Influencer Marketing: Psychology and Social Proximity

Social media is one platform effective for direct online marketing. Brands utilise influencers to target a specific niche. Influencers can tap humanity’s innate desires for social belonging and conformity. 

The human brain is more equipped to accept and believe influencer marketing due to its goal authenticity. Also, it is more authoritative and attractive to its followers. People who follow a certain influencer tend to copy and believe what their idle person recommends or use. Hence, influencer marketing kills the trend of hiring extremely expensive celebrities for a mere ad. 

Social media fills the need of humans for connection. Hile influencers extend these aspects to its followers; advertisers take advantage of this factor to effectively market their brand or product. 

Influencer Marketing

On a global scale, 3 billion people are already on social media. Such online population sparked advertisers to invest in tapping macro, micro, nano, and other kinds of influencers to gain visibility and generate leads. Thus, influencer marketing is now a multi-billion dollar industry and still growing dramatically every year, with new themes and schemes. 

Teenagers are the age group that religiously follow their idols and genuinely believe and trust influencers in contrast to celebrity ads. Nonetheless, psychology may not be 100% applicable, but, the in-depth understanding of how and why influencers touch the human brain’s inner functions is a fascinating fact.  It helped many marketers who opt for influencer marketing’s psychology helped them decipher biases, tendencies, and the proximity of influence an influencer can deliver. 

Influencer’s Authority and Expertise

Humans have been programmed long before the birth of the internet to accept advice from an authoritative person. As was mentioned, influencers gained authority amongst its followers due to its genuine disclosure of oneself online. Influencers tend to project their strengths, weaknesses, struggles, and innate desires online. Such factors capture those who can relate, understand, and see the authenticity of the influencer’s content. 

Moreover, influencers also act as an informational source of a certain industry, lifestyle, fashion, and what-have-yous. For that matter, it is one main reason why they are effective partners in digital marketing. S simple statement about how good or bad the product creates a ripple to all his/her avid followers will also directly affect the brand. 

The Cognitive Process

The digital world is filled with information easily accessible to people. The countless contents talking about almost the same topic may leave internet users quite overwhelmed as to what and who to believe. However, it is our nature to only give attention to things that capture and spark our interest. On the other hand, influencers play a significant role in giving judgment and personal opinion towards a certain topic or brand. Hence, followers tend to listen and believe the influencer when he/she disclose her/his own take on the brand or topic. In other words, influencers help followers filter information before making a concrete and objective decision. 

Influencer Marketing Social Proximity

The social proximity of an influencer exhibits his/her level of approachability by strategically positioning his/herself amongst its target followers. The context of its online posts perceives a relationship; a personal relationship to each of his/her followers. 

Influencers basically are normal people leading normal lives but have the talent and ideas that alter the face of corporate marketing. People tend to believe more on local influencers than the corporate projection of celebrity ads. Influencers with experience and high-level expertise in the field do the most effective direct digital marketing. 

The Cultural Conformity and Social Proof of Influencer Community

If many people re liking, commenting and sharing certain content, it clearly projects social conformity. Influencers fill the need of people for belongingness and connection. Once a person sees another conforming to what heshe believes in, it extends far more than just liking the post. It will then, eventually, lead to sales and visibility. 

Being an influencer is like being an entrepreneur: your product is, of course, one’s thy self. If you market yourself apart from what other influencers do, then you might have a shot at it. Being an influencer is also being like a marketing expert. You need to look at what your target niche need, want, and innately desire and tap it. 

Influencer marketing is a new digital marketing culture that is drastically gaining attention and influence towards the world of business. With the use of psychology and the right influencer to promote the product, it is likely for your brand to gain visibility, credibility, followers, and sales.