In the article “Finding Goldilocks Influencers: How Follower Count Drives Social Media Engagement,” Wies et al. aim to assess whether the follower count, or indegree of influences, plays a critical role in choosing them for marketing campaigns by advertisers. In the present day, Instagram has already transformed into a market worth $13 billion as consumers focus on influencer advertising rather than traditional one (Wies et al.). Social media influencers create content generating social media engagement – as a result, they may have thousands or even millions of followers. Interacting with them through comments and likes that indicate highly relevant performance, influencers become attractive to advertisers. At the same time, in order to avoid mistakes, marketers want to perceive the mechanisms of how engagement works and which influencers may be regarded as more efficient at turning budgets into profit (Wies et al.). The authors examine follower count as the main criterion that should determine the attractiveness of advertised products for a substantial number of social network users.
On the one hand, advertisers aim to reach as many potential customers as possible, and in this case, an influencer’s follower count should create the rationale for a marketing campaign’s assignment. On the other hand, advertisers want to ensure that followers are aware of an influencer’s content – therefore, the leverage of an influencer’s reach and his ability and desire to interact with the audience should be considered as well. Moreover, social network users traditionally trust influencers who connect and communicate with them. However, influencers with millions of followers frequently do not have interest or sufficient resources to support long-lasting and meaningful interactions with followers – thus, they cannot create significant engagement and attract potential customers. At the same time, influencers with a small audience may have quality connections with people. However, they cannot contribute to advertisers’ financial return. Thus, the relationship between engagement and follower count is U-shaped, and influencers with medium-sized indegree may demonstrate both the ability to generate a customer base on the basis of their followers and high engagement.
In addition, the authors identify two additional criteria that determine the success of an advertising campaign, including content customization and brand familiarity. According to them, “higher content customization and lower familiarity of the sponsored brand signal that influencers value their relationships with followers and thereby flatten the inverted U-shaped relationship” (Wies et al.). In this case, on the basis of the findings, it was found out that well-known brands should choose influencers with a middle-sized audience to ensure the most positive outcomes. At the same time, in order to raise engagement, these brands should ask influencers with a large audience to create unique content in relation to advertisement and present products in a way different from the brand’s official one. Moreover, the partnership between lesser-known brands and large-degree influencers may provide mutual benefits.
In general, the article of Wies et al. successfully addresses the main tendency that exist in the modern influencer advertisement market. According to Jarrar et al., “endorsement has always been a formidable marketing tool used to sway public opinion; politicians make use of celebrities in political agenda-setting and advertisers use them to promote goods and services” (40). Perceiving famous people as role models, people tend to trust their words, preferences, and choices. In the case of influencer marketing, people buy products and services mentioned by well-known social network users trusting their opinions, especially when there is a high level of engagement that implies mutual trust and respect (Jarrar et al. 40). In this case, advertisers frequently spend a substantial amount of money knowing that profits from sponsored posts made by appropriate influencers will cover expenditures.
The principles of brand awareness and content customization may be regarded as actual as well. Indeed, when an influencer with a large audience makes a sponsored post without trying to customize a company’s official advertising, it does not attract users. On the contrary, it may lead to highly negative results as people will not believe that an influencer has ever tried a product. Thus, it is essential to partner with influencers on the basis of mutual agreement related to the necessity to create customized advertising.
At the same time, the article written by Wies et al. does not emphasize the characteristics of advertisers, however, it is for small and medium brands, the choice of influencers may be critical. In turn, well-known companies with sufficient advertising budgets allow themselves to cooperate with multiple influencers regardless of their follower counts to use all strategies of attraction. However, smaller brands should choose the right algorithm for influencer promotion to succeed. In this case, marketing is combined with the analysis of the target audience and communication with influencers to reach a balance of affordability and profit. All in all, it is possible to state that the article “Finding Goldilocks Influencers: How Follower Count Drives Social Media Engagement” addresses and thoroughly describes the current trends of social network marketing and the main criteria that should be considered by advertisers when choosing influencers for partnership.
Works Cited
Jarrar, Yosra, et al. “Effectiveness of Influencer Marketing vs Social Media Sponsored Advertising.” Utopía y Praxis Latinoamericana: Revista Internacional de Filosofía Iberoamericana y Teoría Social, vol. 12, 2020, pp. 40-54.
Wies, Simone, et al. “Finding Goldilocks Influencers: How Follower Count Drives Social Media Engagement.” Journal of Marketing, 2022, 00222429221125131.