I had never heard of Obagi – a skincare firm – until Priyanka Chopra became its brand ambassador. She uses #skinfluence as one of the hashtags and gets over a million views for her Instagram post. Most of us would agree that PC is an influencer. But what about others? Bloggers, magazines, YouTubers – is everyone an influencer?
I’m part of the jury for the Travel.Earth blogger awards and had the opportunity to read about many bloggers all of whom make valuable contributions to their readers.
My take is that everyone is NOT an influencer and marketers have to declump the category to be effective. We need to consider the eco-system as comprising of Influencers, Curators and Endorsers.
Influencers are those who have followers who will follow their advice. This ranges from the knowledgeable uncle who takes charge of the family investing to the likes of Virat Kohli and Priyanka Chopra. Curators expose their readers to a collection of great experiences. The readers use this as an input to their decisions. And then we have endorsers – individuals who say this product is awesome. Some cut across all three categories but most fall in only one. Strategies for all three are different, and to succeed you have to work on the Message and Reach. Interestingly, Obagi has cultivated endorsers for years and has now targeted A List Influencers. If you’d like to know more about how you can maximise your Influencer results you can read about putting together a good Influencer Framework.
