The major social platforms hit the ground running in 2021, making substantial investments into many of today’s top social trends: audio, influencers, and short video, to name a few.

More than three-quarters of kids said they "trust YouTubers over commercials on recommendations on what to buy," according to a March 2019 study from Insight Strategy Group. One caveat is that younger kids might not be able to differentiate vlogger authenticity from paid promotions. Still, influencers are an effective push to purchase among younger consumers.

“If the host is someone the audience really trusts and is the authority, and the [host-read ad] reads are very authentic and genuine, then the ads tend to do really well,” Jansen said. D2C cleaning products company Dropps also leverages podcasts for the influencer power they provide. “Listeners are really engaged in podcasts and trust the host,” said Sydney Waldron, director of marketing at Dropps.

Influencers are conspicuously uninfluential, too. In Oracle’s polling, 96% of boomers (along with 90% of Xers and 79% of millennials) agreed that they “distrust influencers and bloggers.” Meanwhile, ThinkNow’s April 2019 survey found a mere 9% of 55- to 64-year-olds (vs. about four in 10 millennials) saying they heed what social media influencers recommend.

Almost two-thirds (64%) of internet users in Canada, the UK and US to SurveyMonkey’s “Global Consumer Trust Data” poll said people they know influenced a big purchase, compared with just 13% for influencers and 10% for celebrities. Identifying the right influencers for brands remains a challenge.

“If an influencer is showing off a product that they like, particularly for the kid audience, the line is blurred when it comes to whether they’re legitimately interested in this thing vs. whether they’re selling it and they’re being paid for it,” Preston said.

“They’ve come to trust them and see that they’re accurate and easy to access.”. While reviews are important, Xers who buy things recommended by online influencers are more the exception than the rule.

This report focuses on legacy and digital media content publishers, but it’s worth noting that influencers are also active publishers in affiliate networks and account for some of the channel’s recent growth. “We see pretty significant revenues coming in from social media channels. Influencers are a large and growing part of that.

User-generated short videos are all over the internet, from TikTok to Instagram Reels to Triller, and the marketing opportunities are exploding. Here’s how the main venues compare across usage, paid advertising, organic and influencer marketing, and commerce.

Social media stories are growing in importance for consumers and marketers. Here’s how businesses can make the most of stories for organic marketing, influencer marketing and paid advertising.

When in doubt, trust the experts. They can be in-house or external, so long as they are fluent in internet culture. Memes can quickly become outdated or have hidden meanings that many brands may not understand. Insider Intelligence and eMarketer research is based on the idea that multiple sources and a variety of perspectives lead to better analysis.

In the new media value chain, influencers are efficient at aggregating these audiences. The most effective influencers—which can mean any trusted personality or celebrity—use authenticity to create brand affinity.

Facebook announced in February that political candidates using paid partnerships with influencers will have to register as political advertisers, and influencers must disclose that relationship in their posts. Influencer posts will not be added to the Ad Library.

Trust is also a big part of that, according to Mullen of DailyPay. “If the CMO doesn’t have the trust and support of the CEO, it is disastrous.”. Across. As an extension of the CEO relationship, managing the ties across the C-suite should be a priority for CMOs.

Amex Canada has relied on influencers to generate buzz around their product launches via social media. Instagram and YouTube are key channels for the company’s focus on video content with influencers like Olympian Adam van Koeverden and Marcus Stroman of the Toronto Blue Jays.

Leveraging KOLs to Market Products. Influencers are an integral part of the social commerce system, and especially younger digital buyers take cues for how to apply makeup or match their clothes. In China, influencers are commonly referred to as “key opinion leaders” (KOLs). Yet, there is a big difference between the two identifiers.

Will Consumers Buy from Instagram Influencers? Instagram announced it will start allowing influencers to tag and sell products in their shopping posts. The move will bring influencers even closer to the purchase process, a trend we discussed in our "Global Influencer Marketing 2019" report earlier this year.

Influencers. Influencers have quickly become an essential component of the social commerce toolkit. Two-thirds of retailers in North America have used or planned to use influencers as part of their marketing efforts, with a nearly equal split between use of brand advocates, microinfluencers and celebrity influencers, according to a November 2018 Retail TouchPoints poll.

In May 2018 polling by Rad Campaign and Lincoln Park Strategies, 56% of 18-to-35s voiced very little or no trust “that social networks will protect their data and information.” Despite their reputation in younger days for carelessness about digital privacy, millennials were just slightly less likely than older respondents to express that view.