Influencers and effective social media marketing

Brands that try to forcefully display their logos online often fail to realise the desired results. Brands need to avoid impersonal brand messages and also avoid turning the online influencers into copycats that exclusively share the marketing messages as received. This is not strategic because the social media is a high context environment in which users evaluate not only the message but also the manner in which it has been projected. This technically means that the organisation will not be best placed to understand how to tailor branding messages to suit the brand.

Use of influencers in strategic management works best when they are allowed to assimilate the branding message then translate it into information that their followers would readily accept. Besides, the followers of such influencers are not keen on getting what the brands have to say. Instead, they want to get the influencer’s opinion of the brand and the products it represents. This means that use of influencers is intricate and needs to be carefully considered. One of the factors that ought to be considered is the past preference of such an influencer.

An influencer that has in the past been a champion of a rival brand is unlikely to be effective when marketing. The followers will have associated them with the brand and to some extent attributed its brand personality to their character and personality. If such an influencer turns around to market a different brand, they come out as inconsistent and the commercial intent in their endorsement is exposed more strongly. This robs them of the credibility threshold that is expected to apply to them. Influencers wield their influence from the presumption that they give an honest opinion about products and brands and that they have not been unduly influenced to exaggerate in favour of the paymaster. If an influencer endorses rival brands, it becomes obvious that they have been influenced and this reduced their influence on their followers.

The online user is a peculiar consumer in that they make an effort to distinguish between staged and real situations. If there is any reason to suspect that a message or a scenario has been staged, such messages are shunned. The influencer strategy must therefore be designed carefully to ensure that consumers can believe them and not read through the mutual commercial interests of the brand and the influencers.

More importantly, the influencer ought to be authentic. The authenticity should apply to both their general online activities and the positions taken on various issues. This endears them to a certain niche or group of persons with similar likes, preferences, and conduct. The authenticity makes it possible for the organisation to identify influencers based on the type of consumers they have for followers. Observations are that influencers with a small following but that has maintained a high level of authenticity tend to be more credible and influential. The social media marketer must therefore understand the psychology and history of these influencers and also understand how the influencers are likely to get to the.