Part Two
Last week, we began answering the letter of Mary Joy G., who wrote to us inquiring about influencer-marketing trends in 2018. During the past few years, influencer-marketing has evolved from being just a passing fad to part of the mainstream marketing mix.
But what lies ahead for influencer marketing in 2018? Interestingly, two articles, “The five top trends that will shape influencer marketing in 2018” by El-Qudsi, and “7 influencer marketing trends that will dominate in 2018” by Vivian Michaels in thenextweb.com, shared similar expert views on how influencer marketing will take shape this year, which we have put together for you.
In last week’s column, we listed the first three trends.
Influencer marketing will grow, but it’s not all about money
El-Qudsi says that this year, “the focus will be on building mutually beneficial long-term relationships with influencers.”
Michaels, on the other hand, says that with the growth, the value of services is going to increase. However, she says that increased value doesn’t necessarily evolve around money.
The influencer base will increase and integrate
Michaels says that 2018 will be the year of integration, and “it’s important to explore all options and types of influencers. “These are the mega-influencers [usually celebrities], macro-influencers and micro-influencers. And the key would be able to look beyond the mega-influencers and plan campaigns that should be able to “build an experience and emotional connection between your company and target audience.”
The bottom line will matter
El-Qudsi says that there will be more Focus on Data and Accountability in 2018. “The influencer-marketing space is still permeated by a lot of grey areas,” he says, “and determining the ROI of influencer-marketing campaigns has been cited by most marketers as their top challenge year after year.”
Here are other influencer marketing trends for 2018.
Video and more video
El-Qudsi says that new technologies have made video more accessible, immersive and engaging than ever before. For video creators, this means a world of possibilities for creating and delivering unique content; for brands, it means new avenues for communication to reach their target audience and stay top of mind throughout a consumer’s buying journey.”
Likewise, “live-video viewership is consistently growing with one-third of online viewers, saying they watch live video online. What people crave to see is not super-polished productions, but real people being themselves on camera, hence the massive success of influencer livestreaming videos that provide that in-the-moment and behind-the-scenes look into their lives.”
‘Fake’ influencers with followers they bought
Like so-called fake news, there are also fake influencers. This means we should be cautioned not to be dazzled by all influencers with a large fan base, as “for the price of a few dollars, every social-media user can have thousands of followers,” Michaels says.
And working with a fake influencer can lead to the failure of your marketing efforts and take down the entire strategy with them.”
Michaels says that, “an easy way to go about this problem is to implement and airtight process for vetting and choosing influencers. Don’t focus on the number of followers only, but monitor their engagement, too. Bought followers rarely interact or engage, meaning that person will have low-engagement rate despite large fan base.”
Stricter rules
At the very beginning of the influencer-marketing era, companies contacted influencers, which led to social-media posts where people were recommending some products or services,” Michaels says. “Nobody had to do anything else.”
With the increased use of influencer marketing, and the fact that up to 93 percent of paid endorsements remain undisclosed by both brands and influencers, the Federal Trade Commission in the US introduced some rules. That’s why, “you and your influencer should be careful and comply with the regulations.”
Instagram to surpass 1-billion-users milestone
Instagram, one of the most popular networks for influencer marketing will rise even more in 2018. In fact, it will exceed 1billion users this year.
“Instagram offers a number of opportunities for both brands and influencers,” Michaels says. “It helps you reach more people and presents visual content in form of photos of videos, which users appreciate.”
While it will “payoff to be part of this large industry, focus on establishing meaningful relationships for influencers to stand out in the crowd.
PR Matters is a roundtable column by members of the local chapter of the United Kingdom-based International Public Relations Association, the world’s premier association for senior professionals around the world. Millie Dizon, the senior vice president for marketing and Communications of SM, is the former local chairman.
We are devoting a special column each month to answer the reader’s questions about public relations. Please send your comments and questions to askipraphil@gmail.com.