How Brands can Adapt to Evolving Attitudes to Social Media Influencers — Real and Virtual

As consumers spend more and more time online, they are becoming aware of the techniques brands are choosing to advertise their products using influencers. Therefore, they are not buying into the good old advertisements anymore. Today, a brand has to be creative, innovative, and create engaging content to advertise its product. There was a time when brands thought that social media influence might not become a big thing and might fade away soon, but now with creators getting millions of followers and a strong customer base, it does not look like influencer marketing is going anywhere.

So, now it is up to brands and influencers to create content that is beneficial to both the consumer and the brands.

With time, consumers are becoming more and more vocal about advertisements that are sexist, racist, evoke hate, etc. That is why now brands have to be more aware of the kind of advertisement they are choosing. This would eventually lead to a great emphasis on authenticity while simultaneously demonstrating the growing excitement for virtual reality and the metaverse.

The ways in which social media influencers are evolving their attitudes in real and virtual life are:

1. Virtual Influencers: While brands were quite uncertain about onboarding virtual influencers, consumers have already accepted virtual influencers and they actually get influenced by the content they create. This fake virtual influencer includes CGI (computer-generated imagery), who are not real personalities but fake people on the internet, who interact with their followers. As the metaverse is going to rise in the near future, virtual influencers are something that is going to be huge.
2. Advertisement agency: As the audience is getting more and more updated and offended, it is very important to find social media influencers that connect with the target audience of the brand without offending them. For example, Ranveer Singh is the perfect brand ambassador of Chings Chinese, as the brand personality goes with the actor whereas if the same ad would be done by some other actor then it might not be as impactful.
3. Taking a stand: Consumers today appreciate a brand taking a stand, but when a brand does so, it might lose some followers. But at the end of the day, brands have to take a stand so that they can show their audience that they really value them. That is the reason why certain brands have not worked with social media influencers that photoshop their images because it doesn’t go with their brand values.

Therefore, as a brand, it is very important that you understand what exactly your target audience wants from a social media influencer and evolve accordingly. As the attitude of the audience changes, you as a brand should also change. If you are a brand looking to adapt and evolve, then conduct market research today with IBI Global Research Solutions.