In recent times, the entire concept of influencer marketing has been rising and paving ways for various opportunities. Right from an entire and separate agency providing assistance in influencer marketing to various occupations, it is continuously brimming. The influencer marketing hub continues to stride ahead and compete with other forms of marketing available today.
Though it is only a recently developed form of marketing, influencer marketing has gained a strong foothold to emerge as an ideal option for the brands. Ideally, the concept of influencer marketing is best suitable for brands that are new to the market world. This is because the particular marketing form helps in expanding the reach of the brand to diverse and maximised customers in no time. Further, this form of marketing has reliability and promises to create the right brand image for a long term.
Influencer marketing hub has given the best opportunities in framing an entire new entity, that is an influencer. Earlier, in the traditional mode of marketing, celebrities were asked to represent a brand. These celebrities did not need to belong to a specific field since their fame was the main channel to bring in customers. In this article, there will be a brief elucidation to what influencer marketing is. Further, there will be a comprehensive discussion to who an influencer is. There will also be a discussion on how influencers are different from the celebrities and what are their specific qualities. Lastly, there will be a list regarding the top influencers of 2022 from the influencer marketing hub.
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Influencer Marketing – A Brief Overview
In a very basic sense, influencer marketing is about the marketing that a brand operates through influencers. Influencers are those people who have a huge social influence and are expertised in a particular field or fields. In this type of marketing, the influencers are the inot promoting a brand and its product or service. In other way, the influencers are responsible for creating the brand image and bringing in customers towards it. Influencers are not identical to celebrities. So, any promotion of the brand or the product done by a celebrity cannot be termed as influencer marketing.
Through influencer marketing, a brand or a venture seeks to incorporate two segments or components. This is- influencer and marketing. Influencer, as we interpret, is the specialised entity in a field who has a massive social influence. Marketing is the medium through which a brand or a venture interacts with the masses. This is done through interaction about the brand. Its purpose, product and the creation process. Since influencer marketing is marketing through the influencer, it has certain criterias for it. A person is defined as an influencer only when:
- The purchasing decisions are reasonably shifted towards the brand’s product or service. This is done by the person’s sharing of knowledge, position and relation to the masses on a social platform.
- A follow up on the niche of the influencer. The niche is unusual most of the time and it depends on how much is following up on it.
In influencer marketing, there are several objectives which are aimed to be fulfilled by the brands. These are:
- To maintain and build a strong brand image of the brand.
- To ensure that there is maximised customer attraction and purchasing decisions amongst the people.
- To execute all the marketing objectives at a relatively reduced cost and time.
- To ensure that there is credibility in terms of customers that come in.
- To ease the task of marketing through involvement of influencers.
So, to summarise, influencer marketing is when the marketing aspects are entrusted through an expertised entity, that is the influencers. Here, the brand has the maximised potential to expand its growth in minimal time. Since, the customers will already be familiarised to the influencers, the brand can expect a traffic towards it too.
Inlfeucer marketing has the most potential survival through social media and networking. It is through the medium of various social media platforms, that the brand can accelerate its marketing towards multiple geographic spaces. Further, the network of the influencers is another key for the brand to see itself being a choice of the customers.
Apart from all these advantages of influencer marketing, there are also some involved risks. These risks include wrong selection of the influencers. Further, it also includes lack of specificity to the results after implementing influencer marketing. Influencer marketing can also backfire any brand which tends to use a fluctuating social media platform.
To disseminate such occurrences, the influencer marketing agency has been set up. The main task of these agencies would be to assist the brand in selecting or framing its own organic influencer marketing strategies. These all functionings of influencer marketing are elaborated in the next section.
Influencers – Who are They?
The most integral and distinguishing factor of influencer marketing are the influencers. As discussed broadly in the above section, an influencer is anybody who has massive social influence and is expertised in a field. Perhaps, these two conditions are the distinguishing factors to be an influencer. In influencer marketing, the role of an influencer is to promote the brand, create its brand image and bring in the customers. To do so, an influencer uses his or her followers and popularity to divert the attention towards the brand.
For instance, suppose the brand Gucci takes up influencer marketing. It will first align its goals to achieve from the influencer marketing campaigns. Then, it will find the relevant influencers that advocate the similarity to Gucci’s products and services. The influencers, on their social media handles will start prompting the brand. These social media platforms that the influencers operate from, will be the main channels for the brand to reach out to the customers. The role of the influencer is crucial in such scenarios. If at all, an influencer fails to do so, it would gravely impact the brand image, and would instead decrease customer arrival.
An influencer, when associating to any brands, has some essential functions to perform. These functions can be in terms of promotion or providing the passage for a brand entry into a heavily competitive market world. The functions of an influencer in influencer marketing are:
Inspiring Entity
The task of the influencers is to inspire its followers and people as to why the brand is ideal to choose. For this, an influencer must have the concrete knowledge in the field that he or she is promoting. Lack of knowledge and expertise will only decrease the customers as there will be vagueness in what is being told to them about the products. For a brand, it also becomes essential to know the inspiring motives of influencers before selecting one. This will give them an idea as to how an influencer leads his or her community.
Collaboration Works
The functions of influencers in influencer marketing also include collaborations. That is, the brand and the influencers will co-create the content. These content creation might be diverted towards two main aims- to promote the brand and the influencer simultaneously. For this, a brand and the influencers need to align their goals. This will indicate similarity of thoughts between the two parties and hence contribute to effective content creation. Including influencers in the content creation, can help the brand maximise its reach to a larger frame of customers.
To Build Oneself
While the brand’s purpose to work with influencers would be to enter and advocate the customers about it, there might be an underlying reason too. An influencer might decide to associate with a brand to satisfy his or her personal motives too. This would include emerging as an independent leader, interacting with more people and ultimately building one’s own brand. The influencers might also wish to expand their knowledge in the specific field which would later contribute in bringing up their own brand. This would also include standing at the top of the list of the influencers in the respective fields.
Impacting the Customer Choices
The main and one of the prominent functions of an influencer in influencer marketing is to impact the customer choices. It is very evident that there will be competitors of a certain brand present. To combat this scenario, the influencers’ task would be to divert the customer’s choices towards the brand he or she is promoting. This can be achieved through strategized content launch, infleucer’s feedback on the product and the plus points of the brand. The plus points will be the USPs of the brand, that is its unique selling points.
These are the functions of an influencer in an influencer marketing hub. These functions determine the entire inducing of the influencer concept in influencer marketing. These functions also determine the importance of influencers in the concept of influencer marketing. An influencer is completely different from a celebrity. Though they might collide with some similarity, however, their objectives and tasks completely differ. This is elaborated in the next section.
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Influencers vs Celebrities
For a long time, the idea of marketing through celebrities and influencers has been considered the same. However, with the prominence gained regarding influencer marketing, this notion has been debunked. There are certain aspects which completely differ influencers from celebrities.
Influencers are expertised in a particular field or fields. Whereas, celebrities are not. The mere reason why a celebrity had been used by a brand for marketing would be his or her popularity. Since many people know a celebrity and follow them, it would contribute in brand’s awareness too. But, for an influencer in influencer marketing, he or she is expertised in the field that the brand advocates. The influencer has a wide knowledge regarding the brand’s field and uses it to create appropriate content. This is one aspect of the difference between influencers and celebrities.
An influencer is focused towards the brand image and building him or her in the same field. While, a celebrity would only endorse with the brand for monetary purpose and to expand one’s fame. That is, influencers will align their goals with the brand to work towards brand building. Here, the influencers might also associate with the brands to pitch in an independent brand for themselves in the future. While for a celebrity, the brand building might be secondary or no goal. The main goals would be to expand the audience reach.
These are some differences between influencers and celebrities. In the current scenario, there are various influencers that are associating with various brands. However, there are some of the influencers who have stood out and are in huge demand. The top influencers are discussed in the next section.
Top Influencers in Influencer Marketing Hub in 2022
The influencer marketing hub sees a stepping inclusion of various influencers each day. However, some of them have stood out and are associative to the maximum number of brands. The list of top influencers in influencer marketing hub in 2022 is:
- Alexa Chung
- Huda Kattan
- Charli D’ Amelio
- Zach King
- Whindersson Nunes
- Lele Pons
- Dan Bilzerian
- Amanda Cerny
- Chiara Ferragni
- Aimee Song
These are the most prominent influencers in 2022 for the influencer marketing hub. These influencers, apart from collaborating with the brands, have also established their own brands. For instance, Huda Kattan is the leading face of her cosmetic brand, Huda Beauty.
In a nutshell, the influencers are the integral part for any brand to execute influencer marketing. These entities are the face and soul of proper influencer marketing.
Parting Note
This article completely elaborates on the topic what is influencer marketing. In a very basic sense, influencer marketing is about the marketing that a brand operates through influencers. Influencers are those people who have a huge social influence and are expertised in a particular field or fields. In this type of marketing, the influencers are the inot promoting a brand and its product or service.
This article also completely elucidates on who are influencers. An influencer is anybody who has massive social influence and is expertised in a field. Perhaps, these two conditions are the distinguishing factors to be an influencer. In influencer marketing, the role of an influencer is to promote the brand, create its brand image and bring in the customers.
This article also elaborates on the functions of influencers in influencer marketing. These functions are:
- Inspiring Entity
- Collaboration Works
- To Build Oneself
- Impacting the Customer Choices
The above information also highlights the difference between influencers and celebrities. Influencers are expertised in the field and work with brands pertaining to that field only. Further, there are also other differences between these two entities mentioned in detail. Lastly, the article also mentions the top influencers in influencer marketing hub in 2022.
Commonly Asked FAQs
- What do you understand about influencer marketing?
In a very basic sense, influencer marketing is about the marketing that a brand operates through influencers. Influencers are those people who have a huge social influence and are expertised in a particular field or fields. In this type of marketing, the influencers are the inot promoting a brand and its product or service.
- Who is an influencer in an influencer marketing hub?
An influencer is anybody who has massive social influence and is expertised in a field. Perhaps, these two conditions are the distinguishing factors to be an influencer. In influencer marketing, the role of an influencer is to promote the brand, create its brand image and bring in the customers.
- What are the functions of an influencer?
The functions of an influencer are:
- Inspiring Entity
- Collaboration Works
- To Build Oneself
- Impacting the Customer Choices
- Who are the top 10 influencers in influencer marketing hub in 2022?
The top 10 influencers in influencer marketing hub in 2022 are:
- Alexa Chung
- Huda Kattan
- Charli D’ Amelio
- Zach King
- Whindersson Nunes
- Lele Pons
- Dan Bilzerian
- Amanda Cerny
- Chiara Ferragni
- Aimee Song
5. Can anybody be an influencer in influencer marketing?
No. To be an influencer in influencer marketing, one needs to be thorough in their field of knowledge. Apart from this, the influencer must have a prominent social influence and lead a community of own.
References
5 Roles Influencers Can Play In A Content Marketing Strategy
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