An influencer is a person who, through his or her influence (perceived or real), knowledge, social position, or connections, can influence the decision-making of others, especially regarding consumption habits or certain shopping decisions. Today’s influencers are opinion leaders in digital and social media, often well-known TV personalities, celebrities, journalists, analysts, and professional leaders. Typical influencers are also YouTubers, bloggers, vloggers, or other online content publishers who have a significant number of followers on digital media platforms. Their followers often behave and act like fans.
The growing complexity of the influencer phenomenon is reflected in attempts to create influencer typologies. These tend to distinguish between different types of influencers with different marketing potential, based on audience reach and follower engagement. In terms of the number of followers, a distinction can be made between so-called mega-influencers with a following of millions; macro-influencers (more than 10,000 and less than 1 million followers) who are emerging in online media; micro-influencers (up to 10,000 followers) who are locally known or linked to a specific topic; and nano-influencers (from 1,000 to 5,000 followers) who focus on specific niche topics.
Cooperation between different companies and brands and relevant influencers forms the basis of widespread contemporary influencer marketing, which uses the visibility and influence of a third party, specifically a celebrity, to raise awareness of a product or service, and shape consumer attitudes and support sales, in exchange for appropriate compensation. Examples of common influencer marketing tools include product launch videos, product placement with photos or videos, and collaboration or cross-promotion between several influencers.
Influencer marketing often also works as viral marketing, as the tweets, posts, or blog and video blog entries of online celebrities go viral (via sharing, commenting etc.) on social networks. This approach to shaping and influencing opinions is also known as word of mouth (WOM), or in its electronic version as e-word of mouth. In its original, non-marketing context, the term refers to the transfer of information from person to person in a social context. It is based on the now-proven fact that we tend to listen to the opinions of our acquaintances rather than, for example, advertising.
