Scope of Influence

2 min

This week, an article in the Atlantic discussed an influencer and groups of influencers who were creating concerns about the safety of the COVID 19 vaccine, thus contributing to the problem of not enough people taking the vaccine. Then there was an article in the Guardian that questioned the role of influencers in shaping politics and election results. Why are these two articles interesting? Well, we often hear people questioning the impact of influencer marketing. That in itself is understandable; after all, before Kyndoo, there was no natural way of measuring the ROI and the attribution. However, these two articles prove that beyond a shadow of a doubt, the right influencer, connected to the right topic and speaking to their audience regularly, can change or modify behavior. If they can alter political views and views around preventing a deadly virus, they can surely get someone to try a candy bar for the first time? Since these two examples outline the framework of success with influencers, let’s think about its components and apply it to any marketing campaign that might utilize an influencer. First of all, these influencers had a passion, an authentic attachment to the cause. That is a must with influencers for two reasons.

1) most great influencers do not want to promote something they don’t believe in, and

2) most audiences don’t want the influencer promoting something that they don’t believe.

So as a brand, don’t fall in love or get your heart set on a particular influencer before you validate if they fit – will they advocate your brand? Secondly, they could impact deeply held beliefs because they had a highly engaged audience. If you select an influencer with millions of followers but low engagement, their audience might be aware of your brand, but it’s more of a billboard approach. Highly engaged influencers draw their followers into discussions and activities, and as a result, more complex subjects are conveyed and understood. Unless your goal is a billboard, focus on engaged followers over the total number of followers. To understand how authentic an influencer is and how engaged they are with their audience, brands can run a free Kyndex report and find out ahead of time if they have identified a great fit. Conversely, Kyndoo has acquired so much data on influencers that we often help brands to identify and source the right influencers based on their requirements.