Social Media Influencers | Trends, Metrics, Predictions

Social Media Influencers

Trends, Metrics, Predictions

Interview with Siim Sainas (BrandHero)

Over the last decade, the significance of social media grew to become an important part of every business’ marketing strategy. It’s easy to understand why: a study from We Are Social found that worldwide there are 3.8 billion people who use social media in 2020, a number that grows every year.

Streaming into multifaceted platforms, social media forms part of the roots for engagement with both millennials and Gen-Z communities. While the technology we have access to has never been greater, the competition has also never been higher.

Over the past few years, Instagram has risen to become arguably the most influential social platform in the Western world. With its success, a certain kind of aesthetic has become the norm – the Insta life. Partnering with an influencer in a mutually beneficial arrangement to raise brand awareness or promote products and services can be very profitable for businesses of all types and sizes.

Influencer marketing enables businesses to identify and reach out to popular, well-regarded individuals within specific niches, who have established authority within their field and garnered a large, loyal following who are receptive to hearing the messages the influencer posts.

However, just as your brand can benefit from the endorsement of a plausible influencer with a good reputation and a positive public image, so too can it be seriously harmed in its turn if your influencer’s reputation takes a nosedive, or if their future content contradicts your brand’s image and ethos. When you choose an influencer to work with, you are relying upon their own plausibility, reach and influence becoming tied to that of your brand.

Then, enter 2020 – the year that almost everyone’s lives went belly-up as COVID-19 swept the globe. And it seems our attitude to social media shifted alongside it. People have also been more honest about their issues: 46% of men and 31% of women said they’ve been more open on their social channels about the struggles they are facing. This is an important deviation from the norms of the past and one that brands should be aware of. With people facing so many hardships in their daily lives, there’s little desire for having perfection rubbed in our noses

Influencers have long been the purveyors of aspirational content that showcases an unachievable lifestyle, but the smart ones have shifted their approach. They have recognised that not many people were interested in listening to them talk endlessly about make-up or fashion when there was little point putting these tips into practice in lockdown. Instead, we saw many pivot to covering topics such as how to cope (or not) during lockdown and how they were managing relationships and mental health.

Orchan's Founding Director recently had a chat with Siim Sainas, Principal Researcher & Founder of BrandHero, where they discussed the evolution of influencer marketing pre and during Covid-19; what’s trending in social media in 2020 (read: TikTok, Byte and even live-streaming); social media analytics (i.e. the gathering of data from social media platforms to help inform us and guide our marketing strategy) and the evolving landscape that is social media, that you or your brand would want to be part of, moving forward.

The discussion was close to an hour long, but do have a listen, because trust us, it is very, very interesting.