The last decade led to the exponential growth of social media use. Since more and more people were signing up to these platforms, another industry was born: influencer marketing.
This involved advertisers connecting with highly influential people who pushed their products on their respective timelines.
Influencer marketing can be a dicey issue, especially since it is based on trust. According to the NENDO 2020 Digital Trend Report, they show the state of influencer marketing in Kenya.
They quoted a report by the Odipo Dev team where they found out that 82% of Kenyans think influencer marketing doesn’t influence their purchases. The challenges for Kenyan brands was down to achieving trust, enforcing disclosures and providing value to the target demographic.
However, Nendo still predicts that in 2020, despite the challenges of disclosure and perception of value, influencer marketing will grow.
Expert insights in the report also point to the fact that in 2020, micro-influencers will outrank major influencers. A report by the Influencer Marketing Hub found out that nano-influencers with fewer than 1000 followers enjoy a 7.2% engagement rate on Instagram and 1.4% on Twitter. Compare that with influencers with over 100,000 followers who enjoy a 1.1% and 0.3% engagement rate on Instagram and Twitter respectively.
Nendo has a “3 point framework” for helping influencers increase their value on digital
- Brands must be able and willing to perform an objective selection and shortlisting of creators and influencers
- Compelling briefs should be created that are guided by clear terms of engagements
- Brands should hold influencers accountable for disclosure to their audience, where brands should demand that influencers independently enforce it.
In countries like the UK, influencers are bound to reveal that they have been paid, given or loaned things by advertisers. They claim if you mislead your followers, you may be breaking consumer protection law and could face action by several government agencies.
Over the past year, we have seen influencers on Twitter and Instagram being upfront with their sponsorship deals. A good example is the White Cap campaign where influencers outrightly claim that their posts are paid ads. This should be the way forward and has the potential to improve on trust and make Kenyans more trusting of influencers.
