Making influencer marketing work beyond the hype

“Goldfish have longer attention spans than people now.” Not true.

Our brains get 300 calories to spend per day. That’s it.

All that thinking you’re doing gets done in that. Exceed that limit and you’ll get what’s known as Thinky Pain (not a scientific term).

We’ve evolved to be picky to avoid the anxiety caused by overstimulation.

Luca Tornese explains how our brains are designed to ignore the noise and seek familiarity. 

We don’t live in tribes anymore, but it’s our nature to surround ourselves with people who share our values. Who makes us feel safe.

Influencer marketing works because it solves a problem that most other marketing mediums don’t.

As Ian Rudolph puts it; marketing channels may hold our momentary attention but they don’t hold our trust.

Influencer marketing does. Or that’s the idea anyway.

According to a recent Digiday survey, one of the biggest problems with influencer marketing is trust.

Just two years ago, several leading influencers were caught buying followers and using bots to overinflate their engagement metrics. 

Honestly, out of 10 problems plaguing influencer marketing listed by Rand Fiskin in 2018, most are still around today.

Despite some growing pains, influencers are big business. And getting bigger.

What millennials did for social media, Gen Z is doing for influencer marketing.

10 years from now, any marketing strategy worth it's salt will include influencer marketing.

In a McKinsey podcast, Emma Spagnuolo explains that the trends started by millennials are being pushed further and accelerated by Gen Z.

Gen Z has also impacted influencer marketing in the last few years.

Instead of having big, macro-influencers with huge audiences to take up magazine ad budgets, now you have to cultivate a community of micro-influencers, each talking to 30 thousand people, no more.

If it sounds like a lot of work, it is. But it’s worth it.

As research shows, across all major platforms, influencers with less than 1,000 followers generate the highest engagement rates.

Because they create a collaborative dialogue with their following.

It’s time to start thinking of influencers as collaborators.

Rather than mass-media.

The two most important priorities for the next generation of consumers are (1) brand value and (2) influencers.

So, as a brand, you need to let go of amplification and think about nurturing communities instead.

Work with influencers who are already in the safety-hub of the people you want to reach and give them a good reason to speak on your behalf.

Examples

Here’s how General Mills, Tafler and Glossier are already doing just that.

The battle for short-form video

I’ve been a little distracted by the political drama surrounding TikTok. 

But as entertaining as it is to see Trump’s antics and Microsoft rushing to meet the September 15th deadline, the bigger picture here isn’t just about the politics.

It’s about who will own short-form video – and with it the attention of today’s teens and twentysomethings.

As the experts put it, Gen Z’ers are not only trying to get their parents to buy them stuff, but mom and dad are listening to their opinions on what to buy for themselves. And these opinions are, in turn, influenced by YouTubers, Twitch streamers and TikTok creators.

The future of influencing is short-form video.

And everyone’s got their play.

Yesterday Facebook officially launched Reels in 50 countries.

Instagram's Reels is TikTok in every way, except it only lets you make 15-second videos - so you know not exactly the same.

Facebook is no stranger to copying features from smaller apps. It’s not like they can buy them off, not with the antitrust authorities breathing down their necks.

Still, the timing of this launch couldn’t be perfect.

For a long time, nobody was quite sure what TikTok was all about. And just as advertisers were warming up to it, their troubles in the US started. 

Enter Instagram. It’s familiar, your fans are already there so, why not give Reels a go instead?

Instagram is quickly turning into Facebook’s super-clone-app. But I still like Instagram and as Sara Frier wrote in Bloomberg, Instagram has what Facebook does not, which makes it Zuckerberg’s best bet at staying relevant.

Snap Chat’s attempt at giving uncertain TikTok users a new home.

Last week Snap Chat introduced a new feature that, just like TikTok, allows users to add music to their snaps. 

I’m excited to say that they didn’t stop there. As TechCrunch reported, users will be able to swipe up to view the ‘album art’ and even listen to the whole song on their favourite streaming app.

See, Zuck, it’s really not that hard.

Before TikTok came along, Snap Chat was the app for teenagers. Although they have a large userbase outside the US, they reach more teenagers and twentysomethings in the US than Facebook, Messenger and Instagram combined.

“Snapchat says its music feature, however, will allow fans to form deeper connections with artists and music. It also spoke to its strength in being a tool for close friends, which gives it more influence — largely because of how its younger user base values friend-to-friend recommendations.” -  Sarah Perez, TechCrunch

Have you heard of Quibi?

There isn’t much to say about it since not much has happened since it’s launch earlier this year. Quibi is a short-form original content streaming app that offers original content in ‘10-minute or less’ chunks. 

It’s still early days and there’s some controversy around how successful its launch has been. 

You know, I do like the idea of original content that’s designed to entertain me in 10-minutes or less but I don’t know if I’ll pay for it. At the moment the future looks uncertain for an app designed for commuters and launched at the worst time possible for commuting.

And then there’s Microsoft

I know they don’t own TikTok yet but their play for its US business is worth mentioning.

While they do own Xbox, Bing and LinkedIn, for the most part, they’re a business-to-business company. And we all know how it turned the last time when they went into video streaming business.

To be honest, when I first read the news I was all ‘hold on a minute, they wanna do what now?’

But after reading Tim Peterson’s explanation, I think it might just be the right move for Microsoft.

This purchase is going to be costly and their expenses won’t end there. But TikTok will bring Microsoft closer to Gen Z and give it proper legs to stand on against the Facebook-Google duopoly.

What have I been reading this week

Have a great day and a relaxing weekend