How Marketers Can Profit from the Rise of Handheld Influencers & Online Endorsements

Companies traditionally partnered with household names, such as famous actors or athletes, to endorse and promote their brands on television, radio and in appearances. While household names remain in demand, companies are increasingly turning to “handheld names” rather than conventional influencers of the past. Consumers engage with those influencers online with smartphone (and sometimes on a desktop) instead of on a television commercial or cereal box.

“Since @Wheaties started putting athletes’ faces on cereal boxes, advertisers have known the power of influencers,” states Katherine Karp, senior agency research analyst, in a Twitter blog post. “But with social and mobile media changing the way we interact with each other — and celebrities and brands — the modern endorsement has evolved.”

“People are looking at their phones, they’re reading what influencers say and then they’re telling their friends,” Jeffrey Graham, Twitter vice president of market research and insights, told Adweek.

The Power of Influencers

A new study by Twitter asserts that influencers rival friends in building consumer trust. According to Karp, the study reveals that:

• 49% of respondents said they relied on influencers for product recommendations, compared to 56% who said they rely on friends.
• 20% said a Tweet from an influencer inspired them to share a product recommendation.
• People exposed to brand Tweets had a 2.7x lift in purchase intent over participants who didn’t see an advertiser Tweet. Campaigns with both brand and influencer tweets had a 5.2x increase in purchase intent.
• One third of millennials (ages 13 to 24) report following Vine creators on Twitter.
• More than half of Twitter users follow actors and musicians.
• 40% of respondents say they followed brands on Twitter. Of those, 60% said that they follow brands to learn about products.

The two stage study, done with Annalect, included a survey of 300 Twitter users and an online lab experiment involving over 500 users who were exposed to traditional digital ad formats and promoted and influencer tweets. Clearly, the survey results benefit Twitter’s business interests.

Influencer Marketing Recommendations

Twitter offers these recommendations to boost influencer marketing campaigns.

• Allow influencers to create content for your brand. Content created by influences has higher engagement rates.

• Consider a platform that connects brands to credible influencers who can create engaging content. (In an obvious self-promotion, Twitter recommends @JoinNiche which it has acquired.)

• Pair both brand and influencer Tweets for maximize impact. Engage as a brand on the same level as your influencer, and invite others to join in.

• Consider audience ages. People ages 45 and up tend to follow a wider range of influencers and show a preference for household names. Millennials are more interested in “handheld names” — Twitter and Vine creators. Participants ages 13 to 24 are twice as likely to evaluate an influencer by their social presence and follower count than older audiences.

In an example of a successful influencer marketing campaign, JCPenney partnered with influencer Jessica Harlow (@JessicaHarlow) in its “Get Your Penney’s Worth” campaign. Together, they staged a giveaway on Periscope where Harlow dropped a penny down a pegboard and awarded members of her virtual audience JCPenney gift cards.

Twitter Is not the Only Show in Town

Of course, Twitter is not the only channel for influencer marketing. Brands are also using other channels for influencer marketing, such as SnapChat, YouTube and Instagram. Instagram can be a particularly effective avenue. Since its founding in 2010, it has massed over 400 million engaged users, and it is especially popular among people in their teens and 20s.

“In the wake of Instagram’s growing user base and the rise of celebrity-like Instagrammers,” states Mediakix, “many of the world’s top companies like Levi’s, McDonald’s, Maybelline, and Mercedes-Benz, as well as a host of innovative startup brands like NatureBox and Blue Apron are proliferating on the platform, experiencing some of the best ROIs across all existing advertising options, and compounding the organic growth of their brand channels by partnering with strategically selected Instagram influencers.”

The most successful influencer promotions are platform specific. The most effective program designs match the strengths and culture of the specific platform. An influencer program on Twitter must differ from one on YouTube, Instagram, Snapchat or Pinterest.

Bottom Line: A new generation of “handheld” influencers is at least partially replacing household names that commonly promoted brands in the past. They can be a powerful tool for developing consumer trust and boosting sales. However, success requires working closely with credible influencers who align with your brand and its audience.