influencer marketing

The pandemic saw a lot of businesses pressing pause on campaigns and sometimes canceling them completely. With physical events canceled and brick-and-mortar stores shut, businesses had to completely reconsider how to reach consumers. To influence audiences, brands realized they had to use social media platforms intelligently. This led them to seek the help of influencers. Influencers grew their follower bases by adapting and diversifying their content and using channels like TikTok, a platform that has seen a 45% increase in influencers in 2021 alone.  The success of influencer marketing has given rise to the term, ‘creator economy’, which is given importance by... Read More >

With more consumers, especially Gen Z and millennials, crying out for brands to stand up against racism and equality, companies also have a unique opportunity to encourage their executives to use social media to advocate for the brand itself.  The reason? That’s where the market is. Three separate surveys indicate that there’s lots of social media activity among both B2B buyers and executives. 91% of B2B buyers told Forrester that they are active on social media, while 94% admitted to Accenture that that’s where they research before purchasing a product. And 82% of B2B leaders reported to market research firm... Read More >

Today, a Q & A With Lauren Sloat of Streetsense, VP of Marketing on influencer marketing.  Streetsense is an agency collective that specializes in creating comprehensive marketing plans that bring people and places together through experience-focused strategy and design. What are some trends in the influencer marketing space? When it comes to influencer marketing, authenticity is key. It’s increasingly important for influencers to align with the values and mission of the brands they’re promoting, so they remain credible and trustworthy to their followers while also appropriately representing the partner brand. That being said, many brands are starting to publicly acknowledge... Read More >

The phenomenon of influencer marketing is going from strength to strength. A growing number of brands are leveraging influencer marketing to reach their target audience, and what was once a niche digital marketing strategy is quickly becoming an established strategy in its own right.  Even so, the path to involvement with influencer marketing is still lined with informality. For example, industry influencers may be invited by email to participate in a brand’s live webcast; the terms of the arrangement are more or less outlined in the first exchange, and the influencer acknowledges the terms by replying. A formal contract is... Read More >

Spotting Fake Social Media InfluencersPhoto from Inc.com The growth of the influencer marketing industry is no accident: the power of word-of-mouth recommendations is a timeless tool and, when used well, influencer marketing can return excellent results for brands. At the same time, however, the success of online marketing has given rise to the dark underbelly of the influencer industry. These days, it is all too easy to buy followers, likes and comments, and the number of “fake influencers” looking to get a piece of the influencer marketing pie is on the rise. While the influencer marketing industry has been valued... Read More >

The influencer marketing industry looks like it is here to stay: according to Adweek, the value of Instagram influencer marketing is on track to reach $10 billion this year. Influencers on other platforms, like Snapchat, YouTube, and TikTok, are also finding a foothold with lucrative markets of their own. Meanwhile, the industry seems to reach a new stage of evolution every other day. Less than ten years ago, the arena was open only to celebrities and a few hardcore bloggers. Now, the number of influencers has increased so much so as to have already saturated the market, and increase the... Read More >

How Do You Create An Influencer Marketing Strategy? When a brand chooses to invest in influencer marketing, they should know going in how they plan to employ that influencer as well as how they plan to measure the outcome of the campaigns. But those are just the broad strokes. A successful influencer marketing campaign will include multiple different complementary strategies and logistical factors that work together to achieve predetermined goals. Clear compensation: Influencers work best when they understand going in how they will be compensated for their work. Whether the brand choose to make the influencer an affiliate, they offer... Read More >

The growth of the influencer industry has been nothing short of meteoric: having only hit its stride in the last few years, influencer marketing is set to become a $15 billion business by 2022. The credibility of the industry has experienced a recent uplift, with more brands than ever proving ready to put money behind influencer marketing strategies.  At the same time, influencer fraud is on the rise. Many users are guilty of artificially inflating the reach of their accounts, or even promoting entirely false personal narratives. As a result, consumers are more discerning and slower to trust the influencers... Read More >

2020 Influencer Marketing Trends The world of digital marketing has undergone a series of transformations in recent years, with the evolution of new consumer technology, available platforms and even new languages. As such, there has been a parallel shift in how companies choose to market their products, including a new openness to working with so-called “influencers.” Though the actual definition of a social media influencer is a broad one, and will vary widely depending on who you ask, it is undeniable that there has been a rise in the prevalence of influencers as a mainstream marketing tool. Thanks to platforms... Read More >

THE FUTURE OF AI There’s a quote from several unknown sources that circulates just about every Father’s Day that says “not all things in life are forever.  Thankfully there are some relationships that are here to stay.”  It also appears to accurately describe the future of the ever-expanding presence of artificial intelligence (AI). The world has now seen self-driving vehicles, robots that not only clean but also inspect and report areas that need cleaning, and virtual assistants that help keep our lives organized, so be prepared for more improvements and changes. Artificial Intelligence research is constantly seeking ways to better... Read More >