What is Social Media Influence?
Nowadays, probably everyone seems to be attached with Social sites like Twitter, YouTube, Instagram, Facebook, and LinkedIn etc. Some people use these sites for digital marketing while others may use them to connect socially. There are mainly two prospectus: Marketing and Influence. The term ‘Social Media Influence’ relates to marketing. When it is referred to with “fame”, it relates to an individual’s ability to affect other people’s thinking, believing in a social community. The more influence a person, brand or a company has, the more appeal they can have to other person, brand or company who want to promote an idea or to sell a product. Influence of a person, brand or company among the people can spread awareness quickly.
Companies can hire influencers to help generate brand awareness among viewers, sell inventory and increase customer engagement. This can be done by implementing a marketing strategy that focuses on increasing the company’s own social media influence or by hiring established, trustworthy influencers in the space.
Measuring Social Media Influence
Influence can be assumed by examining the size of a person’s social networks, such as Twitter followers, Instagram followers, YouTube Subscribers, Facebook friends, or LinkedIn connections. However, more precise & detailed analysis is required, so we need to check how a person makes their social connections, and what is the level of trust among that person & their connections.
Some experts use social media influence measurement tools, such as “Klout”. Klout is one of the most famous tools used by the professionals. Klout provides a numerical score of 1 to 100 based on an individual’s online activity on popular social networking sites. While some industry experts have raised concerns about the validity of the metrics provided by Klout, we should understand that Klout does not provide all kinds of measures for Social Media Influence. For example, a blog post from trusted author may not reach targeted audience while a simple tweet may reach a thousands of people.
Social Media Influencers
So many influencers are working in different ways to make people aware about social causes or products. Influencers can leave huge impact on viewers’ mind. But an influencer requires to have a good following in order to share their thoughts, motivate or inspire an action or change in behaviour of people. So many companies work with Social Media Influencers to expand their own social reach.
Types of Social Media Influencers:
Consumer Influencers – They are constantly connected with social media and their audience consider them reliable about their posting, blogging, photo sharing, or video sharing of any product. Their audience take their advice or opinion seriously for any service or product.
Celebrity Influencers – This type of Influencers are most popular among the people because they have huge numbers of fan followers. So specific audience can be targeted by Celebrity Influencers.
Micro Influencers – This kind of influencers are also known as expert influencers. When influencers recommend or praise a product or service their followers are very likely to trust their opinion.
Content Creators – The influencers which are professional bloggers, vloggers and photographers. They try to keep people’s interest in product or service by their content or photos.
Before choosing influencers, Companies must have to consider few qualities of the Influencer. They need to check whether their personal messages aligns well with the company, and how trustworthy they are among the people. Influencer’s reach means their followers’ count. We can call the Consumer Influencers and Celebrity Influencers as “Trend Setters” because they have huge fan following and they can make a lasting impact on people’s mind through their post, blog, photos & videos.
Impact of Social Media
Social media continues to grow as form of communication and entertainment. New members join these platforms in huge numbers, every day. This has started to impact people and their lives. Here’s some of the most common ways social media impacts people……
- Marketing opportunity is provided to companies.
- Spreading educational material has become quick & accurate
- Producing new jobs associated with social media networks & consulting like content writers, bloggers, photographers
- People can give opinion & can arrange group discussions with vast numbers of people
- Generating visibility around social, ethical, environmental and political reviews
- Increasing the number of social contacts of groups and individuals.
Today, every individual and companies are using social media to connect with each other, both Socially & Professionally. So they can reach more and more individuals and Companies easily. So many companies now hire Influencers to get more business through their connections with people.
