History of the Profession
The profession of social media influencer marketing has a richer history in the modern era since the 1930s and has evolved over generations. Before the power and influence of social media, Josiah Wedgwood, a British potter, in the year 1765, was the first person in history who hit the road of influencer marketing through his cream-coloured artwork which got Queen Charlotte’s approval. His influential artwork earned him the official title of “Her Majesty’s Potter” which promoted his artwork’s status as “Queensware”. The royal endorsement leveraged Wedgwood’s status and catalyzed the world’s first luxury brand through the concept of luxury marketing as the Queen was the ultimate influencer at that time (Burns, 2021). Thus, the royal stamp of Queen Charlotte created a historical reference to influencer marketing and earned Wedgwood the “Father of Modern Marketing” title.
Influence of Technology on the Profession of Influencer Marketing
Social media influencer marketing is a tool that has transformed promotional approaches and marketing of businesses and is proven successful in terms of business growth. This has been possible due to ever-changing technological advancements in the media industry. Businesses now can target a huge pool of audience and fan community over the internet 24/7 through engaging content without any investment and supervision. In today’s era of modern advancements, Artificial Intelligence has set the strokes high as businesses can now view information through the application of AI technology and Machine Learning about a particular influencer. Moreover, technical upgrades on social media platforms or applications have enabled brands as well as common people to showcase their talents and potential in the digital world which gains immense attention and attraction and would help them grow their internet traffic.
Impacts of Changing Cultural Influences
The world of the Internet shapes the culture of its users. Social media users are largely influenced by how certain behaviors and beliefs can alter the relationships, educational preferences, shopping patterns, lifestyles, and basic health of the people. In social media, there are no specific boundaries of culture, hence, the profession is profoundly borderless where people devise and design creative and distinctive content of their choice with no fear of restrictions except for taking great care of the rights of the Internet community. Thus, influencing culture for the social media industry can be a real force for good.
Impacts of Changing Gender Perceptions
Gender stereotypes and ideologies are powerful in the industry of social media as gender ideologies affect one’s personal behavior, interests, preferences, perceptions, social behavior, and self-perceived competencies in an effective manner. These stereotypes prescribed how men and women are like and how they should behave in a certain manner. In today’s modern world of equality and balanced perception, women as compared to men are largely dominating the influencer world on almost every social media platform. It is often viewed in the digital community that the brands endorsed by women lead to more engagement and internet traffic than the content sponsored by men. Women as compared to men have more para-social interaction than male members of society which in turn positively and efficiently affect posts’ engagement and brand attitude (Hudders and De Jans, 2022). It is believed that the gender portrayal done by social media in its content, advertisements, and blog posts can have a great influence on gender perception in a certain society.
Future of the Evolution of Social Media Influencer Marketing Profession
Since the inception of social media platforms, there has been a lot of talk about being raw and transparent in the field and industry of social media influencer marketing. With the ever-changing social landscape and technological advancements, it is unclear what the future of influencer marketing holds as the new and smartest brands largely expand on their influencer marketing efforts as they know it is the time to shift and engage with the wider community of brand partners. This can only be achieved through relatability and authenticity with the audiences and the partners as well as the strong, reliable, and authentic community will lead to improved influencer marketing, increased awareness, brand loyalty, better products, and overall success. Authenticity and relatability are the heart of a successful influencer marketing campaign which can be achieved by working with those who hold the power to influence such as brand partners, audience, community, and passionate fans of the brand. Brands need to understand this fact if they want to thrive in the world of business that brands no longer can influence and control their story, like, and reputation. It’s the community that does so.
References
Burns, K. S. (2021). The history of social media influencers. Research perspectives on social media influencers and brand communication, 1-22.
Hudders, L., & De Jans, S. (2022). Gender effects in influencer marketing: an experimental study on the efficacy of endorsements by same-vs. other-gender social media influencers on Instagram. International Journal of Advertising, 41(1), 128-149.
Cite This Work
To export a reference to this article please select a referencing stye below:
