It’s a ghastly title being called an Influencer. It strongly resembles being called a bully in the schoolyard. But the title has stuck in the marketing world and you can see it in several industries including accounting.
An Influencer is someone in a specific industry that is knowledgeable about their audience and provides solutions for them through their online social media channels and speaking opportunities.
This can be particularly challenging for individuals that promote peer to peer learning through social media forums like Facebook Groups. With the rapid change of varying technology, folks have turned to social media to gain up to date information to keep pace with the ever-changing climate of app interfaces, functionality and features.
By definition of the Competition Bureau Canada. The answer is likely yes if they have received any of the following.
If an individual has received any of the above benefits from a third party as indicated by Competition Bureau Canada then they are required to disclose their connections with the business, product or service that is being promoted.
The Competition Act is established to ensure truth in advertising. Consumers rely on social learning and therefore on the influencer to be transparent about their opinions they share online about products and services. The point is to be genuine and impartial to avoid deceptive marketing.
Best practices for Influencers to follow:
With the drastic decline of print media, the rise of social media is here to stay.
Prior generations read about solutions provided by influencers for their industry through newspapers and print media. With the daily newspapers going into extinction readers have turned their attention to social media to find information through a concept called social learning.
What’s unique about social media influencers now is that they don’t have to answer to anyone like an editor. Their voice is genuine, unedited and pure. These individuals have a strong social presence on social platforms like Instagram, Pinterest, Twitter, Facebook & LinkedIn. You will also see them with their own editorials called blogs.
Absolutely there is. Just like there are fake nails! Fake Influencers typically have paid followers. That’s right! Even the people following them are fake too!
Public Relations (PR) firms and marketing agencies allocate their budgets to Influencers to write, speak and frankly promote a solution or product. With money involved, you can downright believe there are gold diggers hanging around.
Usually, these individuals are influences for the money and will frankly promote anything. Their messaging is obscure and the products or solutions they promote are likely something they’ve never used!! It’s unethical and frankly gives people like me a bad wrap.
It’s hard to sniff out if someone is genuine or not. But here are a few tips to determine if an influencer is truly someone you should listen to:
Micro–influencers typically have between 1,000 to 1,000,000 followers that are attracted to their funny or inspiring content that niche down into a specific industry. Micro-influencers are looked up to for their expertise in a specific industry such as photography, food blogger, traveller, fashion diva or fitness guru.
I take a positive influencing approach to the products and solutions I write, speak and perhaps even dream about! It is important to me that the products and offerings we talk about have been thoroughly vetted through my testing. Values are extremely important to me. Especially transparency. I’ve stumbled into being a Micro-Influencer in the Accounting industry by helping accounting professionals and small business owners make bookkeeping simple through my social learning initiative called Fintech Details.
Today we continue to look and review solutions that help make bookkeeping simple. Our approach is to be true to our voice, genuine and honest before compensation. We develop a relationship with each brand we work with to ensure an everlasting continuity of support for our following.
Connect with me here should you have any questions about influencing or wish to get in contact with me to review your product.
Yours in apps,