What is an influencer?

With the growth of blogs and social networks, some people managed to become known, to be liked by internet users, and to build a community. Those people are called influencers. A closer look at the influencers who set the weather on the web.

Influencer: definition and synonym

Even if the word only entered the French dictionaries Larousse and Robert in 2017 (at the same time as googleliser, retweeter, gamer, or disruptif), it is now widely used. A few years ago, we would have said opinion leader. That term is a little dated today, but it is still a fair synonym for influencer. The boom of social networks and blogs in the 2000s brought this new kind of person into view. An influencer is someone who, through their exposure on the internet, has an influence on the people who follow them and on their buying decisions. The word is recent. The phenomenon is not. Every star who has appeared in an advertising campaign is also an influencer. To be precise, it was Paul Lazarsfeld, an American sociologist, who developed the concept of the influencer in 1940. During a presidential campaign, he followed a group of 600 voters. The study showed that a vote is not necessarily an individual choice. Friends, family, and the rest of the circle around the people he followed weighed on their decision for that election. The “opinion leaders” were the people who played that intermediary role. The conclusion of the study is that communication does not always go from point A to point B. It happens in several stages and passes through relays. Influencers are those relays, those intermediaries between a product or a brand and their community. They are today’s “opinion leaders.”

Who are influencers?

Influencers are the stars of the web and of social networks. They can be YouTubers, bloggers, or Instagrammers, and they are usually specialized in a field (for example: gaming influencers / beauty influencers / sports influencers / men’s fashion influencers / travel influencers).

Most of the time, they share their passion with internet users through posts or videos. Their goal? To keep gaining more followers, grow their community, and generate income. These people, ordinary at the start, managed to make a place for themselves on the web and win people over. To do that, they built their e-reputation so the wider public would want what they have. All of their activity is heavily liked, commented on, and shared. Those traits are common to every influencer, but there are still different types of influencers.

The different types and categories of influencers

Famous people

Actors, singers, and athletes have always been hired by brands to become their ambassadors. Even if it is not their first job, creating partnerships with brands turns celebrities into influencers. More and more public figures promote brands on their personal accounts.

Web superstars

This type of influencer became known on the web. With a tweet, a post, or a video, they can generate a lot of visibility and traffic. With that influence, web superstars have their partnership requests handled by specialized agencies. On top of receiving many products from brands, these influencers are paid according to their notoriety. For the biggest web stars, a brand partnership can pay very well.

Satisfied customers

Some influencers can promote a product without asking for payment. Some brands are lucky enough to be liked by people who already have a community. Those influencers are simply satisfied customers who want to share their opinion. The reverse can also happen. Influencers can become dissatisfied customers and want to say so. That kind of bad buzz can damage a brand’s e-reputation and have serious consequences for the company.

Specialized influencers

Specialized influencers run accounts or blogs in niche sectors. They are more legitimate on their subject than generalist influencers. They attract an audience that is genuinely interested in the topic, which can be useful for brands. Even if they often have fewer followers than generalists, they bring together a community close to their interests. When they advertise a product related to their sector, they give brands targeted visibility.

Micro-influencers

This last category groups people with a small community. Micro-influencers are often valued for how close they are to their audience. They are more accessible to their subscribers, and to brands. Creating a partnership with a micro-influencer is therefore easier and less expensive.

Influencers and brands

The brand/influencer partnership benefits both sides. Brands get the visibility of influencers. Influencers get the brand’s products for free and are paid to advertise. From the outside the collaboration looks simple. For a company, finding the right person to sell its product is not always easy.

How do you choose the right influencer?

If a company wants to grow its communication through influencer marketing, it has to find an influencer to promote it. First step: find someone whose fee fits the budget. Each influencer is free to set their own rate. Price differences from one influencer to another come down to notoriety. The more followers they have, the more visible they are, the higher they set their prices. Second step: find someone who agrees to promote the product. Money is not the only criterion that tips the scale. An influencer can refuse a partnership request if the product does not match their topic, their values, or their taste. For brands, it matters to find someone who actually likes the product. They will not pretend, and they will share their real impressions with their followers. Brands also have to remember that influencers are content creators and that they have the right to share the message in their own way. Some companies tend to forget that with this kind of partnership, they are only buying a spot on a personal account. They do not have the freedom to judge and rewrite the style, the speech, the setting, or the outfit of their ambassador. To make the job easier, several specialized agencies and online tools have appeared so brands can find the ideal influencer. Brands can also manage on their own. By looking for posts where they are tagged, they may land on their future ambassador. To identify a potential influencer, Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram are the right places.

Fake influencers

Because notoriety on the internet can pay well, and because it is hard to earn, some people try to game the system. Some accounts have thousands of subscribers and no community. How is that possible? Through click farms. Today it is very easy to buy views, likes, comments, or followers. That is how fake influencers are born. Instagram, Facebook, and “real” influencers are trying to fight a phenomenon that is growing. Fake influencers can easily fool a brand by posing as someone who reaches a large audience. Behind the subscribers of those fake influencers, there are no fans and therefore no potential buyers. The return on investment of a brand that invests in a campaign with a fake influencer is zero.

The impact of influencers

When there is a real community behind an influencer’s accounts, there is a real opportunity for brands. The goal of influencers is to build a kind of trust between internet users and themselves. If a user agrees with an influencer’s point of view, recognizes themselves in them, feels close to them, and finds many things in common, they will trust them. An influencer’s subscribers therefore belong to their circle of trust. With that trust, people believe the influencer when they say to buy this or that product. This is called the “Best Friend Effect.” A friend who tells you a product is great is more persuasive than a company praising its own product in an ad.

How much do YouTube / Instagram / Snapchat influencers earn?

This is a question that comes up often about influencers: the one about salary! How much does an influencer actually earn?

Between reality (often between 1,800 and 3,000 euros for a regular influencer, excluding benefits in kind, depending on their status, costs, and sector) and the fantasized figure (several thousand euros), the truth is often hard to pin down. The YouTuber community was shaken when BFM announced the salaries of Cyprien and Norman, stars of Google’s video network and French influencers. According to BFM’s site, YouTuber Norman would have earned nearly 400,000 euros a year and taken in 1.5 million euros in profit over five years. As for YouTuber Cyprien, he would earn 800,000 euros a year and would have made 1.5 million in profit over five years (figures reported in 2019). Still according to the rolling news site, “These profits take into account each YouTuber’s different activities, from advertising generated on YouTube to their product placements. The income would not include the 2015 sale of Talent Web to Webedia, of which both were shareholders. Cyprien would have received between 6.6 and 11.8 million euros, Norman between 2.2 and 4 million.” Be careful, though: these two influencers are not running things alone, and specialized agents look after their interests and their careers. In influencer marketing, many parameters change what influencers earn:

• the size of the communities, and how engaged those communities are,

• the social networks used,

• the number of partnerships,

• whether or not an agent manages contracts for the influencers,

• the sponsor brands (large groups or small SMEs),

• the topics covered. All of these parameters define pay that can range from a few hundred euros and simple perks (for example, free products) up to a few thousand, or hundreds of thousands of euros.

The Instagram case: what is an Instagram influencer?

With more than 1 billion monthly active users worldwide, Instagram is one of the social networks that has grown the fastest in recent years. It is the second social network in France by number of users, just behind its owner, Facebook. A photo-publishing tool turned into a powerful social network, it is the new Eldorado for already established influencers (YouTubers, for example) and for emerging ones.

How do you become / stay an Instagram influencer?

There is no magic recipe for becoming an influencer (and staying one) on Instagram. Becoming an Instagram influencer already assumes you have an engaged community, built and ready to relay the content shared on Instagram. Building a community takes time, and the people who started first have an advantage. Influencers who already have an active community on older networks such as Facebook, Twitter, Snapchat, YouTube, or even LinkedIn can clearly be a step ahead.

If you are starting from zero on Instagram, building your community can take several months (maybe several years). From the start, take care of the look of your account (you are on a “photographic” network, do not forget that), choose a topic you know well and where you can show expertise (cooking / pastry / yoga / fitness / beauty / travel), pick the right hashtags (the most popular ones for your topic; a suggestion tool is built into the app), and publish engaging content regularly. Also vary the formats: regular Stories are very popular, as are Lives.

Watch what influencers in your specialty publish: analyze the behavior and content of influencers on Instagram and what they share. What is their style, which posts get the most love, should you show your face? A benchmark of your competitors’ good practices is also needed if you want to become an influencer on Instagram. And set yourself goals, as you would in any decent digital strategy.

Among the questions that can help, you can ask:

• Have I chosen the right topic on Instagram (strength of the competition)?

• Do I have a coherent editorial line?

• Am I more creative / original than the competition?

• How much time can I give Instagram (regular publishing is essential if you want to be a good Insta influencer)?

• Can I take good photos / captivating videos?

• Am I ready to give up a bit of my private life?

• Which # are the right ones to use, and how competitive are they?

• Am I willing to talk with my community? Even when there is conflict?

• Which partnerships can I accept?

• Am I active enough outside Instagram to get people talking about me?

• As a French or French-speaking influencer, should I write my posts in English to reach a wider community?