Influencer Marketer Trends
Influencer marketing is a whopping $13 billion industry and that is huge money to ignore.
It is also predicted to grow to $84 billion by the year 2028, that’s 6 years from now. The real gist is that only those who follow the trend closely will benefit mostly from the growth.
So, in this article, I aim to highlight some of the trends that influencer marketers should expect and keep them informed early on . This will help keep our attention on the substance rather than the shadow.
Some of the trends are :
1. Video Contents is Getting Popular
Text and images are the primary blocks the internet arrived with when it was built and got popular. Today, videos and audio have joined the list and are getting better both in clarity and quality. Thanks to improved technology.
Inasmuch as text and images are not dying off, we admit the irreducible fact that we have come to a new phase of our human existence where everything is almost completely unrecognizable from what it used to be. The two developments that brought about the change in consumer consumption taste are increase in bandwidth and 5G technology. Today, one can easily stream megabytes of video per second with no glitches, listen to audio podcasts with audible clarity and even watch high quality movies over the internet. Youtube also contributed to nurture our taste and consumption appetite.
Tiktok is fast on the rise, Youtube is keeping its technology topnotch, Instagram is actively responding to tiktok and traditional video industries like Netflix with instagram reels and Netflix is not showing any sign of backing down.
Facebook and Netflix now emphasize sharing videos on their platforms.
Simply put, video is getting more popular in influence marketing and will continue in 2022. Text and image will still be relevant in explaining , describing and connecting with people, yet there is a demand for videos from the audience which is growing in2022 as it did in 2021. So, every influencer marketer must align his or her content creation to include more video content.
2. Spreading To Other Platforms (Go multiple with your platforms)
You probably have your most preferred social media platform for socializing and influencing. We all do, or most of us do. However, the new trend demands that you establish your presence on other platforms as well. The reasons are :
a. Your fans are not limited to just one social platform
b. New social media platforms are emerging.
c. Consumer consumption taste is rapidly changing.
d. you are creating content already, why limit your audience
On other platforms, your fans will be most happy to connect with you as well. It doesn’t only give you the opportunity to get new audiences, but it gets you more into the network that your fans already belong to. Hardly to find people who belong to only one social media platform these days, nobody wants to be missing out on the latest stuff, at least not in 2022 when everyone is not sure when they are getting locked down again, leaving social media as the only tool of knowing what is happening where and who is saying what.
The upside of being popular on one platform is that you find it easier to connect with people that already know you, and sometimes, they help spread your gospel all over the place if they are your die hard fan.
Getting to other social media platforms doesn’t mean you have to stretch yourself too thin and join every new or available platform, I don't think anybody has done that you will need to go with the popular and relevant platforms.
When your fans spread across multiple platforms, it will be super easy to have them interacting with you seamlessly cross their accounts.
Eg, Twitter got banned in Nigeria in 2020/2021, a country of about 200 million people. Influencers who built their followership only on twitter got to other platforms to continue their work. Those with multiple platform accounts took off almost immediately without much problem, and their fans were so happy to find them.
Important: Social media management software helps to make your job of scheduling your posts across multiple platforms and monitoring their performance and engagement easy. Choose one you are comfortable with and get started. In my article, I wrote about the free tool to manage your business account from one dashboard and it is totally free.
3. Diversity And Inclusiveness Is Getting Attention
The masses are getting schooled daily by what they see and what they read both offline and online. All what they are made to feel or experience filters in and changes how they respond to an influencer online. Many influencers and influencer agencies are increasingly getting into representing what matters to the people.
In the US, the George Floyd’s incident brought a massive shift to how brands and influencers represent the community. Educated consumers analyze branded messages and companies to find out if they are represented before buying into it. Influencers who have built a good name over the years do the same before accepting any sponsored post.
Irrespective of your niche as an influencer marketer, you now need to find a way to make people represented and avoid bad names attached to your person. When you build that culture, people will easily gravitate to your influence.
4. Result Will Still Be Important
No brand will like to partner with an influencer who doesn’t have results. It has not changed and will probably not. Remember that they paid for your services and it is only fair you give value back to them. However, know what you can afford and how much you can take for it. Be mindful to turn some of your visiting clients into long-time contract clients.
5. Change Is Constant, So New Social Platforms And Influencers Will Emerge
Tiktok got so popular with the covid 19 pandemic and instagram reel came up almost at the same time. Social media platforms are emerging every day and the chances of getting different types of influencers is a possibility once one gets so popular.
One of the most popular influencers on Tiktok creates his content without using spoken words.
CGI will also make its way into the industry, we are anticipating that already.
6. Small Fishes Will Thrive In The Influencer Industry In 2022
A report from Later and Fohr has it that micro influencers; those with 25,000 followers or less have the highest engagement rates of about 7%. This is quality over quantity and the math is simple. It is better to go for two influencers who have 25,000 followers each and 7% engagement rate than one influencer with 100,000 followers and 3% engagement rate. The focus here is in the engagement and brands are doing exactly that.
The overall rate of engagement is declining for some social media platforms like instagram, so attention is a strong factor for brands when looking at who to partner with in promoting their products or services.
While the big fishes are doing their thing in 2022, the micro and nano influencers in the industry will also thrive in the industry. This is good news to gladden the hearts.
7. Niche Specialization Will Get Deals
You can’t be everything at once. Influencers who choose a niche and specialize in them will get chances at deals. I wrote about choosing a niche in my article on how to be an influencer marketer. It is so easy to get carried away on social media and talk about anything and everything simply because it is trending. Resist the temptation of being on every topic , it will bring destruction to your focused niche. Your page should not be a jumble of politics, religion, relationships and so on. Inasmuch as you may cross paths with other niches in your content atimes, your ultimate relevance in your niche lies in how often and consistently you turn up niche-specific content. In time, when brands visit your page they won’t budge to make deals with you because you have earned your worth.
Aside from that, getting specific with your niche changes how you use words. This is what learning does; molding you into the niche you represent.
8. Authenticity Stays
Authenticity is finding out what your audience wants and delivering in a way that feels very resonant and good to them. The genuine interest and excitement you have about your niche and the product you are marketing is all it is. It is speaking to the hearts of your audience, it is being sincere with your audience, it is being real. And it can come across in just anything or anywhere you are creating your contents from. Human beings listen beyond spoken words.
The good side of being authentic is that your audience will trust you and that trust is what brands want to access through you.
9. Employee Driven Contents Will Fire Sales
It is usually believed and assumed that any employee that talks about his company or place of work is happy with his work and has a good working condition. User generated content has had its time, it still does and employee driven content will do as well in getting sales. Brands who treat their employees as influencers will have the chance to make better sales. Influencers who keep the brand they represent in the know of it will also get better with the brand.
To the customers, having an employee as an influencer gives them the impression that they have an inside man in the brand. They will believe their contents so easily.
Brands who give their workers the go-ahead to create or share content that doesn’t betray the company’s secret of course, will most likely grow sales in 2022.
10. Paid Advertising Will Still Top The List For Reach
Influencers are powerful for adverts because of the connection they have built with their audience and the trust they have earned. In the same way paid adverts are powerful because they can reach more people with a low budget.
Facebook makes over half of its profit through ads, the same goes for other social platforms. To keep that profit coming, they spend money on research and invest on how to make the ad algorithm smarter every day . With that, ads will continue to be very relevant in 2022 and beyond.
11. Affiliates Programs And Influencers Will Converge
The line that demarcates affiliates and influencers is becoming very thin and almost invincible. Both are promoting products that don’t belong to them and both are getting paid for results.
Bloggers who are into affiliate marketing use their blogs to promote products or recommend products and services so as to drive sales for their clients on their blogs. On the other hand, influencers use social media to review products and drive sales on their pages with content creation. The thin line is blurred if not wiped out entirely.
So many affiliates are also doubling as influencers on social media. I wrote an article on how to become an influencer marketer in 2022.. While some are starting to work with influencer marketers to help them promote their affiliate products on their social media platforms. This trend is most likely to continue and become the norm in 2022.