Advertiser wants honest influencer

I regularly get questions about the shirt I’m wearing in the photo accompanying this column. People like the color and want to know which brand it is. Alright then, it’s time to tell you my shirt secrets… If you read this on Instagram and I told you what my favorite shirt is, I could make a few hundred dollars. Or a stack of new shirts.

Influencer marketing has become mainstream in recent years. Brave advertisers such as ING, Heineken and Albert Heijn are also investing in it. Worldwide, more than 12.5 billion euros was spent on it in 2021. More than twice as many as in 2019.

How does this market work? And when do we actually allow ourselves to be influenced by an influencer?

Influencers come in all shapes and sizes. Mega-influencers are people with more than a million followers on Instagram, TikTok or YouTube. Category Beyoncé (248 million followers on Instagram) or Virgil van Dijk (11.5 million). Some celebrities charge over a million dollars for mentioning a product in one Instagram post.

A step lower you will find the macro influencer. He has to make do with 100,000 to 1 million followers. They are usually best known for social media. They post photos, videos and texts about fashion, travel, cars, cooking and have loyal followers who watch everything. The meso-influencer (50,000 to 100,000 followers) and the micro-influencer (10,000 to 50,000 ) do the same, but usually focus on a more specific topic with a smaller audience.

And then there’s the nano-influencer: 1,000 to 10,000 followers. Usually these are not full-time professional influencers, but ‘regular’ people who also post family photos and cat videos. Advertisers hire them through Uber-like brokerage platforms. They do this because their opinion, including about products and services, is trusted by their followers.

An influencer’s credibility is essential, says Lubna Nafees, an Indian-American researcher and specialist in the subject. According to her, three factors determine the credibility of an influencer.

1. Expertise: do followers believe that the influencer is knowledgeable?

2. Good intentions: do followers think that the influencer wants the best for them?

3. Reliability: do followers assume the influencer is honest?

The paradox is: the more strongly we attribute these three qualities to an influencer, the more interesting it is for a company to pay him or her for a recommendation. Companies like to invest in lesser-known influencers because they appear more authentic. Ultimately, it’s about paid advertising to resemble honest information as much as possible.

I’m getting a little itchy. But most of the young people I spoke to about this subject shrug their shoulders. Well, those people have to make money too. That’s how this works. And those influencers should clearly state it when they advertise. Great right?

Well, if that’s how it works. The shirt I’m wearing in the photo is a slim fit, easy iron shirt. Rib size 41. The black color suits everyone. It’s from the brand…

Uh, so no. Then no influencers.

Ben Tiggelaar writes weekly about personal leadership, work and management.