Sep 12: With the rise of social media platforms, many job avenues have opened up, and one of such jobs is influencer marketing. It is not uncommon to open Instagram and to be flooded with reels of influencers trying to sell a product or service of a brand. The best thing about social influencers is that anyone can become an influencer, of course, with the necessary skills like knowing how to present oneself in front of a camera and how to sell a product or service creatively.

Also, for an influencer, it is important for the people to love them. Only then does it become possible for the influencer to generate engagement and sell products and services. Social media influencers not only post videos and reels with the product but also provide additional services like uploading Cool Photos of the product and tagging the brand to generate sales for them.

In short, influence marketing is buzzing, and in the current time, it has become mainstream online marketing. Social influencer marketing is so trending that it is projected to reach a market size of $16.4 billion by the end of this year.

Influencer Marketing Is Growing Every Year

In 2016, when influencer marketing was new, its market size was only %1.7 billion. Since 2016, the search for the term on Google alone has grown by 465%. It clearly indicates social media users’ high interest in becoming social influencers. Between 2016 and 2019 alone, the search for the term influencer marketing saw an increase of 1500%. The Covid pandemic acted like a real catalyst for influencer marketing, and the market size increased considerably; this growth is here to stay for the next few years, at least.

Previously, the social influencing job used to be taken care of by individual players. However, many companies saw the chance to leverage an opportunity here. Therefore, many platforms have now come up to connect the brands with the influencers. It is a win-win situation for both the brand and the influencers across the globe.

Channels Of Influencers Campaign

The most common platform for the influencers is Instagram, followed by TikTok. On the one hand, Instagram Stories are popular amongst influencers and their followers. Still, the same cannot be said for WhatsApp Status, which is limited to individual users and it is not used for social media marketing. Apart from Instagram, other popular social media platforms used for influencer campaigns are Facebook, YouTube, LinkedIn and Twitter.

Interestingly, not all niches do well in influencing the market. The most popular niche for influencers is modeling and beauty. However, other niches are also now craving their path to influencer marketing, and we hope to see a change in popularity in the next few years.

Brands To Have Dedicated Budget For Influencer Marketing

Influence marketing is so popular that many brands across the globe now have dedicated budgets for influencer marketing. According to a report, 59% of marketers have stand-alone budgets for content marketing and influencer marketing. Also, many other firms are expected to increase their influencer marketing budget. It is because marketers believe that influencer marketing is an effective way of marketing the products and services of a brand. 90% of the marketers share the positive sentiment for influencer marketing.

Also, with the rise of influencer marketing, there is an increase in brand-sponsored posts on Instagram. The advertising transparency allows the users to see which products are sponsored and which are not clear. It further allows social media users to take an informed decision regarding the purchase that they want to make.

Engagement Rates Varies Across The Platforms

Even though influencer marketing is most common on Instagram, the engagement rate is the highest on TikTok. According to a report, the engagement rate of Instagram influence marketing is 7.2% for influencers with less than 1,000 followers. This engagement rate decreases to 1.1% with influencers with more than 100,000 followers. On the other hand, the engagement rate on TikTok is 9.38% with influencers with less than 1,000 followers, and the engagement rate is 5.3% for TikTok influencers with more than 100,000 followers.

Therefore, the brands might have difficulty choosing between the different platforms for promoting their brand. Irrespective of the social media platform they choose, it cannot be denied that ultimately one or more social media platforms will be chosen for influencer marketing. It may be why influencer marketing will bloom in the next few years.