One of the key metrics when it comes to the influencer marketing industry is the size of the audience. At the same time, the fight for followers has driven the influencer marketing industry into a position where that is the only thing that matters to both brands and influencers.
On the other hand, there are influencers who focus on building a community centered around promoting and showing expertise in the respective fields or simply showing charisma and empathy towards the audience. On that same side, there are community-driven influencers along the likes of PewDiePie, that are focused on giving back to the community and building an audience based on the influencer’s empathy towards the community.
These days, with everyone struggling during the global pandemic, there has been an increase in the use of social media with all demographics. The sudden increase of social media use is also the reason why the influencer marketing industry has seen a skyrocket in popularity.
Influencer content
Furthermore, there is also a larger number of influencers that have started creating a lot more engaging content, while at the same time maintaining the followership through providing a constant stream of empathy to the target audience. This type of content is proven to be the most effective and has also demonstrated a large increase in followership for the influencers. Through sharing personal experiences and stories with the community, these influencers are able to empathize with the followers at the same time.
This is what marketers and public relations professionals need to take a closer look at when it comes to choosing the right influencer. It’s also an important perspective to consider when creating a strategy for product promotion and marketing campaigns.
Industry example
One of the influencers that have clearly demonstrated all of these nuances is Unbox Therapy. This influencer’s content is driven on the side of honesty, empathy, and sharing an all-encompassing experience with a product—from unboxing the product, to giving a detailed review of it, as well as the experience using that product. It is one of the best ways of getting an honest review of a product, as well as, looking at the experience from the customer’s point of view.
The Unbox Therapy YouTube channel has nearly 18 million subscribers, however, there are plenty of other content creators and influencers in the same field that are also driven by the same passion as Unbox Therapy, which is a great benefit to brands looking for third-party approval.
The channel’s audience empathizes with Lewis, who is both the person that does the product unboxings and a producer of the show. This is because of the complete transparency and honesty when it comes to sharing the experiences with every product, which ranges from the newest and greatest phones to the smallest gadgets, and even some interesting form of tech-enhanced apparel, to tech-enhanced utensils.
Watching communities
All of this leads to the conclusion that while there is a saturated market in the influencer marketing industry, marketers should be keeping a closer eye under the hood of these influencers’ communities and the nuances that come with it, such as the focus on interactive and engaging content, charisma, empathy and the expertise sharing capabilities.
