With the recent news from Twitter about acquiring Niche, a software company that connects popular content creators with brands, I think it’s time to discuss the growing number of brands interacting with “social media celebrities”. As of October of last year, some 52% of online marketers were taking advantage of paid endorsements by online influencers.
Social Influencers
Let’s start with what it means to be a social influencer, a “kid influencer” or an online influencer.Social influencers are the “unknowns who seem to become an Internet sensation overnight. The one whose YouTube video goes viral and creates a loyal following.”These could be people on a number of social media platforms, including YouTube, Instagram, Twitter, Vine and more.Most of them have hundreds of thousands or even millions of followers, and most of them are average people that nobody had heard of a year or two ago.Some of them post anonymously as parody accounts, like Tweet Like A Girl (1.29 million followers on Twitter), and some of them post as their own personality, like Bethany Mota (8.2 million YouTube subscribers). Many times, these influencers are called “kid influencers,” because often, they are still in their teens. The one thing in common with all of these social influencers is that they have loyal followings. Aside from the millions of followers, they each get thousands of comments, likes, favorites, retweets, etc. Other users engage with their posts, share them and talk about their posts. Why wouldn’t a brand want to connect with them and spread awareness about their products or services?
Brands and Social Influencers
So, how does that work? How does a brand get involved with these influencers? That’s where companies like Niche come in. Originally, Niche was a startup company. It connects brands with a targeted group of popular social media users. Content creators (social influencers) can sign up for a free profile that combines analytics from all their social networks. Brands can then go to Niche to see leaderboards with top content creators and connect with them. The content creaters can then post, tweet or create a video about the brand’s product and get paid to share it with millions of fans.
Now that the company has been acquired by Twitter, I don’t expect much to change. The only difference I see is that Twitter wants to capitalize on these deals. Currently, Twitter-owned Vine does not produce any revenue, as there are no paid-for “promoted” or “sponsored” posts allowed. So, Twitter has finally found a way to get in on the power of social influencer branding.
Niche isn’t the only one in the market for deals like this, though. Adly and others have a similar system set up. It appears that Google is also working on a model called AdHeat that grants influencer scores to Google+ users so that they can be paired with advertisers.
According to a Nielsen report found in an Adly Blog, 90% of consumers trust recommendations from their peers, aka people they would follow on social media networks, as opposed to a 33% trust in traditional ads. Again, this is another reason brands should not hesitate to connect with popular social influencers to market brand awareness.
What’s Next For Social Influencers?
What does this mean for the content creators themselves? Some of the social influencers are getting paid big bucks. For a 17 year old, making $500 a day is something we’ve never seen before just from staying up all night on the Internet. By using a software system like Niche to grow their influence and promote brands, they could be making even more.
In short, I love the idea of social influencers and brands working together. I often find products or websites I like from some of the bloggers I follow on my personal accounts. The only caveat is that I do like to know when it’s promoted. Of course, it’s illegal not to disclose if material is promotional, but many young social influencers aren’t aware of this. I think that with the introduction of Twitter into the game, the rules will be followed and we’ll start seeing more and more of these great promotional posts from influencers.
I’ll leave you with a quote that about sums up this new era of social influencer branding from social media expert Shannon Self, “young influencer marketing is the newest, most efficient way to see a return on investment for a product, service or brand.”
Will your brand go there next?