DEFLUENCERS
How will influencer marketing evolve this year and are influencers threatened by the new wave gaining momentum – defluencers?
Influencers have played an active role in shaping the view of social media for years. Not only do they determine the type of content we are offered, but they have also become professionals with important audiences that companies rely on more and more. Even huge international consortia respect influencers for their ability to attract different people and keep them interested in their platforms.
What are the new influencers in 2023?
The concept of what an influencer is changing in 2023. There are now not only mega-influencers with millions of fans, like the world’s biggest influencer Cristiano Ronaldo, but also many medium, micro and even nano-influencers with loyal followings and niche knowledge who create great content on their own. In 2022, globally, there was a decline in followers of influencers in general. But there were those who were unaffected by the negative trend. These are the micro- and nano-influencers who, in addition to engagement, have better conversion rates.
But what’s the difference between the classic influencer content we’re used to seeing and the content created by new influencers? The classic influencer has a contractual relationship with a specific company and publishes mostly paid, copy written posts. As we are inundated with pure ads from everywhere, companies are readjusting and starting to rely more and more on influencers who are capable of creating content themselves. Originality is the way for a company to stand out amidst all the media noise and diversity. And this is especially true for small and medium-sized companies. They must rely on influencers who know how to speak to their customers and win them over permanently with sincerity and originality.
Companies prefer long-term partnerships with influencers
In 2023, the trend of companies making long-term commitments with influencers is expected to deepen. While the reasons for this are many, the main one is that it takes time to make even a single sale. Even the most influential influencers with the largest number of followers can’t guarantee a sale from a single post. And companies want to develop relationships with influencers like they have with their brand ambassadors, for example.
Influencers that use more than one platform
Although influencers have a favourite platform, some of them appear on more than one. And they have superfans who want to interact with them across all platforms. As predicted for 2023, the most successful influencers will be those who can professionally judge not only which platform to offer certain content on, but also what content to create for the different platforms. We should also add the fact that they will be creating more and more video content – one of the major digital marketing trends for 2023 (link to previous article) Here, it may no longer be just YouTube leading the way, but also the increasingly popular TikTok.
Instagram is still number one, and TikTok is breathing down its neck
Instagram is still a very popular network for influencers, but more and more inventive content is appearing on TikTok, which has grown tremendously in part because of the pandemic. Influencers got into it with its launch in 2020. Many young users prefer it. In the next two years, companies are projected to spend twice as much of their marketing budgets on TikTok through influencers. To do the math – about $800 million was spent on influencers on TikTok in 2022. In TikTok, features like Creative Exchange and Creator Marketplace facilitate contact between influencers and companies.
Did you know that, in the US, for example, for failing to comply with official requirements to post hashtags #advertising or #sponsoredcontent, one of the most influential influencers Kim Kardashian was fined $1 million for failing to mention that she received a $225,000 honorarium to promote the cryptocurrency EthereumMax on her Instagram account?
Influencers also rely on live shopping
Around the world, mainly in Asia, live shopping became particularly popular in 2021 and 2022. Consumers are beginning to prefer it to the stores available on social platforms. This is why Amazon, Facebook, TikTok and Instagram have developed live shopping functionalities. It is also gaining popularity in the country and there are platforms for it. With live shopping, you can make online purchases in real time while watching live product presentations from influencers.
Reality doesn’t need a filter
Members of Generation Z (those born between 1995 and 2010), who we also call the digitized generation, immediately notice if someone is trying to sell them something. They tune out ads, but follow influencers they like. The trendiest platforms now rely on authenticity. TikTok continues to report high engagement as users post engaging content that isn’t filled with direct advertising messages about the brand or company. And BeReal entered the playing field last year and topped Google Play’s best apps list because its fans appreciate the ability to share authentic, unfiltered content.
Employees can also be influencers
This year, we expect to see an increase in content created by employees, who can also be classified as influencers. This is due to the growing need for authentic content, which provokes many more sales and changes the image of brands and companies in a positive direction. This is why some companies have already created special programs to encourage their employees who use their products at home and share videos or posts about it on social networks. Additionally, consumers want to know what’s going on behind the scenes at big companies, so if their employees can share interesting stories from everyday life, that’s only a plus. Finally, we should note that employees as influencers can also attract new employees to the company. There is no better advertisement for a company than its satisfied employees.
Defluencers vs. influencers – who will win?
Have you heard of defluencers? And did you know that by early February 2023, the hashtag #defluencing had been used 62 million times on the web?
Defluencer in English is a play on words with influencer – if influencer influences positively, defluencer influences people’s attitudes negatively (the prefix de in English means to deprive, remove, cancel – ed.). The defluencer shares his negative experiences with different brands and their products. He uses mostly unpaid posts by influencers as a starting point, but also looks closely at product recommendations of different brands.
Defluencers debunk myths and outright lies by pointing out specific flaws of products – mostly cosmetic, but not only. Their platform is TikTok. Their goal is to help their followers not make subpar purchases. For many, deflowering is a direct criticism of an over-consumerist society.
One explanation for the emergence of defluencing is global inflation in 2022. Due to the sharp increase in the cost of living, people are forced to save much more than before. Generation Z finds deflowers particularly useful because it has already experienced several crises in which it has lost its savings. Because of this, people of this generation cannot afford to buy an apartment and compensate with small pleasures such as cosmetics. The defluencers at TikTok encourage people to invest in their own future instead of hoarding disposable products.
