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HOW TO GAIN

FOLLOWERS

AND INFLUENCE

THE MASSES

Influencers have long been a useful tool in the marketer’s arsenal to endorse products and services. In the modern era, they help create an online buzz about a brand, which in turn, strengthens brand reputation, improves audience engagement and increases conversations about the brand. 

The role of influencers dates back to as far as 1760 when pottery maker, Wedgwood, created a tea set for the wife of King George III. The royalty in question fulfilled the role of influencer, with Wedgwood quick to market their wares as fit for a king or queen. 

HOW TO GAIN

FOLLOWERS
AND INFLUENCE
THE MASSES

Influencers have long been a useful tool in the marketer’s arsenal to endorse products and services. In the modern era, they help create an online buzz about a brand, which in turn, strengthens brand reputation, improves audience engagement and increases conversations about the brand. 

The role of influencers dates back to as far as 1760 when pottery maker, Wedgwood, created a tea set for the wife of King George III. The royalty in question fulfilled the role of influencer, with Wedgwood quick to market their wares as fit for a king or queen. 

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Influencer marketing possibilities have skyrocketed with the advent of social media, so much so that Influencer Marketing Hub says the industry was worth as much as $9.7 billion in 2020 and reached $13.8 billion in 2021. Studies suggest that the industry’s upward trajectory could see it reach as high as $84.89 billion by 2028, and it’s no surprise that 63% of marketers plan on increasing their influencer marketing budgets. With this in mind, here are four influencer marketing trends to be aware of in 2022:

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TIKTOK TAKES A BIGGER PIECE OF THE INFLUENCER PIE

Despite TikTok’s relatively short existence, its rapid growth has seen it garner over one billion monthly active users. According to Hootsuite, eight new users join the social media platform every second, with an average of 650 000 joining daily. Notably, should TikTok continue on its path as the soon-to-be social media giant, it could reach 1.5 billion users by the end of 2022. 

 

Instrumental to TikTok’s domination of the social media space is the role of influencers. SocialPubli’s State of TikTok Influencer Marketing 2021 report adds that 86.5% of influencers claim an uptick in their TikTok usage since the onset of the pandemic, with 87% noting that the platform generates the most engagement of all platforms. 

 

As more influencers begin spending increasingly more time on TikTok, marketers must adapt to reach new audiences. Keeping in mind that SproutSocial suggests that 56% of users and 67% of creators on TikTok feel closer to brands that publish human content on the platform, and 49% of users say the platform helped their purchasing decisions, now is the time for brands to harness the platform’s potential.

HIGHER ENGAGEMENT RATES PACK MORE PUNCH

From nano-influencers with a few thousand followers to celebrity influencers boasting millions, what matters most today is the influencer’s social media engagement rate. Micro-and nano-influencers have become increasingly important to attract today’s social media consumers, with their smaller reach resulting in a more active audience than their larger counterparts. 

Influencer Marketing Hub claims that micro-influencers, particularly those with fewer than 25 000 followers, yield the highest engagement rates across the various social media platforms. Marketing Charts reports that micro-influencers deliver the highest engagement rates across Instagram (3.86%), YouTube (1.63%), and TikTok (17.96%); while nano-influencers consistently achieve an average engagement rate of 3.69% across the various platforms.

Partnering with micro-and nano-influencers will allow brands to stretch their budgets and take advantage of the influencer’s often lower cost per engagement (CPE) rate as they aim to diversify their collaborations and appeal to consumers who view these influencers as more relatable, community-driven, who share the same values and interests, and who they view as creators of meaningful and entertaining content that resonates with them.

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VIDEO BECOMES INCREASINGLY MORE BITE-SIZED

Invideo reports that the pandemic saw 96% of consumers increasing their online video consumption in 2020. However, with HubSpot signalling a decreasing social media attention span of 12 seconds for millennials and eight seconds in the case of Gen Z, brands and influencers need to create snack-sized video content to boost their exposure and engagement.

Short-form videos provide users with a quick and easy way to consume media and lend themselves to a more creative means to communicate. According to Wyzowl, 84% of users were convinced to purchase a product after viewing a brand video, whereas Animoto says that as many as 93% of marketers claim to have landed a customer via social media video. 

SproutSocial suggests that while Facebook has numerous video options, the platform claims most users will watch until the end should a video be 15 seconds long, whereas one study concluded that for higher engagement, two to five minutes is ideal. While Instagram Stories max out at 15 seconds, the platform recommends 26 seconds for Instagram feed stories. According to Hootsuite, the ideal video length for other platforms are – TikTok (7-15 sec), Twitter (44 sec), YouTube (2 min), LinkedIn (30 sec), Snapchat (7 sec), and Pinterest (6-15 sec).

INFLUENCERS LEAD THE SOCIAL COMMERCE SURGE

From Instagram Shopping to TikTok’s partnership with Shopify, social media platforms are investing heavily to harness the potential of in-app shopping to drive revenue growth. Social commerce across the platforms is seeing multitudes of businesses marketing their wares, with the majority adopting payment functions allowing users the flexibility to buy a product or service directly on the platform.  

It is a lucrative undertaking, with Forbes calling social commerce the next global shopping revolution and Accenture adding that global social commerce sales, which reached $492 billion in 2021, are expected to nearly triple by 2025 to hit a high of $1.2 trillion. Influencer recommendations count more than newsfeed adverts or temporary story ads, with invesp stating that 40% of users purchase online as a reaction to an influencer’s post. 

A 2021 Statista survey claims that 93% of marketers in the United States are shifting eCommerce efforts to social media, while 86% are enabling shopping functions in their influencer marketing campaigns, linking these to their brand’s website. Now is the time to tap into the potential of influencers to increase a brand’s social commerce possibilities. 

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Looking to connect with the right influencer for the job or need help crafting an influencer campaign that is guaranteed to increase your ROI? Send an email to info@eclipsecomms.com and one of our experts will be in touch.

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