Social media and influencer marketing: the winning combination for brands

Social media now boasts billions of users worldwide (Facebook alone has over 1.7 billion daily active users globally). That's a vast pool of potential influencers! A tremendous creative resource that brands can tap into to create and distribute influencer campaigns. While influencer marketing can certainly be done on blogs and other media, social media remains the natural domain of influencer marketing. Our influencer agency sees this firsthand every day! 

The origins of influencer marketing

To understand why social networks are the most fertile ground for influencer marketing, we must start by going back to the history of influencer marketing itself. 

When we delve into the history of the discipline, we discover that this type of marketing has always relied on this immutable principle: consumers tend to follow the recommendations of people they know. 

In their work aimed at understanding how public opinion is formed, Elihu Katz and Paul Lazarsfeld were the first to highlight this phenomenon. In * Personal Influence*, their seminal work published in 1955, the two American sociologists demonstrated the influence of the media in both presidential elections and marketing. 

Dubbed the two-step flow of, this view also explains that influence marketing occurs in two stages. The message is first delivered by a media outlet (television or a newspaper, for example) to an opinion leader (what we now call an influencer<influentials ). Then, this opinion leader shares their choice with people in their network.

And that's how it's possible to create a virtuous cycle of communication using mass media! As you've probably guessed, it's exactly the same principle we see with the use of social media and their communities (even more so than on blogs). This is why they have largely contributed to the rapid evolution of influencer marketing and are now considered its preferred channel of expression.

Social media + influencer marketing = endless opportunities for brands

More than three-quarters of the French population connect to their smartphones every day to do their shopping, find out about a product, book their holidays, pay for parking, etc. This is what we call the digitalization of daily life!

Therefore, and considering what we have just explained, combining social media and influencer marketing appears to be an inexhaustible source of opportunities for brands. Hence the benefit for them of focusing their marketing strategy on both elements and not solely on one or the other.

Of course, it's possible to do influencer marketing using traditional media (like TV or print). But numerous studies prove that consumers are more easily influenced on social media than on any other medium.

The rise of globalization and the dominance of participatory platforms are undoubtedly contributing factors. Furthermore, social networks offer the significant advantage of enabling the development of niche markets. This, in turn, streamlines advertising investments by reducing energy waste (the phenomenon of entropy).

The rise of influencer marketing through social media

If you're venturing into influencer marketing, social media is essential for achieving results in terms of visibility and brand awareness. These tools also allow you to stand out from the competition and build lasting relationships of trust with your prospects and customers.

Rather than going it alone, creating partnerships with influencers is also essential to boost your business and improve your online presence. Thanks to an influencer agency like So Bang, brands can more easily forge collaborations with thetop influencers , and above all, minimize the risks of their marketing campaigns (poorly designed campaigns, fake influencers, untargeted messaging, etc.).

In terms of content, social media platforms are also particularly well-suited to creating influencer campaigns. For example, did you know that over 60% of consumers prefer video content to get a clear idea of ​​what you offer? And that's where YouTube and its millions of subscribers come in. But let's not forget TikTok, Twitch, Snapchat, and many other platforms.

In general, using social media to implement an influencer marketing strategy helps address most of the challenges brands face online. These tools greatly facilitate message dissemination and brand awareness development.

How to harness the power of social media?

Whatever the nature of your professional activity on the web (fashion, luxury, general public, health, etc.), you can launch your influencer marketing campaign by taking advantage of the many benefits offered by social networks.

However, depending on your objectives and target audience, you will need to choose the one(s) that best suit your needs. Depending on its specific features (such as the functionalities offered), each network will have a different impact on internet users and therefore on the performance of your influencer campaigns.

Do you want to increase your brand visibility? Develop your credibility or brand awareness? Engage your consumers more? Grow your audience or conquer new marketing territories? To find the marketing strategy best suited to your brand and ensure the success of your influencer campaigns, the best option is to use an influencer agency or a social media agency (or an agency like So Bang that does both 😉). It's indeed the best way to quickly achieve your objectives, better manage your digital presence, and connect with talented and experienced influencers.