What exactly is an influencer?
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By: Marisel Salazar
influencer
[in-floo-uh n-ser]
noun1. a person or thing that carries influence over others.
2. a person who has the power to influence many people, as through social media or traditional media.
Some have hundreds of thousands, even millions of followers on social media. Others are smaller in size, but have engagement from a loyal audience that is mind boggling and envy-inducing.
A social media influencer is a person or user on social media (traditionally Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram — purposefully excluding blogs; we’ll get to that in a later post) who has amassed a large following or loyal and engaging audience, typically within a specific industry or topic like health, fitness, lifestyle, food, tech, fashion, cooking, mommy/baby, etc. These are users who have built a reputation of trust, authenticity, and credibility within their given industry on social media.
For brands, influencer marketing and endorsements are now an integral part of their social media, PR, and marketing strategies. In fact, a 2016 report from Twitter shows that “49% of consumers seek purchase guidance from social media influencers.” 20% said that a tweet from an influencer inspired them to share their own product recommendation. It gets even crazier: Nearly 40% of Twitter users said they had made a purchase as a direct result of an influencer’s tweet.
When do you reach influencer status?
It’s an unspoken/unofficial standard that you reach the social media influencer level when you hit 10k+ followers on a given social media platform OR receive a lauded blue ‘verification’ checkmark on an account (determined to be an account of public interest by the respective authorities at Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram).
However, there has been the emergence of ‘micro-influencers’ or those with followings of <10k who are also gaining traction with brands. These might be users with great social media engagement and a loyal audience; or seen as on the “up-and-up” which is appealing for brands to capitalize on the next social media star.
Celebrity vs. Social Media Influencer
You could think of a social media influencer as a person with a given level of expertise or experience in a specific field, with access to large audiences. These social media influencers can persuade others by virtue of their authenticity and reach (i.e. is a food writer, works as the creative director at a well-known design firm, fitness instructor, fervent home baker, amateur interior designer, etc.).
Social media influencers are self built: they have created their own audiences online whereas a celebrity (traditionally an actor, musician, athlete) has had an audience built up for them via traditional channels like television, radio, etc. (famous outside of social media).
Influencers are an integral part of many social media, PR, and marketing plans. Developing relationships with influencers is one of the key drivers to creating a successful humanistic brand online and even drive sales.
Marisel is a New York City based food and travel writer for publications like Eater, Tasting Table, Trends on Trends, Honest Cooking, and Melting Butter and was recently featured as one of Refinery29’s Top NYC Food Instagrams to follow this year, in addition to features from Taste Talks, Jetsetter, and The New Potato. She has produced culinary events and neighborhood dining guides with James Beard award-winning, Michelin starred, and up-and-coming chefs across the US like Jessi Singh of Babu Ji, Erik Bruner-Yang of Maketto, and Carrie and Rupert Blease of Lord Stanley. @BreadButterNYC is her personal food Instagram account, with over 16.6k+ followers which documents her culinary and restaurant related projects, events, and daily eats.
Julius is an influencer marketing platform that provides marketers with rich social data, advanced search capabilities, and the campaign management tools required to organize a successful influencer marketing strategy.
Request a demo of the Julius influencer marketing software, or read more about digital creators on our influencer marketing blog.
