What is Influencer Marketing? More importantly, what are ‘Influencers’?

 

I was at an Australia Day barbeque last week and a girl from the Netherlands asked me what I did for work. BBQ’s are one of those events where you can almost guarantee that when you meet a new person, one of the first 5 things people will ask you is what you do for a living. The conversation almost always goes like this:

THEM: “So what do you do for work?”

ME: “I work in Marketing”

THEM: <face lights up> “So you work at an advertising agency? Thats cool. You must get to meet heaps of important people and celebrities – which ones have you m….”

ME: “Er no, I work in Influencer Marketing.”

THEM: “Oh, OK….” <looks distractedly at shoe>

ME: “It’s still pretty cool though. Basically, there’s a select group of people out there that we know our customers both listen to and respect. My job is to make nice with those respected people, and educate them about our product so they can, in good conscience (hopefully) recommend it to other customers.”

THEM: “Oh, so it’s like sponsoring Tiger Woods! Which celebrities do you sponsor? You know I read that Jessica Simpson was linked to him and…”

ME: “Er yeh sure, whatever. Tiger Woods. Can you pass the mustard?”

I admit… Influencer Marketing is not as glamorous as having a 30 second TV spot or sponsoring celebrities. But if you play your cards right, you don’t need the 30 second TV spot, and you can get much greater cut-through and build so much more street cred with your customers. It’s strange that in all the posts I’ve put up at marketingisadirtyword.com, I’ve never really blogged about my work, and the knowledge I’ve gained as a result. So over the next few week, you can expect a bunch of posts about Influencer Marketing, how to start doing it, how to spot influencers, and more.