The Historical Development of Influencer Marketing: A Journey Through Social Media
Today, social media and digital marketing have become indispensable tools for brands to reach their target audience. One of the key drivers of this transformation has been the rise of a marketing strategy known as Influencer Marketing. In this article, we explore the historical development of Influencer Marketing and how it became a major phenomenon.
What is Influencer Marketing?
Realizing that users could access these experiences and reviews fastest through social media, brands started shifting their advertising budgets from traditional media to new media efforts. At the forefront of these is influencer marketing. Influencer marketing involves promotional activities carried out by individuals or accounts with high follower counts—regarded as opinion leaders on social media—based on their profile engagement. Brands collaborate with these opinion leaders to promote their products or highlight a particular item.
This technique can be considered a form of word-of-mouth marketing. These individuals, also called social media phenomena, aim to reach their own followers and highlight the brand or its products.
Using a marketing method that does not directly focus on sales, but leverages real people, helps boost brand awareness and credibility among potential customers. Influencer marketing is more memorable because it is based on real experiences.
Important
Influencer marketing is the modern way for brands to quickly build trust and increase visibility.
The Historical Development of Influencer Marketing
- Early Steps (2000s): The origins of influencer marketing can be traced to internet platforms like blogs and forums. Brands started partnering with influential figures on these platforms to promote their products. However, at this time, these individuals weren’t yet called “influencers.”
- The Rise of Social Media (2010s): The growth of social media platforms led to an explosion in influencer marketing. Platforms such as YouTube, Instagram, Twitter, and Facebook offered influencers perfect tools to expand their audience. Brands began collaborating with effective influencers on these platforms to promote their products and services.
- Diversification of Content Types (2010s–2020s): Initially, influencers mostly partnered using written content. Over time, different types of content emerged, such as videos, live broadcasts, podcasts, and visuals. This diversity allowed brands to reach their target audience with more engaging and varied content.
- Regulation and Transparency (2020s): Influencer marketing increasingly required regulation and transparency. Influencers had to label collaborative content as advertisements and clearly disclose such collaborations to their followers, helping consumers make more informed choices.
The Value of Influencer Marketing
Influencer marketing is a more effective marketing strategy compared to traditional advertising methods. Its value is high because today, people rarely trust conventional ads to learn about a brand’s products. Instead, they rely more on influencer recommendations and advice. When used correctly, influencer marketing is an extremely effective way for brands to reach the right audience.
Advantages
- Credibility: Influencers are considered trustworthy sources by their followers. When brands reach their audience through influencers, they gain the trust of potential customers.
- High Reach: Social media influencers can have millions of followers. Thus, influencer marketing is one of the most effective ways for brands to reach their target audience.
- Conversion Rates: Influencers interact with their followers and promote the brand’s products and services. This interaction increases potential customers’ interest in the brand’s products and speeds up purchase decisions.
Finding the ideal social media influencer is crucial for a successful influencer marketing campaign. Brands have various tools and resources—such as influencer marketing platforms, social media research, and agencies—to identify the right influencers for their products or services.
There are several ways to pay influencers. Some brands offer free products or services in exchange for collaboration, while others pay for partnerships. The payment amount depends on factors such as the influencer’s follower count, engagement rate, and length of the partnership.
Influencer marketing video sample
The Future of Influencer Marketing
Influencer marketing continues to evolve rapidly as a marketing strategy. In the future, trends like artificial intelligence and micro-influencers may make influencer marketing even more effective. In addition, influencers focused on sustainability and social responsibility are likely to gain more importance.
How to Do Influencer Marketing?
Influencer marketing enables brands to reach their audience more directly and credibly. However, a successful influencer marketing campaign involves several stages—from choosing the right influencers to developing a content strategy.
- Identify Your Target Audience: Determine your brand’s target audience and make sure your influencers share the same demographic. The demographics of your influencers’ followers should align with your brand’s audience.
- Choose the Right Influencers: When selecting suitable influencers, consider factors like follower count, niche or industry, engagement rate, and content quality.
- Establish Collaboration and Agreement: Agree with selected influencers on collaboration terms, content types, publication timing, and payment details.
- Develop a Content Strategy: Work with your influencers to create a content strategy. Make sure the content accurately conveys your brand’s message and fits the influencer’s style.
- Publish and Monitor the Content: After influencers publish content, monitor engagement and results. Use tracking and analytics tools to measure campaign performance.
- Evaluate Impressions and Results: Analyze campaign outcomes. Use this data to develop new marketing strategies or improve your influencer campaigns.
- Build Long-Term Relationships: Establishing a long-term relationship with a good influencer can increase brand loyalty and create sustained impact.
Sample image from a successful influencer marketing campaign
Is Influencer Marketing Instagram-based?
It’s a common mistake to think of influencer marketing as limited to certain social media channels. Influencer marketing is not only done on Instagram; you can run campaigns across various platforms including YouTube, TikTok, Twitter, and blogs.
Example
Mercedes Benz created an influencer marketing campaign with a cute dog named Loki. As of 2019, Loki had over two million followers and became the influencer face of Mercedes Benz.
Loki’s owner, Kelly Lund, initially shared Loki’s photos on his own account. Due to growing interest and friends’ encouragement, he handed the account over to Loki. Managed by Kelly Lund, the Loki profile and its nature photos gained widespread attention. Noticing this, Mercedes Benz collaborated with Loki for an ad campaign in 2016.
This example demonstrates that moving beyond stereotypical, sponsored Instagram strategies and embracing storytelling and multiple platforms can add value to influencer marketing.
In Conclusion
Influencer marketing has become a major part of the digital marketing world and continues to grow rapidly. Through collaborations with influencers, businesses can reach their target audience more effectively. However, choosing the right influencers, building a content strategy, and maintaining transparency are essential for a successful influencer marketing strategy.
