Influencer Marketing: The Next Big Thing

DIY Sprocket Solutions

This article has been updated on 4/11/2023 with the article entitled “A Heads Up on How Influencer Marketing Has Changed Over the Years.”

Surprise, surprise. There’s been another shift in the marketing and social media marketing world. If you’ve been paying attention, you’ve already seen it pretty heavily in action other the past year or so. You’ve probably already purchased products based on it. What is it? Influencer Marketing. What does that mean? Well, influencer marketing is basically where brands take their products and team up with an “influencer” to demonstrate/sample/review their product. For instance, a monthly subscription box of makeup samples might team up with a YouTuber. That YouTuber would receive a free box, make a video where they use and try the products, and all of their followers would see the video. Very simple and extremely effective.

Why is it making such huge waves now? We’re living in a digital age where people are making a large chunk of purchases from the comfort of their living rooms. I didn’t try that shirt on in person, sample that shade of lipstick at the department store, or try out the food from the home delivery boxes ahead of time. I let someone else do that for me. If a favorite blogger is raving about a product or a YouTube channel posts a review showing the fit and actual color of a shirt I’m thinking of buying –that’s valuable to me. It takes a lot of guess work out of buying online. I could order that curling iron, try it and find that it doesn’t work and I hate it, and return it; or, I could watch someone else make a video where they show me whether or not it works the way it’s supposed to. Time saver for me, money saver for me, and a big fat advertisement for businesses who are using influencers to push their products.

It’s gotten to the point now that I will look beauty and fashion products up on YouTube before I order online. Following a celeb on Instagram or Twitter has turned into a mob of crazed fans asking where they bought that purse or that couch in the photo. The most believable recommendations come from people that we “know”, people that we like to follow, or people that we trust. This has huge potentials for brands pushing products or services.

It’s simple. Who is your audience; who are your users? Start small if you like. Pick 10 “influencers” on social media channels that you’d like to sample your product and post a review (either written if they’re bloggers or video if they’re YouTubers, etc.etc.) Give those influencers a link to your product/service to post and maybe a promo code for visitors from that page. Boom. You’ve instantly reached all of the followers from those channels. This can be thousands and thousands depending on the influencer that you choose.

Has anyone out there given Influencer Marketing a try? What do you think? Now that you know what it is, are you guilty of buying based on a sponsored blog post or YouTube video? I know I am… Comment below!

Breanne BannonBreanne Bannon

Breanne is a Content Writer, Social Media Marketeer, and Sales Associate for Sprocket Websites.

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