The importance of enagagement and trustworthiness in Influencer Marketing
The engagement rate of influencers refers to the level of interaction an influencer typically receives on their content. This ca be in the form of likes, comments, shares or views.
This is important to brands as it determines which influencer they should work with in order to get the most brand awareness across their target. Looking at an influencers engagement rate will also help a brand to determine their return of investment (ROI). This will show how much the audience is engaged and listening to the recommendations that influencers are making.
This engagement may come as a result of followers feeling that they can trust what the influencers are saying. This is reliant on whether or not the products that influencers are promoting are a good fit with their usual posts.
An influencer who I feel has got this right is Mrs Hinch.
Sophie Hinchliffe from Essex joined Instagram in March of 2018, and in just a year she had gained 2.5 million followers on the app. Since then she has published a best-selling book called 'Hinch Yourself Hapy'.
The cleaning influencers reliability and authenticity makes it easy for her audience to identify with her and ultimate trust her recommendations.
So when she posted a new business onto her Instagram stories this week and suggested her followers 'show them some love', it had an outcome that many did not expect. Mrs Hinch, with one post, got the small family-run business from 48 followers, to over 20K followers in just a few hours! This show just how engaged her audience is with her content.
This is not the only time that something Mrs Hinch has promoted has gotten a huge amount of attention. She has had a huge impact on the sales of specific products she has recommended, which has even led to an increased price of products due to their high demand. Zoflora disinfectant and Minky sponge cloths, both made headlines when recommended by Mrs Hinch due to the fact that they had sold out across the country.
The fact that many of her recommendations are suited to her cleaning passion, makes her more reliable and trustworthy, as followers believe that these are truly products that she enjoys. This product- endorser fit is an important aspect in influencer marketing as it makes the suggestions believable, whereas if the product does not fit in with the influencers brand, this can stand out and look to followers that they would promote anything for money, making them look unreliable.
For example, recently influencer Stassie Karanikolaou (Stassiebaby) posted a Youtube video, in which she was promoting a set of silky pyjamas, which clearly looked like they were fresh out of the packaging, and she also struggled to pronounce the name of the brand. Many of her followers realised this and commented on the video. This makes not just the influencer, but the product seem unreliable and untrustworthy. Some influencers would say anything for a sponsored post so how do we now if the product really is good?
This trust and authenticity within influencer marketing is key and is one of the reason some influencers gain more followers than others. Are we likely to follow an influencer if we view them as untrustworthy?
Leave your thoughts below!
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