Why Fake Follower Counts Can’t Curb Influencer Marketing

Last year, a friend clicked on a link in his Twitter DMs, which sent him to a website promising to deliver free Yeezy sneakers if he signed up as a model using his Twitter account. He did, and lost his verified account for more than two months. As it turned out, the person who private-messaged my friend the phishing link had been hacked as well — the same way. Why? Our desire for fame, or to fit in. And that’s the same impulse that inspires influencer marketing, both for the influencers and the consumers who buy the products they hawk. So what is influencer marketing? And is it still worth the investment now that smart consumers have caught on?

What is Influencer Marketing?

Influencer marketing leverages endorsements, reviews and product/service mentions from celebrities, trendsetters and social media stars as social proof to increase sales, brand awareness and online engagement. Companies that rely on influencers believe they can piggyback on the trust built by the influencer to build trust for their brand. Smart companies do their research, and reach out only to those influencers with influence in their organization’s industry or niche. Some marketing teams send influencers free products; others pay influencers to promote their brand.

Of course, when an influencer is caught promoting a product or service they don’t use or that doesn’t live up to its promises, the influencer’s reputation (and trust) is damaged. And when an influencer tags their post with #ad or #advertisement, it clearly demonstrates to their audience that they’re only promoting the product or service because they’ve been paid to do so. So, how valuable is that?

The History of Influencer Marketing

According to the data, influencer marketing remains well worth the risk. The market grew more than 700% in the last half decade and is projected to expand to $15 billion in 2022. According to Google Trends, searches for “influencer marketing” grow 5,000% each month! But where and when did it start, and how did we get here?

1765: English potter Josiah Wedgwood uses the endorsement of Britain’s top influencer Queen Charlotte to create the world’s first luxury brand, promoting himself as “Her Majesty’s Potter” and his pottery as “Queensware,” teaching the world how to become an influencer.

1920s: Coco Chanel becomes the first fashion influencer, shocking the fashion world with her little black dress, showing for the first time that women can use the same dress during the day and at night. Her pantsuits break the barrier between men’s and women’s fashion. 

1932: Coca-Cola ushers in a new era of influencer marketing with fictional characters by using Santa Claus to promote its soft drink product and convey cheer during the Great Depression.

1950s: With the growth of the suburbs and families striving to 'keep up with the Joneses,' the stay-at-home mom becomes the symbol for women across the United States.

1984: Nike introduces the celebrity endorsement, signing an exclusive deal with basketball star Michael Jordan. Thanks to the new, custom-designed Air Jordan sneakers, the company increases sales by $70 million in the first year.

2002: Melinda Roberts creates TheMommyBlog.com, designed to influence mothers with tips, tricks, products and toys that worked for her children — and other moms around the world are influenced not only to follow her recommendations but to become mommy bloggers themselves. Brands take notice, leading Catherine Connors, creator of the Her Bad Mother mommy blog, to remark: “People began to see they could make more money with aspirational content… Aspirational sells better than truth-telling.”

2005: Yahoo! first uses the term “social shopping,” referring to online collaborative shopping tools like shared lists, user ratings and other user-generated content sharing product information and advice.

2010: Meta (then Facebook) launches Instagram, inspiring a new wave of social media influencers.

2011: The livestreaming app Twitch introduces gamers as the latest social media influencers, allowing viewers to interact with gamers while the gamers play, earning income from streams and sponsoring games; today, the world’s leading streaming platform for gaming also hosts live streams focusing on other topics — and has nearly 10-million streamers and more than two-million concurrent viewers.

2013: Instagram introduces paid advertisements, making it easier than ever for brands to connect with influencers, who, with a click of a button, can share what they like — and even get paid for it.

2016: TikTok takes the Gen Z and Millennial generations by storm, allowing content creators and users to interact and kickstart trends often using song and dance; numerous influencers build massive audiences on TikTok alone, and sign contracts with major brands to promote them on and off the app. Seventeen-year-old Charli D’Amelio has more than 130-million TikTok fans and deals with Dunkin’ Donuts and Morphe; Beyonce has less than two million.

2020: TikTok launches the Creator Fund, designed to build an army of influencers that can make a living through brand partnerships, sponsorships and representation deals. Meta (then Facebook) launches Facebook and Instagram shopping.

2022: Brands begin to turn their focus from mega- to micro-influencers, or ‘ordinary’ people who’ve become known for their knowledge about a specific niche and have a smaller but more engaged, loyal following. Marketers increase their spending on influencer marketing to nearly five-billion dollars per year in the US alone.

15 Influencer Marketing Statistics for 2022

In 2022, if you’re not investing something in the influencers who know your niche, you’re missing a critical component to modern-day digital marketing. Need more proof? Here are the facts:

1. 90% of enterprise marketers wanted to work with micro-influencers (Linqia)
2. 84% of companies plan on collaborating with a social media star in the next year (Augure)
3. Nearly 20% of marketers expect to spend more than half their budget on influencer marketing (Mediakix)
4. A majority (59%) of brands have a standalone budget for content marketing, and 75% of them are dedicating a significant budget to influencer marketing in 2022 (Influencer Marketing Hub)
5. 71% of brands plan to increase their influencer marketing budgets (Linqia)
6. Businesses earn $5.20 for every dollar spent on influencer marketing (Influencer Marketing Hub)
7. Influencer marketing produces a 1,100% greater ROI than banner ads (Convince & Convert)
8. Nearly nine in 10 consumers will buy products from a brand they follow on social media (Sprout Social)
9. 58% of consumers are noticing more sponsored content from influencers, and only 19% feel influencer content has been tone-deaf and/or unhelpful (Matter Communications)
10. 92% of consumers consider peer reviews and user feedback to be the most credible source of potential purchase information (Ceros)
11. 75% of B2B buyers and 84% of C-suite and VP-level executives use social media to make purchasing decisions (International Data Corporation)
12. 40% of teens trust influencers more than their friends (Google)
13. 88% of Gen Zers and Millennials initially learn about products they are interested in purchasing on social networks (Morning Consult)
14. 56% of Gen Zers and Millennials have bought a product after seeing a post from someone they follow (Morning Consult)
15. One in five young consumers turns specifically toward influencers to learn about new products (Morning Consult)

5 Influencer Marketing Trends for 2022

The data is clear: influencer marketing works, when you do it right. As consumers become more and more sophisticated, though, the right part of the equation becomes increasingly complicated. That’s why I developed this list of the five most important influencer marketing trends for 2022 and beyond. 

Take this advice, discuss it with your team, and test out the strategies and tactics against what you’ve been doing. (Then, sign up and share your results in the comments below the article.)  

1. Ongoing Influencer Relationships and Communities

One-off projects and short-term influencer relationships can play a pivotal role in testing new campaign ideas, expanding into new niches, and trying out new influencers. They can also help you scale your influencer marketing program. 

When you find an influencer that loves your product or service, showcases your brand in line with your messaging and maintains strong engagement with their followers, consider offering them a longer-term contract. These influencers can generate higher ROI because of the authentic connection they’ve developed with their online communities. 

By nurturing these relationships and communities, you can develop these influencers into brand evangelists or ambassadors. These ambassadors, then, incorporate your brand into multiple posts over an extended period of time. Because of the trust they’ve developed with their audience, and their honest excitement when sharing brand-related stories, their followers are motivated to act.

You could then create a community or network of brand ambassadors to facilitate collaboration and cross-promotion, exponentially expanding the potential audience for the brand and each influencer.

2. Influencer and Brand Transparency and Authenticity Rule

More than one-billion dollars is spent on influencers with fake followings, and nearly four in 10 influencers artificially inflate their follower counts. This is why two thirds of brands are concerned about influencer fraud, and 94% of consumers say they’re more likely to be loyal to a brand that offers transparency. 

However, this isn’t the only way marketing teams get caught spending big dollars on influencer marketing campaigns that don’t deliver. As calls for transparency and authenticity have reverberated across social media and online advertising, it’s become ever more obvious that even the most popular and compelling influencers can’t stir up enough fervor for a product or service they don’t genuinely endorse. 

1. Avoid “influencers” who contact your company offering to help; often, they take your money or free product, and don’t produce promised results
2. Do your research and only build relationships with influencers whose audiences are actively engaged
3. Nurture your influencers and build influencer communities and networks
4. Provide your influencers campaign guidance and offer post-campaign feedback and optimization techniques

Over time, your organization and your influencers will prove themselves transparent and authentic. In fact, 85% of consumers say they’ll return to a brand even after a bad customer experience if the company has built a reputation based on a history of transparency.

3. Diversity, Inclusion and Equity in Influencer Marketing

Another way to build trust for your brand is to demonstrate a commitment to diversity, inclusion and equity (DIE) — and employing influencers with different backgrounds is no longer enough. Nearly nine in 10 Millennials say it’s crucial for brands they support to be aligned with their values, and more than 70% will pay more for a product if even part of the proceeds are donated to charity. In fact, 70% of all consumers now feel that it’s important for brands to take a stance on political and social issues, and two thirds have taken an action after seeing a brand ad or marketing message they believed to be diverse or inclusive. 

Although some brands have found incredible success emphasizing the exclusivity of what they offer, even while diversifying the models in their ads, creating a culture of inclusivity (and equity) is what allows your target audience to connect with your brand. As they say: diversity is being invited to the party, inclusion is being asked to dance. 

So what does that mean for marketers looking to develop an influencer marketing strategy? It means equitably including everyone — and it starts with who comprises your marketing team. 

1. Build a diverse team (organizations that are intentional in hiring, retaining and developing diverse talent are 19% more innovative, earn 140% more revenue and are 35% more likely to outperform their competitors)
2. Actively develop and promote people from traditionally marginalized communities
3. Have the difficult conversations
4. Immerse yourselves in different cultures
5. Solicit outside contributions from underrepresented populations
6. Prioritize intimacy, authenticity and transparency with your customers
7. Focus on tone of voice

4. Influencer Marketing Goes Omnichannel (Influencers Take Over the Customer Lifecycle)

Google has found that 98% of Americans switch between platforms and devices on the same day. This is why marketers who simply use three or more channels in any one campaign deliver a 287% higher purchase rate. Of course, if you optimize how you use these channels, you can experience even better results.

While multichannel marketing allows you to cast your net as widely as possible to reach more consumers and build brand awareness, marketers who commit to omnichannel marketing provide a consistent customer experience across channels — and retain nearly nine of 10 customers (versus 33% for those who don’t)! So what does omnichannel marketing mean? 

Ninety percent of all consumers expect consistency in their interactions, no matter where they are. Omnichannel marketing represents a rethinking of the customer lifecycle, with a focus on providing a seamless and personalized user experience across all channels relevant to the buyer journey. 

For organizations invested in influencer marketing, and particularly those who’ve nurtured influencer communities and developed brand ambassadors, this means leveraging your influencers and their stories across all platforms, and from lead generation to sales and customer experience.

^{From a J. Crew influencer marketing email}

5. The Rise of the Influencer Marketing Platform

A lot has changed since 2006, when Izea founder and CEO Ted Murphy created the first influencer marketing platform, PayPerPost — and the TechCrunch community likened its business model to “payola in the music industry.” At the time, blogs were still called “online diaries!” 

By 2016, 70% of influencers already felt the most effective way to collaborate with brands was through an influencer marketing platform, or influencer marketing hub; by 2020, there were 1,360 agencies dedicated entirely to influencer marketing.

Unless you’re part of the mere 22% of brands that think it’s easy to find the right influencer, you’re probably asking yourself:

1. Should I hire a third party to manage my influencer marketing program, or should I keep it in house?
2. If I keep it in house, what tools are available to improve our likelihood of success?

Though some (obviously) believe businesses should hire an influencer marketing agency to develop and oversee their marketing efforts, and I have worked at a number of these agencies, I believe companies that truly know themselves, their mission and their products/services are best equipped to identify their target audiences, create their user personas, and present themselves publicly with passion and authenticity.

Thus, I believe the pressing question for marketing teams is whether an influencer marketing platform or other tool can aid in attracting, retaining and nurturing effective influencers and/or influencer communities.

Influencer marketing platforms provide: 

• Influencer discovery tools for brands and agencies
• Searchable databases of potential influencers
• Influencer marketplaces
• Influencer vetting
• Relationship management tools
• Campaign management tools
• Content amplification capabilities
• Advanced analytics
• Third-party integrations

To determine which influencer marketing platform is best for you, consider requesting a demo from one or more of the following five highly rated options:

• Klear
• Offers search/discovery, content review, campaign management and reporting, influencer and audience analysis, competitor research
• Pulls all registered users from your eCommerce site, finds their social profiles, and delivers a list of potential influencers (and their relevant statistics) who’ve already purchased your product/service
• Covers Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, YouTube
• Best for small and large brands
• Grin
• Offers search/discovery, content review, content library, content amplification, campaign management and reporting, influencer lifecycle management, influencer relationship management, influencer and audience analysis, eCommerce, gifting, forms and compliance
• Works with Huawei, IMG, Adidas, Microsoft and CocaCola
• Covers Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, Twitch, Twitter, YouTube
• Best for eCommerce businesses of all sizes
• CreatorIQ
• Offers search/discovery, automated recruiting, content review, campaign management and reporting, influencer and audience analysis, influencer relationship management, eCommerce, gifting, forms and compliance, fraud detection, payment processing
• Uses AI to ensure influencers are exceptionally relevant
• Covers Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest, Twitch, Twitter, Youtube
• Best for large brands and agencies
• Creator.co
• Offers search/discovery, content amplification, campaign management and reporting, influencer and audience analysis, influencer lifecycle management, influencer relationship management, exportable reports
• Database of 500-million influencers, with deep insights about each one
• Instagram, TikTok, YouTube
• Best for small and medium-sized businesses
• Aspire (formerly AspireIQ)
• Offers search/discovery, content amplification, content review, content library, campaign management and reporting, influencer relationship management, influencer marketplace, team collaboration, eCommerce, gifting, forms and compliance, payment processing, social listening, competitor research, visual discovery
• Focused primarily on every aspect of campaign management
• Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest, Twitter, YouTube
• Best for large brands and agencies

Influencer Marketing FAQs

1. What is an influencer?

An influencer is someone in your niche or industry who’s developed connections with your target audience. Influencers have a specialized understanding of your subject, and have built a following of passionate, dedicated consumers who are interested in products or services like yours. The influencer’s pre-existing presence in your niche puts them in a unique position to help your brand build awareness, authority and credibility.

2. What is influencer marketing?

Influencer marketing leverages endorsements, reviews and product/service mentions from celebrities, trendsetters and social media stars as social proof to increase sales, brand awareness and online engagement.

3. Does influencer marketing work?

Yes, 92% of consumers consider peer reviews and user feedback to be the most credible source of potential purchase information, which is why businesses earn $5.20 for every dollar spent on influencer marketing.

4. How big is the influencer marketing industry?

The influencer marketing market grew more than 700% in the last half decade and is projected to expand to $15 billion in 2022. According to Google Trends, searches for “influencer marketing” grow 5,000% each month.

5. How long does influencer marketing last?

The length of any influencer marketing relationship depends on the effectiveness of the influencer marketing campaign. Some relationships are short term, best for quick wins like boosting sales on a new or special product, while other influencer-brand relationships are nurtured and developed for long-term collaborations, with communities of dedicated customers built around the influencer.

6. What are the rules for how to become an influencer?

There are no rules, and nowadays just about anyone can be an influencer. Like a dating app, all you have to do is match with the right brand. Of course, there’s no guarantee of success, so it’s best to start by asking yourself: how engaged are my followers? Do my followers tell me they’ve taken my advice? What do the comments on my posts say? If you believe that you can influence others, there may be an opportunity for you to earn income (or free products) by promoting things you care about. Research the best influencer marketing platforms, and determine if you have the credentials to be accepted into their influencer program. Not every influencer has a million fans, and many brands are looking for influencers with smaller numbers of more focused, more passionate followers.

Image Credits (in order of appearance)

1. Photo by Good Faces on Unsplash: https://unsplash.com/photos/PACNRKpj1gU
2. Photo by Laura Chouette on Unsplash: https://unsplash.com/photos/4PlTCPjVT48
3. Photo by Isabella Fischer on Unsplash: https://unsplash.com/photos/p6kMVnPJcco
4. Photo by Gian Cescon on Unsplash: https://unsplash.com/photos/N0g-deioHO4
5. Photo by Unsplash+ in collaboration with Getty Images on Unsplash: https://unsplash.com/photos/_PK5PJ-utBw
6. Photo by Amanda Vick on Unsplash: https://unsplash.com/photos/pPV-kqfs5wA