The Power of Social Media Influence

It is quite clear that for a company in today’s digital age, image is everything. By image, I mean the intentional, curated brand that a company aims to maintain for itself. It wasn’t up until recently that digital media reshaped what it meant to have an image, and the processes by which it was dispersed took the shape of a sponsored post on Instagram.

Every business has the same goal at the end of the day: to increase their influence. Whether this be a financial influence, personal influence, or brand influence is up to the goals of company. Today, this can all be made possible through the form of SOCIAL influence. The most powerful tools of influence are no longer signs on a billboard, commercials, or ads in a magazine. They are shoutouts on a bloggers website, photos on a college students Instagram, or tweets from a celebrity. The overwhelming exposure that can be gained through endorsements from real people is shaping the way companies market themselves today.

When the average person is scrolling through Instagram, they are likely to come across some form of product placement in a photo. Nowadays, companies are taking advantage of the free marketing tool that Instagram is becoming. It is easier than ever to reach thousands of users with a single post. It is estimated that out of around 800 million users, 500 million check their feed each day. The opportunity for exposure is wider than ever! This can be achieved through the brand itself posting a photo, or sponsoring someone else to do so. In fact, brand sponsorships or partnerships with 'influencers' is growing at a rapid pace. This is due to the fact that paying influencers to esentially ''market for you'', can generate companies a huge return on their investment at rates never before seen. Forbes predicts that influencer marketing will be a $10 billion global industry by 2020. Basically, any company that has not hopped on this train is missing out on a huge audience of potential customers. Personally, I have bought numerous items from the 'swipe up' and 'tap to shop' feautures that have come across my feed from influencers I follow.

All of this to say, we are living in a time where social influence is a career in itself. The average individual with a social media influence can make a living posting photos for companies and the marketing departments of those same companies are now hiring people to seek them out. This is an exciting notion for those looking to expand their social media presence, as well as those wanting to make their brand a household name. There is no denying that the future is heading towards a world of digitally driven marketing strategies where influence is a driving force for growth.