What are AI Influencers in marketing?

AI influencers are virtual personalities managed by brands or agencies. They are created using computer graphics and machine-learning algorithms to appeal to a brand’s audience. These influencers serve the same purpose as other real influencers. But they are designed to reinforce a brand’s particular marketing objectives. AI Influencers can wear a retailer’s clothing or visit their store — all virtually. They can express their thoughts about the benefits of products. They can help elevate a brand’s social media.

AI influencers have already worked for brands from Red Bull to Tinder, since 2016. They interact with consumers using conversation, photos and videos. Often hyper-realistic, they create attention-getting, stylish interactions with the products they represent.

What are some benefits of AI Influencers?

AI influencers work 24/7, whereas real humans cannot keep up this pace. This keeps active engagement rates high, and is beneficial to consumers engaging globally in multiple time zones. With round-the-clock content creation, these spokespeople can quickly build a large global following.

Often, they can create content specifically tailored to answer their audiences’ questions. Further, they can engage with thousands of consumers in a personalized way — without the conventional challenges of doing all of this as a real person. AI influencers, and their accompanying data, can also guide brands to find new or specific audiences. They can introduce new products, create more engaging content, and help optimize campaigns. 

How do they help brands specifically?

Everything listed above is incredibly beneficial to growing a brand. But did you know AI influencers can also track consumer engagement so you don’t have to? These influencers can sum up analytical data from a brand’s work with them. That’s influencer and data are rolled into one. This makes it easy to view analytics and make decisions going forward.

From social media engagement to sales reports, an AI influencer can become an important part of helping brands build business. This data is valuable in offering ideas on which demographic to reach. It is valuable to know when to reach them, and how to reach them as well. Brands like Calvin Klein, Samsung, and Prada have all worked with AI influencers. These brands have incorporated influencers on social media platforms with success.

In the future, look for innovative new uses as AI influencers evolve. They’ll continue to talk with consumers and build value for brands in platforms beyond social media.

What is an influencer?

Who hasn’t scrolled through an Instagram or TikTok feed and stumbled upon a random person on an amazing vacation, eating a mouth-watering meal, or wearing a fabulous outfit and thought to themselves, “I wish that were me”? As social media has risen in popularity, internet celebrities and influencers in the marketing world have learned to use their influence and followers to promote products and lifestyles. Influencers are content creators who have the power to influence or alter the decisions of others. These trendsetters have become experts at producing effective “subliminal” ads reminding us that we “need” those shoes or we have yet to visit that vacation destination.

Finding your niche

The first step to becoming an influencer is to find your niche. My mother follows other mom influencers, I follow account that are more popular and targeted to teens, and my little brother is obsessed with the guys who do cool trick shots on YouTube. There are a multitude of niches on social media from health/beauty to fashion to travel to lifestyle/relationships. The cosmetic and fashion industry alone is worth more than five hundred billion dollars annually and frequently pays content creators to offer tutorials and testimonials. Companies often compensate travel influencers’ flights, cruises, and hotels in exchange for featuring them in their feed. Influencers are also eager to offer advice to anxious new parents in exchange for compensation and merchandise.  

How is being an influencer a career?

Influencers have to be active and consistent. There are very few days off for content creators. The more popular accounts often post multiple times per day. Companies will pay to have these influencers on Instagram to do giveaways, OOTDs (outfit of the day), or short videos using the product. YouTubers will typically have unboxing videos or use the product somewhere in the video. Anytime you see a product in a video, the person is most likely being compensated for it. 

Why is using an influencer a good marketing strategy?

People like to do what is popular or “trending”. If a TikTok star starts doing something new, chances are good that their fans will follow. Whether that is doing a TikTok dance or buying a pair of jeans that are “the most comfortable pants ever”. Consumers also trust a third party over the company that is producing the product. Social media users choose to follow accounts because they identify and trust the creators. When an influencer recommends a product, it often feels like a friend is recommending it.

Let’s be honest: we used to roll our eyes at influencers dancing on the beach and constantly filming videos in restaurants before we recognized their genius. These creators have a massive effect on modern society through social media platforms. Virtually all companies have begun to use influencers, making them major players in the marketing world.

Over the weekend, a friend sent me some screenshots from the Instagram account of an event we are both familiar with. “HAVE YOU SEEN THESE???” she said. The series of posts featured a scantily clad woman and her friends promoting the event. Slightly confounded by the choice, I took a quick visit to her Instagram page. She had a gaggle of followers, but no real connection to the audience or the event itself, and unfortunately, it didn’t play well.

The idea of using a social media influencer was not a bad one. Influencer marketing is on the rise – Google alone saw a 325% increase in “influencer marketing” searches last year. It’s based on the practice of using influencers in your niche to create and distribute relevant content and share it in an authentic way. It can be a fantastic way to find and reach your people.

However, influencer marketing is a wasted exercise (and investment!) if you aren’t using the right influencers. And while it’s tempting to use metrics like number of followers as a measure of influence, it’s important to take a closer, more comprehensive look at a potential ambassador before you ask them to promote your brand.

Fit

How relevant is the influencer to what you do? How aligned is their content with your messaging? The best partnerships are natural fits – their audience must believe that the endorsement is genuine and your audience must be able to relate to them.

Engagement

Is the influencer engaging with their followers in a meaningful way? Or are their pages just a collection of selfies? If people aren’t commenting and interacting with the person, keep looking. Your audience will get bored with someone who is just skin deep.

Reach

Reach is certainly a valid consideration, so take a look at traffic and followers. But ask yourself who they are reaching. Is it your target audience? Reach is irrelevant if the influencer isn’t reaching the right people.

Authenticity

Influencers must be viewed as authentic and genuine. Is this person partnered with too many sponsors? If so, they will not appear trustworthy.

When chosen thoughtfully, an Influencer partnership is one of the best ways to build your brand online and raise awareness among your target audience. Need some help choosing the right influencer? We can help!