popular sounds, and brands making funny content quickly gain following. A product doesn’t need a specific person to push it (removing the risk of potential controversies an influencer might find themselves in that end up hurting the business), just enough people to talk about it or the algorithm to randomly bless it.
This app has an opposite, yet very similar - product driven, approach compared to traditional marketing and it will be incredibly interesting to see how it continues to evolve.
Lately, I have been noticing people getting tired of what we currently know as “influencers”. The veil has been lifted. We’ve come to a point where everyone knows someone who is one (or at least attempted to be) and we are fed up with seeing the same looks and products over and over again.
We are in desperate need of authentic creators, ones who are not easily swayed by large corporations and don’t want to be used as a walking billboard, those who are here to educate, spread awareness, and knowledge on topics of their interest. We need people who are unapologetically themselves, not here just to follow trends but to give their thoughts and opinions, always keeping the conversation alive.
Maybe that means we are slowly going full circle, back to where it started. Platforms like this one allow people to go deeper into different discussions and keep the focus on a topic for a longer time.
Reading a post on someone’s website or a blog is a different experience from reading a caption below a photo. Not saying one is better than the other, they both have their positive and negative sides, just that this format allows for attention to be kept on one thing for longer which leads to forming stronger opinions and retaining more information.
In the near future, we might start seeing companies focusing on trying to make a product viral while the influencers are going to be considered those who can keep bringing honest and unbiased takes to their followers and influence overall culture, not just sales.
Thank you so much for reading!
Do you think those who we now consider influencers will be a thing of the past?
What kind of people do you like following? What is the reason behind you pressing that button?
I would love to know your thoughts on this topic :)
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