The term Influencer by its definition refers to a person who, through their status, loyal following, expertise, or trust of a community, influence purchasing decisions, most typically through social media platforms. The interesting question then is this, If I have no social media accounts, do not follow any particular brand or person on YouTube or similar platforms, and do not even have cable or for that matter stream television shows, can I possibly have my decision making swayed by digital influencers?
For consideration I turn to one example, Podcasts, the only real social platform I follow, and find an interesting answer. However, I do not listen to Podcasts of a wide variety or filled with any marketing messaging that you would typically associate with purchasing or marketing. The sole form of Podcasts I subscribe to are churches/pastors, whose sermons over the years I have connected to, or with, the greatest and, as such, follow. Now, the churches or pastors I follow, with few exceptions of product mentions in personal stories of the speaker, have never been an influence on purchasing decisions, or a marketing effort in the business brand sense. However, the same characteristics, strategies and even role of the influencers I follow parallel in a great number of ways the strategies and roles of marketing influencers and brand advocates.
If you substitute the desired goal of the influencer, from moving me the consumer to a purchase “consumer buying behavior,” to the desired end state of a social spiritual leader, moving me the listener to a course of action, behavior and morals aligned with the spiritual doctrine and beliefs of the speaker “congregant behavior,” then the methodology of gaining, maintaining, and influencing the follower is very similar in many ways. For any believers reading this forgive any perceived blasphemy at suggesting a parallel between consumer buying behavior and spiritual discipleship, I wholeheartedly agree they are not interchangeable, however for the sake of a study on influencer strategy and effectiveness, the two outcomes are achieved across similar platforms and sustained in similar ways.
The effectiveness of influencer marketing is in the trust, loyalty, following and clout of any given influencer, both over their followers’ opinions and behaviors, and in their specific area of expertise or familiarity. Influencers are followed by members of a community that trust their expertise or opinion, their character of person to be honest and a good source of information and have built their personal brand over time via series of decisions, actions, opinions and suggestions that their followers have tested and seen, or trusted to see, worthy to be followed and considered.
In a similar way, the pastors I follow, and have continued to do so over the years, have developed with me a record of opinions I trust because I have tested them, a personal integrity I trust, because over years of following them, their words, actions, and public accounts have been congruent with the figure I began following. And because of that trust, they posses clout, or influence, by their words, suggestions, and recommendations, over my choices, selections and behaviors.
Another strategy of similarity between the marketing influencer and social spiritual influencer is in the approach of maintaining their followers’ interest over time. Influencers, of either category, beyond the trustworthiness of their opinion, must remain enjoyable to follow to hold our attention. Marketing influencers need to be a mix of informative and entertaining to keep people following. I will again apologize if any offense be perceived, but Spiritual Leaders getting people, or at least me, over and again through years of following to separate from the distractions of life to plug into a Podcast for an hour must be both doctrinally sound, and yes, I do dare say entertaining. Charisma, likeability, witty, well-spoken, interesting, relevant, and constantly new are qualities of personality shared by both the marketing influencer and the effective social spiritual leader if they wish to keep a following as time marches on.
The role that marketing influencers play is as a brand advocate, a product promoter, a hype builder, an interest grabber, and a consumer converter. Through the strategies and characteristics mentioned above they build a following that places their trust and confidence in their opinion and they use that position to move the consumer to action.
For an entirely different call to action, the spiritual social leader serves a similar role, building trust, gaining following, and moving those followers to a call to action, a very different one yes, but still a shift in behavior and opinion that is a call to action nonetheless, and achieved through some very similar strategies, characteristics and tactics.
Marketing Perspective refers to customer-centric strategic communication, addressing consumer pain-points and building brand trust through Value alignment, matching your brand’s core message with your audience’s worldview. Marketing influencers do this across different platforms and in different areas of expertise in the marketplace. Again, as with our other examples, for a very different motive and to achieve a very different behavioral and mental shift, the social spiritual leader, an effective one, communicates to their followers, meeting them where they are at “customer centric,” empathizing for their real-world struggles and hurdles “pain-points,” and communicating value alignment through messages of shared belief, value, morals, and the desired end state through change or action “world view.”
If permitted to, and forgiven for, seeing my social media influence through a different Lense for the sake of academia, there is much to be compared between the role, strategy and execution of two very different fields of social influencers.
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