Dmitry Malyanov — AdHive co-founder
Each of us belongs to our social group. We are all connected to some networks, we daily share with each other news, be it good or bad, we receive tons of information from others, empathize with them or rejoice. And we do not notice when our “friends”, whether knowingly or not, impose brands, products or services on us.
The inner circle is important
People tend to trust neighbors and friends more than stars, politicians and other public figures. According to the latest data from the Edelman Trust Barometer, 7 out of 10 respondents around the world are afraid of fake news and false information used as an information “weapon”. 59% of respondents say that it is becoming increasingly difficult for them to determine whether the news was created by an authoritative media organization or speaker, and they do not distinguish between propaganda and generated advertising content.
Information noise and a huge amount of content in social networks compels us to choose. This year, for the first time in the history of the Edelman Trust Barometer, the confidence in the media has fallen, but at the same time, the credibility of journalists has grown significantly. This paradox comes about from several factors, including the blurring of the definition of media today. For example, a number of respondents pay attention to news in social media (48% of respondents) and even search engines (25%), where native advertising and propaganda stuffing are commonly found. This trend is especially noticeable in countries with Western philosophy, which is based on critical thinking. For comparison, the level of confidence in all institutions decreased by 37% over the year in the United States, while in China, on the contrary, it grew by 27%, mainly due to the background of Eastern philosophy.
The world revolves around trust. Social networking platforms have increased the circle of people’s friends. And this is beneficial to marketers, because people are more likely to trust recommendations from people they know. People have always been interested in what happens to a neighbor, as they are closer and more familiar, it is easier to identify with them, and therefore trust them more. As a consequence, people read the posts of their neighbors more carefully and attentively. According to Nielsen’s Global Trust report, consumers are 92% more likely to trust their neighbors and neighborhood recommendations when it comes to buying decisions. That is why many brands are looking for brand-ambassadors among ordinary people.
The general trend of 2018, according to the latest study of the Social Report, indicates the predominance of User Generated Content on social platforms over content that is branded in terms of building confidence and creating a positive impression on potential customers. The tone here is set by Instagram. According to Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, user content in this social network tends to garner more participation, which leads to better prioritization of the algorithm within Instagram.
Network blindness as a trend
In the world of zapping (the random switching of channels while watching TV), the money is attracted by the one who manages viewer attention. In the age of adblocks, the brain does not notice advertising posts. If the advertising market was struggling with banner blindness on the streets of cities in the past, now network blindness has been added to the mix. The most readable and memorable information to date is a text consisting of no more than 300 words with a picture. The trend of recent years is the return of the long-reads, largely thanks to the launch of the Medium platform and the development of the Instagram platform. (data from https://torquemag.io — the site is nominated by the Silver Stevie International Business Award in the category Best Company Publication)
One of the ways of attracting the attention of an audience today is the power of provocative content. Everything is being used for this end. Explicit photos in the nude style, aggressive advertising on taboo topics, politics, cartoons, sarcasm, anarchy, etc. Porn, cryptocurrencies and pension reforms are all intertwined. But what is good for a person is not always acceptable for brands. Examples include the aggressive marketing of two brands — Benetton and Burger King. If in the case of the first a provocative brand identity does not prevent it from selling a classic style of clothing, in the case of Burger King, shocking content makes the company express apologies almost every time.
Microinfluencers — the salvation of AdTech
The trend of the last decade is the work with microinfluencers, bloggers with a number of subscribers from 1,000 to 10,000 people (Snapapp.com study), as well as targeted individuals from among the friends and family of a particular person, or the core of the target audience.
Against the backdrop of properly formulated and grammatically correct information from classical advertising campaigns, microinfluencer posts written in plain language and even with errors sell much more efficiently than astronomical investments in digital marketing and SEO campaigns. Classical schemes of promotion on the internet do not work anymore, and if you work in the old manner, the result is even worse. As in everything in life, the more you do something, the less rewards you get for each subsequent action. According to the law of diminishing returns, almost everything works. The concept of diminishing returns works for food, sex, sleep, drinking, reading books, sports training, vacations, caffeine consumption and working with large bloggers. Work with microinfluencers within the AdHive platform will not save any money for the advertiser, but will increase the effectiveness of the same investment.
Microinfluencers are the majority of users of all social networks. The hyped-up opinion leaders with a multi-million audience and, of course, an exorbitant ego that has already become a pain for many advertisers, constitute only a small fraction of the global blogosphere. Meanwhile, a huge mass of small and medium-sized bloggers remains an underestimated instrument of influence. And while communication in social networks has not turned into permanent advertising and self-promotion, this is a huge resource of quality dialogue with target audiences for brands.
If we talk about our own experience, more than 20 successful case studies with brands have been implemented to date within the AdHive platform. Most notable are the cases of the real estate agency MIC and toothpaste Splat. Posts about products written in a simple language brought significant brand engagement to all three companies.
It is all about human psychology and facts. According to a recent HelloSociety study, microinfluencers generate 60% more brand involvement due to greater contact with the audience and their own followers. In the same study, it was observed that the content of microinfluencers is 6.7 times more efficient from the point of view of final sales and generation of leads compared to large bloggers.
For example, the advertising of the Splat toothpaste attracted more than 70,000 likes, 643 comments, the total audience coverage was 207,446 people, audience involvement was 12%, and there were more than 300,794 views. More than 70 percent of the audience of the post were females and 26.1% were males.
In the case of the native advertising campaign of the MIC, the main task of which was to raise the problems of renting or buying real estate in Moscow and the Moscow region, and to express positive experience of working with the company. The total number of views of the company constituted 26,027, while the posts attracted more than 800 likes and 290 comments.
No less successful is native advertising when working with technological projects, such as blockchain projects, cryptographic ideas, and medical projects. If we look at it from a critical point of view, then there is a fairly small number of products that cannot be advertised through internet blogging. The only question resides in the legislation or the personal boundaries of the permissible. Although there are sites for such activities, such as the dark web or Silk Road.
Mechanics
The main message used to build all native content in social networks is that people simply share their experiences. I drink water brand A, and this is my conscious choice. These are the vitamins I bought myself, because I thought for a long time and came up with the idea that they are good for my health.
The task of any blogger is to show themselves in the best of light, to appear more advanced or to be one with the target audience, to evoke emotions, to add a call to action, to stimulate feedback and to be direct with the viewer. In the book “Infectious”, Yoga Berger identified several prerequisites for content to become viral.
- Triggers — thoughts about traffic jams, bosses, Monday, Friday, coffee — everything that people have on their minds during the day.
- Social capital — you can be a bit of a smart-ass and flirt with your reader, act as a guru, share a modern photograph from the Museum of Modern Art, a spa or immersion theater.
- Give your brand emotions — people notice what evokes strong emotions, such as tenderness, joy, anger, laughter. That is why there are so many reposts of memes, gifs and other cuteness and jokes in networks.
- Herd mentality — a new iPhone, a new meme, a vine and you did your job at a minimum — maximum.
- Practical value — your readers will be grateful to you for interesting and useful information or lifehacks.
- An interesting story — stories from life are always interesting, even if they are banal.
The list can go on. Turn on your imagination and do not forget about your main goal — the interest of the reader and the follower.
The future
Whether we like it or not, in the near future more and more people will pay attention to their subscribers, to activity in social networks, both their own and that of friends, to the spread of information through social networks as the main information channels. In 2018, companies have already begun to build their communities with the help of microinfluencers, ordinary people who are trusted by their neighbors, who are the most widely available sources of experience, opinions and information. This trend will only grow in 2019, and we are ready to help everyone who is willing to develop in this direction.
