by By Hannah Hertel
Ads. They are everywhere we turn and humans are constantly being advertised to. Social media has increased the scale of advertising by a landslide, and consumers have become sick of traditional, targeted ads. Young professionals in the industry must keep up to stay on top of the competition.
Now this may seem daunting to read as a young and upcoming professional in any industry, but there is no need to lose hope. The age of traditional advertising may be over, but as we say goodbye to it, we welcome a whole new wave of advertising techniques that social media has introduced to us.
Micro-influencing. Influencing has been the new way of advertising on social media, and one of the most recent and popular forms of influencing is micro-influencing. Instead of hiring big-name influencers to promote their products, brands have found it more effective to use people with fewer followers and more relatability. In today’s world relatability sells, and microinfluencing does just that. It is the perfect combination of relatability and influence to successfully advertise a product.
Genuinity. It seems as though ever since the pandemic started, a trend of preferring a genuine online presence from brands has risen. Customers want to support companies that they believe mean well in their purpose. If a brand has a genuine online presence and lives up to it, audiences are more likely to support and buy their products. In this way, you are advertising through your presence and overall reputation.
Relatability. As mentioned before, customers want to feel heard and related to, and brands have started to pick up on that. Brands that recognize and follow different online trends that their audiences are also partaking in receive a stamp of relatability. This stamp of approval flows right into the approval of their products and leads to future purchases.
Native Advertising. This takes us back to the original style of traditional advertising but in more of a disguised way. Native advertising is paid media that matches the other content on the social media platform. These are always marked with a sponsored or ad tag, but at first glance, you cannot tell it is an ad. This is an effective way to get audiences to subconsciously look at your products and feel the desire to find out more. Brands have to be safe with this type of advertising though, because too much of it will take away that level of authenticity that audiences prefer.
Advertising is not dead, the traditional ways are just simply not as effective, and that is okay. Sometimes change is good and when we can adapt to that change and take advantage of it, we will be put ahead in the competition. In today’s world, it is crucial to stay up today with the trends on social media, and these advertising trends will help young professionals boost their careers.
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Hi Hannah!
Excellent piece! I feel like traditional advertising (i.e. print, radio, tv) is loathed by so many people because it seems so disingenuous. For whatever reason, that doesn’t seem to translate over to celebrity endorsements or influencer advertising. I wonder if over time this will change, and the ad-makers will have to adapt once again. I’d be interested to hear your thoughts.
I really enjoyed reading your blog post! I completely agree with your opinion on micro-influencing. Micro-influencing is in fact the perfect combination of relatability and influence, which causes products to be successfully advertised to wide audiences. Personally, I am much more influenced to buy a product when hearing about it from someone with a smaller following, that is relatable. It makes me feel like I can trust that their opinion of the product is truthful. I would trust the opinion of a micro-influencer with a small following, much more than a celebrity with millions of followers, because of the relatability aspect.