Celebrity endorsements have always been used to create excitement around a brand. But the prevalence of social media has welcomed a world of bloggers, content creators and influencers. Brands are noticing this, and now these people are taking over our timelines with #ads and are, in their own way, a whole new type of celebrity.

Influencer marketing involves businesses collaborating with popular, relevant influencers and micro-influencers within their niche to propel their brand’s message. By forming a partnership, the influencer will agree to share the brand through a strategy of reviews, social posts, promotional discount codes, and gifted products, usually on their social media channels.

Unlike celebrity endorsements, influencer marketing does more than just attach the face of a celebrity to a product. Although the strategies tend to overlap, a distinguishing factor separating celebrity endorsements and influencer marketing is that influencers are often real-life consumers themselves, with their passion for certain topics empowering them to influence the decisions of their followers. For example, the perfectly-sculpted fitness blogger who regularly posts their training regime is likely to be asked to advertise for a sportswear brand. The influencer’s followers will trust their recommendation and will probably use their unique promotional code to get discount when they buy the advertised product.

To keep in-line with the brand’s message and build an audience of trusting consumers, it is important to work with a suitable influencer – it wouldn’t make much sense for a food blogger to promote a new make-up product.

Think about Justin Bieber and the #MyCalvins campaign (sorry to bring my celebrity crush into this). Bieber isn’t an underwear expert and doesn’t need to be an underwear expert to recommend Calvin Klein, his fame is enough to drive an interest in the product.

Influencers, however, will often have an area that they specialise in, meaning their followers and themselves share a common interest, so when they endorse or recommend a product their followers are likely to take interest. To keep in-line with the brand’s message and build an audience of trusting consumers, it is important to work with a suitable influencer – it wouldn’t make much sense for a food blogger to promote a new make-up product if they want to appear authentic.

These social media celebs, who could range from a following from just a few thousand, up to several million, are highly regarded by their followers and share a strong rapport and relationship with them. By leveraging the voice of an influencer, a brand can build trust with their target audience by using the influencer to become part of an ongoing conversation across their social channels. With many influencers being bloggers, Youtubers, and models, this means a brand can constantly be provided with new posts, videos, edits and engaging and creative visuals. Influencers are constantly active, and constantly promoting themselves and the brands they partner with, and that’s the great power of social media – it is always ‘on’.

Brands should be using influencer marketing; it has proven to be a positive strategy to create noise and stand out among other businesses online. It is important in this world to have a presence on social media to not get left behind. These influencers can help to build large and engaged followings by driving traffic to social accounts, resulting in more potential consumers. We shouldn’t overlook the power of the Insta-famous!