Influencer is a term that is used more and more frequently in the media. However, the concept is not part of the dictionary prepared by the Royal Spanish Academy ( RAE ).
An influencer is a public personality who became famous through the Internet and who finds his or her main sphere of influence in the digital sphere. These are celebrities with thousands or millions of followers on social networks .
Generally, an influencer is someone capable of viralizing content : that is, of multiplying the dissemination and propagation of videos, images, etc. It also affects the consumption decisions of its admirers, setting trends. That is why they are usually figures that companies and brands hire to develop advertising campaigns since their fame guarantees that the ads reach a large number of people.
The notion of influencer has been related to Andy Warhol 's famous thought that, in the future, each individual would have their fifteen minutes of fame. The popularity of Internet stars can be sudden, with sudden growth, but also fleeting: not many manage to maintain a high level of recognition over time .
Suppose that a young woman who posts photographs of her trips on Instagram gains tens of thousands of followers and becomes an influencer. A manufacturer of bags and wallets, given her notoriety, decides to hire her to spread their proposals. In this way, you pay a certain amount to the influencer so that she can pose with your products and share the images on Instagram .
There are certain premises that allow companies interested in finding the right influencer for their products. In the following paragraphs we will see some of them in detail.
First of all, there is its ability to provoke reactions and opinions in other users every time it touches on a topic in its spaces on social networks. Precisely, a good influencer can open a debate on any topic, thanks to having a natural predisposition to leadership. Companies must take advantage of this so that, in some way, they do most of the work for them.
When choosing an influencer, therefore, it is necessary to study the interaction rate they have with their followers. There are specific tools for this, but it can also be found out through a series of calculations by hand. We should not underestimate the potential that one of these people can have to get the audience interested in a topic or a brand spontaneously.
Another point to take into account is the quality of the audience. In most cases, large numbers of followers are not enough, but rather a smaller group but with certain characteristics such as economic power, responsibility and commitment is preferable. Furthermore, the good influencer not only sparks controversy but also gets involved in it and actively participates.
It is important to do without those influencers who focus solely on sponsored content, since their speeches are usually not very legitimate but rather scripted by the companies they represent. In contrast, the ideal candidate puts their audience first, or at least pretends to do so very convincingly.
Finally, we must highlight that although the number of followers is one of the main aspects, a legion of fans is of no use if their participation in the content is infrequent . Before deciding on an influencer, companies should evaluate all of these values to ensure they are investing their money well.