WHAT IS A BRAND INFLUENCER?

Definition: What Is A Brand Influencer?

A brand influencer is an individual who leverages his/her social media prowess to authentically engage and connect audiences and brands—meaning a social media influencer partners with a brand to create sponsored content. In today’s consumer-driven landscape, it’s increasingly more common for advertisers to tap brand influencers in order to achieve marketing objectives.

In the age of social media, consumers are no longer solely at the mercy of blatant, unnatural, and suspicious advertising. Instead, consumers have taken to social media to build vast networks of peers whose opinions they trust, value, and share. Whereas brands used to dictate what they were in the eyes of consumers, consumers now define brands. As Adstream puts it, “consumers are the ones driving the advertising process.” This colossal shift in power from brands to consumers has led brands to adopt new strategies that harness this resounding word-of-mouth model—influencer marketing.

nfluencer marketing roots advertising in the hands of credible, authentic, and relatable individuals with a powerful social media presence otherwise known as influencers. Since social media influencers succeed where traditional ads fail, brands derive measurable value from working with them. Brand influencers act as extensions of brands, lending their voices and opinions on products, services, or topics to the social sphere. More importantly, brand influencers have established trust with their organically grown social followings. That is to say, brand influencers haven’t bought fake followers or feigned influencer status.