6 ms·

Do influencers really...influence? It seems like a lot of money is thrown at some of these folks but it's not clear that is directly leading to sales.

css 7y ago
Surprisingly, people follow attractive people because they want to see photos of attractive people and not because they wonder what tea they drink
- bobthepanda 7y ago
  Anecdotally, influencing can work in certain product categories (clothes, makeup) where you would want some authoritative source to demonstrate that something looks as good as advertised.
- winternett 7y ago
  I try to follow attractive people at times on there, but I quickly end up unfollowing them once I find that the misleading fame has gone to their head... Most of these "influencers" only post selfies or product promos and it gets really boring after 3-4 images. :(
- appleiigs 7y ago
  I watch the Super Bowl for the (american) football, but the TV commercials are still effective. Much of advertising is just reminder that the product exists. Effective not because I buy what Tom Brady buys. "Influencers" are just "content providers" to get the views.
  - richk449 7y ago
    > Effective not because I buy what Tom Brady buys Meaning ceramic underwear?
_bxg1 7y ago
The economics wouldn't shake out if it didn't work. Just because they don't work on you personally doesn't mean they don't work.
- Analemma_ 7y ago
  The Efficient Market Hypothesis gets a little fuzzy when it comes to advertising. More than a hundred years ago Wanamaker remarked that "Half the money I spend on advertising is wasted; the trouble is I don’t know which half", and despite all the advances brought about by the internet the situation hasn't changed all that much. It's still completely plausible that Instagram influencers can make money despite being totally useless.
  - buboard 7y ago
    I d really like to see a serious study on the effectiveness of advertising. Businesses have been spending the same % of their profits for advertising for a century. I wonder if that means the effectiveness has essentially not changed.
    - vnorilo 7y ago
      I wonder if that holds for national defence budgets as well. Weapons have certainly improved.
      - buboard 7y ago
        Surely, but if the effectiveness of advertising had improved , businesses would increase their reliance and their spend on it over time. While defense has no reason to , once you 've outgunned your enemies.
  - vinayan3 7y ago
    Lots of brands seek exposure so direct sales from an ad may not be likely. You might not be wanting to buy something in the moment but next you are looking for something you'll associate that brand. It's quite hard to track though some progress has been made through tracking you online on longer time scales. Most people dislike this type of tracking across channels cause we really don't get much out of it besides being bombarded with ads from the same company.
anbop 7y ago
The mega scale influencers like the Kardashian family definitely influence, and have created billion-dollar brands like Kylie Cosmetics. The regular level influencers are complete nonentities. I remember a story here a while back where an "influencer" with 2 million "followers" couldn't sell 36 T-shirts.
- puranjay 7y ago
  That story needs a * because you don't know how good the t shirts were or if they were targeted to their audience.
  - buboard 7y ago
    You also dont know how good or effective the cosmetics are
    - rhizome 7y ago
      I'm skeptical that the company is worth a real billion.
      - buboard 7y ago
        a cursory glance at her revenue ($300M in 2016) shows that it probably is. And this is cosmetics so, mostly profit. There are SV startups losing more than that and worth many many billions.
    - puranjay 7y ago
      You might not know how good the cosmetics are until you buy them. But whether a t-shirt fits your style is plainly visible (unless they were selling plain tees). Very different product categories
- dylz 7y ago
  I do not use social media myself, but I saw that story as it was posted here. I get the feeling that there was some bad behaviour in that particular case (while Kardashian at least has some humans). The t-shirt account can't get past 200 comments with 2.6 million followers? Sub-0.001% engagement screams purchased followers - you typically get more than that in spam comments or shoutout-begging alone most of the time I've seen if they are humans... I am also inclined to believe this even more so due to scrolling through the follower list for under a minute, based off usernames. Another thing is that while scrolling through, some hypermajority appear to be either India, Middle Eastern, or CIS countries, while she has never written a description in any of those - possibly the vendor was also difficult to order from or ship outside of the US or her home country otherwise.
deleted 7y ago
[deleted]
matwood 7y ago
> directly leading to sales. Like a lot of marketing and ad spend in general. Influencers (or any other media) are simply other channels to put product in front of people who no longer watch TV or read magazines.
DisruptiveDave 7y ago
Absolutely they do. Not all of them, and it's officially an overcrowded market. There's a large range of what an influencer is, what he/she does, who his/her audience is, and, most importantly, how he/she is promoting your thing. But to assume that the average human being does not do things because others do them, doesn't desire to be someone different, and is in full control of his/her mind, is nothing short of foolish.
catacombs 7y ago
Some do. My girlfriend has purchased clothing after seeing an influencer's post on Instagram. Granted, she has to REALLY like the piece of clothing to buy it. Regardless, it's infuriating to read hotels, airlines, clothing companies and others throwing money and freebies at people just because they have a high follower count. It's also sad to watch people from my hometown become walking advertisements -- one girl recently started shilling for Disney -- and try pushing their "brand."
- whatshisface 7y ago
  It's like the modern equivalent of Tupperware parties.
mbesto 7y ago
Is your question tailored to anecdotes or towards industry data? 1. I can name a handful of products that I've bought because <insert some triathlete / olympian> uses them. Out of 6 or so products I've bought I've only had bad experiences with 1 of them, otherwise they all were 2. Sales tactics are basically tried and true throughout time. It's no coincidence the most effective e-commerce techniques are scarcity and social proof[0]. Genuine influencers have the ability to affect social proof on a massive scale. 3. I loathe FashionNova, but they are a grade A example of how effective influencer marking can be if done correctly at scale[1] 4. Scaling influencer marketing is a delicate balance. It's just not programatic (and never will be) like placing ads on Facebook or Google. [0] - https://www.qubit.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/12/qubit-research-meta-analysis.pdf https://www.qubit.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/12/qubit-resea... [1] - https://www.businessoffashion.com/articles/news-bites/influencer-marketing-lessons-from-fashion-nova-and-zara https://www.businessoffashion.com/articles/news-bites/influe...
- shostack 7y ago
  Facebook seems somewhat interested in inserting themselves in those direct relationships. https://www.facebook.com/collabsmanager/start https://www.facebook.com/collabsmanager/start https://www.facebook.com/business/help/1225872907555801 https://www.facebook.com/business/help/1225872907555801 Which makes a lot of sense since a lot of that has happened behind the scenes in a way that may have limited their visibility or limited their margins.
- easyat 7y ago
  > 2. Sales tactics are basically tried and true throughout time. It's no coincidence the most effective e-commerce techniques are scarcity and social proof[0]. Genuine influencers have the ability to affect social proof on a massive scale. I wonder if 'social proof' is easier to fake/generate on social media with Sybil attacks (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sybil_attack https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sybil_attack) as well as payment to real individuals to vouch for something they don't actually use I wonder if people will/are starting not trust these measures of social proof
  - rhizome 7y ago
lostphilosopher 7y ago
I think the Fyre Festival fiasco is pretty strong evidence for the efficacy of "influencers." In that case there was no real product to buy, the _only_ reason to try to buy the product was its advertising, more than 4,000 people did, and its advertising was almost exclusively via social media / influencers.
deleted 7y ago
[deleted]
antpls 7y ago
That's just the basic of marketing tactics : supposedly, more you are shown a product or a brand, and more you will accept it in your life. It works any where you can display a picture, from toilet papers to Instagram stories. Influencers are only one more channel to capture people's attention
x2f10 7y ago
Yes. My GF and I have both purchased items that an influencer is 'marketing'. It's not so much that I've been deceived, it's more about the exposure. Some items I'm interested in and the influencer simply put it on my radar.
- brandonmenc 7y ago
  Exactly this. I follow a bunch of accounts that I rely on to do "cool hunting" for me, and I'm happy to purchase stuff through their affiliate links or whatever. Win-win.
CM30 7y ago
Well, they must be influencing some people, since companies have seen returns for their efforts in that space. Despite the viral stories of how 'X influencer sold only 30-40 products despite having hundreds of thousands of followers', there are quite a few more examples of it working out: https://www.marketingweek.com/roi-look-like-world-influencer-marketing/ https://www.marketingweek.com/roi-look-like-world-influencer... https://digitalmarketinginstitute.com/en-gb/blog/20-influencer-marketing-statistics-that-will-surprise-you https://digitalmarketinginstitute.com/en-gb/blog/20-influenc... That said, I do kind of wonder about some of this myself. What percentage of an influencer's fans would already be planning to buy the product regardless of said influencer's marketing efforts? I mean, your average gaming/TV show/music focused social media account/channel is already likely targeting people with an interest in those areas. And the more niche ones likely only appeal to the people who already bought said products anyway. The average Ceave Gaming viewer already probably owns Super Mario Maker 1 and 2, and the average TWD98 viewer is probably an avid Mario Kart fan. Wonder how many other influencers and successful channel owners have fanbases made up of existing customers/people who've already made up their mind on a product/service?
rolltiide 7y ago
does your adtech startup with a completely made up metric that happens to be above industry average directly lead to sales? money still flows in though
ryanmarsh 7y ago
Yes. See The Bucket List Family.
notaimbot 7y ago
It does. We measure CPA/CPI and the numbers are way better than other not-influencer-marketing.
coldtea 7y ago
Yes. An influencer post can raise millions in sales for a product, like directly.

css 7y ago

Surprisingly, people follow attractive people because they want to see photos of attractive people and not because they wonder what tea they drink

bobthepanda 7y ago
Anecdotally, influencing can work in certain product categories (clothes, makeup) where you would want some authoritative source to demonstrate that something looks as good as advertised.
winternett 7y ago
I try to follow attractive people at times on there, but I quickly end up unfollowing them once I find that the misleading fame has gone to their head... Most of these "influencers" only post selfies or product promos and it gets really boring after 3-4 images. :(
appleiigs 7y ago
I watch the Super Bowl for the (american) football, but the TV commercials are still effective. Much of advertising is just reminder that the product exists. Effective not because I buy what Tom Brady buys. "Influencers" are just "content providers" to get the views.
- richk449 7y ago
  > Effective not because I buy what Tom Brady buys Meaning ceramic underwear?

_bxg1 7y ago

The economics wouldn't shake out if it didn't work. Just because they don't work on you personally doesn't mean they don't work.

Analemma_ 7y ago
The Efficient Market Hypothesis gets a little fuzzy when it comes to advertising. More than a hundred years ago Wanamaker remarked that "Half the money I spend on advertising is wasted; the trouble is I don’t know which half", and despite all the advances brought about by the internet the situation hasn't changed all that much. It's still completely plausible that Instagram influencers can make money despite being totally useless.
- buboard 7y ago
  I d really like to see a serious study on the effectiveness of advertising. Businesses have been spending the same % of their profits for advertising for a century. I wonder if that means the effectiveness has essentially not changed.
  - vnorilo 7y ago
    I wonder if that holds for national defence budgets as well. Weapons have certainly improved.
    - buboard 7y ago
      Surely, but if the effectiveness of advertising had improved , businesses would increase their reliance and their spend on it over time. While defense has no reason to , once you 've outgunned your enemies.
- vinayan3 7y ago
  Lots of brands seek exposure so direct sales from an ad may not be likely. You might not be wanting to buy something in the moment but next you are looking for something you'll associate that brand. It's quite hard to track though some progress has been made through tracking you online on longer time scales. Most people dislike this type of tracking across channels cause we really don't get much out of it besides being bombarded with ads from the same company.

anbop 7y ago

The mega scale influencers like the Kardashian family definitely influence, and have created billion-dollar brands like Kylie Cosmetics. The regular level influencers are complete nonentities. I remember a story here a while back where an "influencer" with 2 million "followers" couldn't sell 36 T-shirts.

puranjay 7y ago
That story needs a * because you don't know how good the t shirts were or if they were targeted to their audience.
- buboard 7y ago
  You also dont know how good or effective the cosmetics are
  - rhizome 7y ago
    I'm skeptical that the company is worth a real billion.
    - buboard 7y ago
      a cursory glance at her revenue ($300M in 2016) shows that it probably is. And this is cosmetics so, mostly profit. There are SV startups losing more than that and worth many many billions.
  - puranjay 7y ago
    You might not know how good the cosmetics are until you buy them. But whether a t-shirt fits your style is plainly visible (unless they were selling plain tees). Very different product categories
dylz 7y ago
I do not use social media myself, but I saw that story as it was posted here. I get the feeling that there was some bad behaviour in that particular case (while Kardashian at least has some humans). The t-shirt account can't get past 200 comments with 2.6 million followers? Sub-0.001% engagement screams purchased followers - you typically get more than that in spam comments or shoutout-begging alone most of the time I've seen if they are humans... I am also inclined to believe this even more so due to scrolling through the follower list for under a minute, based off usernames. Another thing is that while scrolling through, some hypermajority appear to be either India, Middle Eastern, or CIS countries, while she has never written a description in any of those - possibly the vendor was also difficult to order from or ship outside of the US or her home country otherwise.

deleted 7y ago

[deleted]

matwood 7y ago

> directly leading to sales. Like a lot of marketing and ad spend in general. Influencers (or any other media) are simply other channels to put product in front of people who no longer watch TV or read magazines.

DisruptiveDave 7y ago

Absolutely they do. Not all of them, and it's officially an overcrowded market. There's a large range of what an influencer is, what he/she does, who his/her audience is, and, most importantly, how he/she is promoting your thing. But to assume that the average human being does not do things because others do them, doesn't desire to be someone different, and is in full control of his/her mind, is nothing short of foolish.

catacombs 7y ago

Some do. My girlfriend has purchased clothing after seeing an influencer's post on Instagram. Granted, she has to REALLY like the piece of clothing to buy it. Regardless, it's infuriating to read hotels, airlines, clothing companies and others throwing money and freebies at people just because they have a high follower count. It's also sad to watch people from my hometown become walking advertisements -- one girl recently started shilling for Disney -- and try pushing their "brand."

whatshisface 7y ago
It's like the modern equivalent of Tupperware parties.

mbesto 7y ago

Is your question tailored to anecdotes or towards industry data? 1. I can name a handful of products that I've bought because <insert some triathlete / olympian> uses them. Out of 6 or so products I've bought I've only had bad experiences with 1 of them, otherwise they all were 2. Sales tactics are basically tried and true throughout time. It's no coincidence the most effective e-commerce techniques are scarcity and social proof[0]. Genuine influencers have the ability to affect social proof on a massive scale. 3. I loathe FashionNova, but they are a grade A example of how effective influencer marking can be if done correctly at scale[1] 4. Scaling influencer marketing is a delicate balance. It's just not programatic (and never will be) like placing ads on Facebook or Google. [0] - https://www.qubit.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/12/qubit-research-meta-analysis.pdf https://www.qubit.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/12/qubit-resea... [1] - https://www.businessoffashion.com/articles/news-bites/influencer-marketing-lessons-from-fashion-nova-and-zara https://www.businessoffashion.com/articles/news-bites/influe...

shostack 7y ago
Facebook seems somewhat interested in inserting themselves in those direct relationships. https://www.facebook.com/collabsmanager/start https://www.facebook.com/collabsmanager/start https://www.facebook.com/business/help/1225872907555801 https://www.facebook.com/business/help/1225872907555801 Which makes a lot of sense since a lot of that has happened behind the scenes in a way that may have limited their visibility or limited their margins.
easyat 7y ago
> 2. Sales tactics are basically tried and true throughout time. It's no coincidence the most effective e-commerce techniques are scarcity and social proof[0]. Genuine influencers have the ability to affect social proof on a massive scale. I wonder if 'social proof' is easier to fake/generate on social media with Sybil attacks (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sybil_attack https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sybil_attack) as well as payment to real individuals to vouch for something they don't actually use I wonder if people will/are starting not trust these measures of social proof
- rhizome 7y ago

lostphilosopher 7y ago

I think the Fyre Festival fiasco is pretty strong evidence for the efficacy of "influencers." In that case there was no real product to buy, the _only_ reason to try to buy the product was its advertising, more than 4,000 people did, and its advertising was almost exclusively via social media / influencers.

deleted 7y ago

[deleted]

antpls 7y ago

That's just the basic of marketing tactics : supposedly, more you are shown a product or a brand, and more you will accept it in your life. It works any where you can display a picture, from toilet papers to Instagram stories. Influencers are only one more channel to capture people's attention

x2f10 7y ago

Yes. My GF and I have both purchased items that an influencer is 'marketing'. It's not so much that I've been deceived, it's more about the exposure. Some items I'm interested in and the influencer simply put it on my radar.

brandonmenc 7y ago
Exactly this. I follow a bunch of accounts that I rely on to do "cool hunting" for me, and I'm happy to purchase stuff through their affiliate links or whatever. Win-win.

CM30 7y ago

Well, they must be influencing some people, since companies have seen returns for their efforts in that space. Despite the viral stories of how 'X influencer sold only 30-40 products despite having hundreds of thousands of followers', there are quite a few more examples of it working out: https://www.marketingweek.com/roi-look-like-world-influencer-marketing/ https://www.marketingweek.com/roi-look-like-world-influencer... https://digitalmarketinginstitute.com/en-gb/blog/20-influencer-marketing-statistics-that-will-surprise-you https://digitalmarketinginstitute.com/en-gb/blog/20-influenc... That said, I do kind of wonder about some of this myself. What percentage of an influencer's fans would already be planning to buy the product regardless of said influencer's marketing efforts? I mean, your average gaming/TV show/music focused social media account/channel is already likely targeting people with an interest in those areas. And the more niche ones likely only appeal to the people who already bought said products anyway. The average Ceave Gaming viewer already probably owns Super Mario Maker 1 and 2, and the average TWD98 viewer is probably an avid Mario Kart fan. Wonder how many other influencers and successful channel owners have fanbases made up of existing customers/people who've already made up their mind on a product/service?

rolltiide 7y ago

does your adtech startup with a completely made up metric that happens to be above industry average directly lead to sales? money still flows in though

ryanmarsh 7y ago

Yes. See The Bucket List Family.

notaimbot 7y ago

It does. We measure CPA/CPI and the numbers are way better than other not-influencer-marketing.

coldtea 7y ago

Yes. An influencer post can raise millions in sales for a product, like directly.