COMPLACENT MARKETING
Rethinking The
Influencer Strategy:
Every Organization
Needs To!
By Diana Obath
W
e have witnessed a growth in
video and audio mediums and
the rise of many experts with
opinions on all kinds of topics and subjects.
They talk about brands and products they
do not use as their viewership grows into
the millions. That’s good for brand pages
and influencers. It makes them popular.
As marketing professionals, our main job
when using online marketing is to create
demand online, measured as page growth,
engagement and interaction - comments,
likes, followers and hits. One of the ways
we do this is using influencers.
A few months ago, a story almost the
broke the internet about an influencer
with 2.6 million followers who was unable
to sell 36 t-shirts to her fans so that she
could launch her online clothing line.
Despite her millions of followers, less
than 0.0001% of them bought her t-shirts.
The Instagram star called Arii sparked a
discussion about the real value of using
influencers to push brands.
What was most surprising is that Arii
was also quite shocked at the outcome
that she said she couldn’t believe her
fans didn’t keep their word in promising
to buy her merchandise. She later turned
off comments on all her Instagram posts
following her post where she aired her
disappointment to her followers. She had
all the likes, comments and shares but no
real tangible results to show for it.
Many questions can arise from that
story. Were her followers’ real people or
bots? Are likes and followers a signal for
online sales? Do people comment on posts
Many online sensations have failed to
monetize their brands. There is certain-
ly much more to building a business
than just crafting an aesthetically pleas-
ing online brand. Some influencers have
done well no doubt, but that’s also be-
cause they have invested in people and
paid good money for people to advise
them and manage their online business
as business making brands.
06 MAL31/19 ISSUE
because they like the post or because they
want to be part of the conversation?
This is not a unique scenario as many other
online sensations have failed to monetize
their brands. There is certainly much more
to building a business than just crafting an
aesthetically pleasing online brand. Some
influencers have done well no doubt, but
that’s also because they have invested in
people and paid good money for people
to advise them and manage their online
business as business making brands.
This scenario however got me thinking
about our own brands, and how much we
still rely on influencers. Many companies
are using the same pool of influencers;
we definitely know them if we are doing
online marketing. An IG or twitter
personality will put up 4-5 posts in a day
each tagging a different brand. The page
changes much like the weather. Some
would only put up stories that disappear
after 24 hours so that their pages and
posts are not crowded with brand clutter.
As a follower you would get confused and
overwhelmed by the messaging coming
through to you on your feed from the
same person. The most interesting thing is
that brands continue to sign up the same
influencers all year round.
Most influencer contracts would only
hold them accountable to the number of
posts they need to put up in a day, and
whether the post will include a link to
the brand website. The brand page would
then take that post and share it with their