Social media is no longer one of the marketing channels or a small segment of a brand campaign. It is the focal point between a brand and its audiences. Over the past few years, there has been a spike in Influencer marketing with many brands implementing it into their strategies, and the industry is off to be worth up to $15 billion by 2022. The trend curve for 2021 shows that in the near future, businesses will hire influencers on a continuous basis to increase their demographic and strengthen their reach and brand loyalty. I believe that by then we will begin to see more detailed influencer contracts that protect both the brand and the influencer.

As the pandemic continues to reshape our world, brands must rethink how they’re leveraging social to authentically engage with audiences and deliver unforgettable experiences. Four in five (79%) brands mainly choose Instagram for influencer campaigns. Now is the time that I highly recommend brands to adopt an organic influencer strategy. This will enable you to easily engage and motivate your best advocates to build loyal communities and rich connections of authentic, high-quality content that delivers big ROI.

Organic Influencers are genuine content creators who buy your products and services and create content based on their true perspective. They have 100k – 300k Instagram followers or may have 50k, but the size of their social followings isn’t as important as their passion, and collective influence. Real people lead to real influence. Every social platform attracts influencers to some degree, but Instagram seems yet standing as the gold standard for the group. Long-Term Influencer Relationships Will Become the Norm – Rather Than Contracting on a Campaign by Campaign Basis.

Remember, authenticity is king!

The majority of consumers mention that authenticity is fundamental to decide which brands they like and support. A shift can be seen towards more micro-influencers in the industry and everyday consumers because the issue with mega influencer marketing is that it focuses on the wrong type of influencers. brands are using the (shop now) feature to give a simple and smooth customer experience. And this is proving to be successful with using the feature on Instagram. For that reconsider your existing influencer programs with organic Influencers. Instead of spending most of the marketing budget on a couple of posts from a few people who have a lot of followers (but not much genuine engagement), brands must redirect, engage and motivate the real advocates who already create tons of great influential content about their brands. In order for fo brands to succeed right now in engaging with consumers, they must prioritize social media as the primary communication channel, and reconsider their existing mega influencer affiliations with authentic Influencers. I have started to see this manifest greatly in the E-commerce / retail industry.

Generation Z is the future real consumer!

I have heard a lot mention that TikTok is the next opportunistic platform, but there’s not enough talk about the consumers who will fuel it with content? Brands need to be hyper-focused on their online advertising strategies because they are dealing with a new generation that hasn’t lived a day in the world without the internet.

As I predict 2021 to be the year marketers step-up their game about Gen Z as a real consumer with big purchasing power.

I will give you insight into why you should be more focused on Gen Z and their characteristics:

1. They like to see real people in real situations.
2. They are all about YouTube (Video content) and they spend most of their hours watching it.
3. They like to practice “Showrooming” before making a purchase online, it is their way of disconnecting from the stress of social media and seeing the physical product before ordering it.

Ultimately, the way in which we partner with influencers is evolving, so it’s important to be open-minded and willing to test and learn until you find a strategy that works. With a handful of best practices and a bite of the right data, you’ve got yourself a recipe for success!