(Expansion) – “Do you study or work? No, I’m an influencer.” A bland joke among communication colleagues that alludes to the new era of little effort, minimal imagination and a small advertising budget. It could be called the era of the “low mind”.
Today a like is worth money and represents a threat not only to traditional media but also to consumerist social psychology. And it is that the cell phone and all digital resources are already a route of risk in all senses.
Influencers that are so fashionable and, apparently, so popular among brands, give way, in my opinion, to a trend for “low mind” consumption.
And it is that the new panorama of the figure of the influencer as a fundamental element in the Social Media strategy of organizations, increasingly represents the development of misleading advertising, since the opinions presented by the influencer, in many cases, are disguised and they omit key information for the user.
Various media outlets and true opinion leaders with experience apply a mixed methodology: conceptual/theoretical and content analysis. Among the most relevant conclusions is the justification for the use of the influencer by companies from different sectors in their online marketing strategy, the lack of legality in digital advertising, the recurring practice of covert advertising using the figure of influencer .
And many times the influencers have no idea what they are giving them (besides paying them a few thousand pesos or in other cases millions), giving way to shallow information about the consumer product.
What would happen if brands and influencer agents got together to generate truly positive messages that really influence the thousands of followers on social networks?
What if brands used real consumers of their products to promote them?
Would it be amazing for us if the one who likes also earns money or products? How? Well, having a reward for being loyal to the brands you consume.
The increasingly recurring practice of covert advertising using the figure of influencer impoverishes the analysis capacity of consumers and even of the brands themselves.
And what about the new and emerging thousands of “coaches” who, through the issues of vulnerability and confusion of the people -triggered by the pandemic-, dare to “guide” the behavior of the so wounded cybernetic hearts.
Thus, the one who was a third level actress and lost her job, found in her personal experience an opportunity to be the “repairing voice” and become a “coach of self-love”; After all, she had the “authority” to talk about it because her boyfriend, with whom she had been in a relationship for 32 days, mistreated her and left her emotionally wounded. Please! (Freud must be turning in his grave.) And it’s not that I’m not moved by her story, what moves me is that she’s not a specialist on the subject and can have a bad influence on other women, even if her intention is different.
Or the other one that got the wife off the famous client who made him rich and now even sells tickets to listen to his mafufadas about how to be happy, rich and empowered, in unserious and disrespectful language. And lo but, millions of people follow him!
What poverty of vital analysis we have. To what few aspirations these acts of easy and effortless consumption lead us.
Finally, who told people that such a boring “unboxing” is a strategy. It is a cheap and poorly used resource.
As a communicator, I reiterate, if brands and agencies selected the leaders of the networks with coherence and not by their number of followers, they could design positive, creative messages, rich in true values through their products. They would enrich (in the good sense of the word) social networks.
We must create campaigns that also include traditional media and marketing resources, unifying the same messages because the impact would not only be more positive but really influential. The likes would be well deserved.
Editor’s note: Sara Cuéllar is an entrepreneur and PR specialist specializing in fashion, lifestyle and luxury with 20 years of experience. Trained as a journalist and collaborator of several national media. Follow her on . The opinions published in this column belong exclusively to the author.
