Keeping up with the Joneses
If influencer marketing is there to stay depends on influencers and marketers. We can’t argue about the fact that people have always been and will always be curious about what is happening at “the neighbors”. This is also why ‘Keeping up with the Joneses’ is such a popular saying, it refers to comparing yourself with your neighbors. The neighbors are the benchmark of how you’re doing yourself in relation to social class and the accumulation of material goods. You want to be / live better than the person next to you.
Feel connected via Instagram
Furthermore, people want the feeling that they belong to a group, that they’re connected to other humans. Most of us are constantly looking for confirmation and social media has given us new opportunities to do this. Likes often give the feeling that we are doing well, looking good or having a great family.
In friends we trust, more than advertisements
Over 90% of people trust their friends, acquaintances or idols more than regular advertisements. This is why marketers are turning to social media, and this is no doubt a smart move. You may have heard that every one dollar spent on influencer marketing earns five to seven euros. This makes influencer marketing sound super easy: just invest some money and results will follow. We’re sorry to tell you but it isn’t this easy.
How does influencer marketing kill us?
The fact is: millions of people want to become influencers. In an effort to stand out and have an advantage over others, there are influencers who buy followers and then charge a high rate. This results in collaborations that yield little to nothing for the marketers. Being an influencer is seen as something cool, and doing collabs is a profiling of your status. When you do a lot of collaborations, this is a confirmation on social media that you belong to the “big players”. This has created the fake followers and engagement groups trend. Nowadays numbers are no longer what matters, and that is a trend that will continue. Engagement is – and will be – key.
