Influencer Marketing
Influencer marketing is a type of word of mouth marketing that targets influential individuals rather than large groups. Influencer marketing is often more nuanced and focuses on niche marketing campaigns, often attempting to catalyze word of mouth tactics by influencing the influencer.
According to Wikipedia, Influencer Marketing is:
“…a form of marketing that has emerged from a variety of recent practices and studies, in which focus is placed on specific key individuals (or types of individual) rather than the target market as a whole. It identifies the individuals that have influence over potential buyers, and orients marketing activities around these influencers.”
This kind of word of mouth marketing , identifying and focusing on influential individuals in a chosen field, has grown in popularity along with the rise of sociological and psychological research on how a society works.
Dr Robert Cialdini of Arizona State University wrote a book titled: Influence: Science and Practice. Apart from identifying 6 key methods of influence, the book postulates that in a world where there is more information than anyone can handle we end up making decisions based on generalizations- this theory has a lot of applications with social media.
Malcom Gladwell’s Tipping Point also advanced the research into this form of marketing. Gladwell identifies three different types of people responsible for shaping the public opinion and direction around a product or belief- the Connector (inherent connection-maker), the Maven (information gatherer) and the Salesperson (natural persuader). Each of these three types of people could be a target for influencer marketing programs, as each has significant social and cultural cache on their social circle.
Influencer marketing through social media combines Cialdini’s idea that people work off of generalizations with Gladwell’s idea that certain individuals have enhanced sway in the way people make decisions- and what you get is the idea that @KimKardishan or @ChrisBrogan will have a huge influence on the people who read their tweets. Influencer marketing theory would hold that if you can get an influential person to tweet about your product it is worth more than expensive advertising, as it carries the targeted focus, the outsized influence, and the organic credibility that make influencer marketing powerful.
Influencer marketing will continue to grow in its own influence as the popularity and scope of social media grows.
Scott
