Influencer Marketing is Nothing New
The Psychology Behind Influencer Marketing: It’s Traditional Marketing Theory, Fueled by Social Media
One of the biggest misconceptions when it comes to influencer marketing is that it is about product placement. Pick the influencer with the most followers and prettiest content, and have him/her mention your product — ‘spray and pray’, if you will.
But to truly understand what is effective influencer marketing, one needs to fundamentally how social media has changed the way we discover and purchase brands and products — and how social media influencers fit into that context.
Brands have long understood that to launch a new product or shift brand perception, the innovators and early adopters must first be convinced in order for it to spread to the rest of the economy — the concept of diffusion of innovation. It is why brands paid such a premium to purchase full-page ads in Vogue or Architectural Digest — the idea is that those ads make an impression on the trendsetters: the early adopters and innovators.
In today’s social media landscape, influencers are innovators and early adopters, that have managed to attract an audience through their expertise, and authentic, relatable voice. When they share recommendations — it’s as if an expert friend of yours (you know, the friend that has tried every face mask on the market) gives a recommendation on the latest face mask. Now imagine that amplified across their thousands or millions of faithful followers across social media.
Influencer marketing is simply the diffusion of innovation, infinitely amplified by the power of social media.
ACTIVATE is a fully end-to-end influencer marketing platform, covering influencer discovery, program workflow, measurement, and analytics. Last year, the ACTIVATE platform enabled over 75,000 influencers to collaborate with brands.
Want to learn more about Activate? Just drop us a note at research@activate.social.
