You can ask any marketing agency what they suggest your business do to gain traction online and the first statement they will make will usually have the word ‘influencer’ in it.
Attempting to Influence the Influencers
Most marketing agencies would say something like…‘we would locate the influencers on Facebook that promote your industry and get you product in front of them.’…or say something like ‘we will have to develop your brand to be the influencer in your market’.
Definition: (from Dictionary.com) …a person or thing that exerts influence:
The term ‘influencer’ has become the Catch Word or Buzz Word of the century for marketing agency who still feel playing the number game in the social spaces is productive.
Overused Buzzword
In a recent article posted on SocialTimes.com, 7 Overused Marketing Buzzwords for 2014, they list the phrase ‘Influencer’ as #7. I personally would raise it to #2 right after the phrase ‘Big Data’ which is usually is in the second statement most marketing agencies will make after they advise their client on their approach to helping them gain traction online.
I pick on the phrase ‘Influencer’ as being a missed used term for a number of reasons. First, I am a partner of a digital marketing firm and I hear our presenters use this term way too many times for which they tell me they only use it because their colleagues are using it. I am requesting they not use the term in 2015 in hopes it will keep us from being another ‘Buzzword factory’.
Secondly, I don’t agree with the premise someone who has tens of thousands of followers in their social space is an ‘influencer’. Sure, it would seem to be logical with that many followers a product message would be seen a few thousand times, but that has been proven a number of times to not be true.
And lastly, as an someone who is online a large portion of the day and has a significant following in the most productive social space can safely say to influence a consumer you have to interact with them. This is not being done by the people many marketing agencies are tagging as ‘influencers’.
Interaction is Influencial
There is no argument to the need for every business to be online and they should spend their time online wisely if they are to get anything from their efforts. What can be argued successfully is presuming anyone online who has any level of celebrity will automatically influence a consumer. Granted, they can get the product seen, but that does not usually turn into a sale which should be a major part of every business goal.
In today’s “Let me check that out” economy the consumers are not fooled by some handsome dude or knockout dudette batting their eyes at them to purchase something they say is awesome. Today’s consumers question everything…if not they should.
What influences today’s consumers is interaction. If that dude or dudett showed up in a consumer’s post on Google+ with a supporting comment they have a 90% chance the consumer is going to seriously check out whatever they are pitching. That makes interaction influential.
Question
So, why are more Influencers being more Interactive?
- They don’t care to
- They don’t how to
- They are not getting paid to
Bottomline:
In 2015 stop playing the number games by stopping the search for people online who have large number’s of followers. If you are going to Influence the market, search for and hire people who know how to interact with consumers
let me know how I can help.
