Why Influencers are the most important SM Marketers

Influencer marketing on Social Media is a huge proponent to the overall success and dissemination of a brands mission, products and core values. Influencers have developed into an independent marketing entity that essentially controls the social media market trends. They can be characterized as people with high engagement with their followers, who are considered to be experts in their categories. Their recommendations and reviews are highly regarded by their followers. Influencers have also been said to increase revenue for brands by almost 650% int his new age model. This type of marketing involves collaboration with brands and influencers who promote the products either sent to them for free, or at a set promotional price. In my opinion, influencers are hugely responsible for the success of social media platforms as being lucrative business models because they keep trends moving and are constantly reinventing themselves and the platform. It is in both the influencer and business’s interest to keep up with trends as well as set those trends for their followers, almost as a form of entertainment. The influencer niche is particularly interesting because it sells the idea of approachability, of likeness, and allows people to believe that these businesspeople are just like you and me. As an influencer, there are no official credentials required, other than being beautiful, glamorous and having followers who are interested in your life. There is no set model, which allows for the trends and niches to always be variant.  Because the market has now become so saturated, influencers have had to create innovative ways to stay relevant and maintain their large followings. This can become problematic because although their brands are made to seem effortless and authentic, influencers often fall prey to unrealistic standards of beauty, fame and public scrutiny. Some are not equipped to handle the opinions of the internet. However, overall, I believe that influencers have essentially created and maintained social media as a relatively inexpensive platform to advertise on, with a plethora of marketing opportunities for every single product, value, objective and niche, without requiring extensive business insight or technical abilities in the marketing world.