Well, we are going to talk about the influenza pandemic (I mean influencers, lol).
So, what does this exactly mean?
Influence in all its certainty means the capacity to change someone’s perception or opinion on something.
How does influence work?
To keep it simple, imagine a politician campaigning for his/her party, they speak crap and people fall for it, that’s influence.
Imagine that smart ass cousin everyone asks career advice from, that’s influence.
Imagine that one matchmaking aunt in the family, that’s influence.
Imagine that nerd friend of yours that you go for IT support, that’s influence.
Imagine the Lux soap advert with Kareena Kapoor, that’s influence.
Influence is the ability to build a perception or change it.
So, are all of these people influencers?
Yes, they are influencers.
Anyone who can build a perception of something in you or change your perception of something, is an influencer.
Need for influencers
Well, everyone has a limited understanding of how world works, I understand tech, design and marketing, but I do not understand Finance, and I definitely don’t wish to invest time into learning it.
What do I do?
I approach my trusted friend / colleague who understands finance better than me and I would easily invest my money in places recommended by them.
Instagram/Linkedin Influencers suck
In this misconstrued world of Social Media, people think having followers is having influence and that is where things go wrong.
Most Instagram Influencers only have a following because lust is a powerful marketing weapon, but can lust sell things?
Can someone who you followed just because of nice boobs/abs sell you a Computer or an Insurance?
Probably not.
At max all they can sell is some clothing (if they have a fashion sense) or some cosmetics(with added false promises) and whey protein (in hopes of gaining the same abs) which makes their influence extremely narrow and at times unethical.
LinkedIn is no less, it thrives on fiction writers, people writing on stuff they have absolutely no idea about, yes, bullshit gets the Likes, Shares and Comments and will probably have an influence over some percentage of the audience.
But will you trust a random fiction writer with buying decisions, probably not.
Who > How Many
Who you influence is extremely more important than how many people you influence.
Imagine having some influence over 100,000 people but not enough to change their perception or opinion or to make them buy anything, because it becomes para-social (one sided) relationship.
Versus having a huge influence on 200 people, where you talk to them, understand them and then the relationship develops into trust.
Does Influencer Marketing Work?
Of course, it does, Imagine selling 800,000 copies of your memoir, yes, Barak Obama did that.
Also, Barak Obama hooted for Biden and that worked.
Also, he spoke against Trump and that worked too.
So, yes Influencer Marketing works.
Talking about Influencer marketing on Instagram
It works for a dumb audience, mostly pop culture things like clothing, cosmetics, funky accessories.
Is all influencer marketing fake?
No, but all influencers who endorse all kinds of products are fake.
Influence is a niche driven behavior, if you talk about tech, you can only influence for tech, if you talk about fashion, you can only influence for fashion.
Look for why you followed them, if you followed them for x and they are trying to exert their influence in x, that’s the real influencer marketing.
If you followed them for x, and they are trying to exert their influence in y, they are catfish, run.
Real influence lies in people you can really trust for advice, they might be anyone from your best friend to your neighbor, your classmate, your relative, your teacher, or your mentor
How do I know all this?
Because I fucking tried building a micro-influencer (niche-based) marketing automation company and i studied this a lot.
Want to check someone’s influence on Instagram, use this tool : https://lookup.pulpkey.com/
Look for engagement ratio as the Key Performance Indicator.
Here’s mine:
Have a nice day and stop being fooled by Influencers.
