If you’ve been in and around social media you have probably heard of the word “influencer” and how you should know who yours are. In this post I will give you a real world example of what a social media influencer is and why you should care.
You might have heard about IKEA and IKEA Hackers. No? Check this out. The short of it is that IKEA felt that IKEA Hackers was using their name to make a profit selling ads on their website. That was far from the truth. In fact, IKEA was planning on suing one of their best influencers!
What made IKEA Hackers an influencer was three things:
- Peopleroutinelytake action that effected the business of IKEA.
- That could be learning about the brand
- That could be purchasing product
- That could be sharing the brand
- The community of IKEA Hackers was IKEA’s ideal client.
- Targeted creation of content
So, a social media influencer has the ear of your audience and can have them take action that is a natural progression of their relationship.
IKEA should have created a relationship with IKEA Hackers leveraging their audience to grow their brand loyalty. Instead they made the mistake of taking legal action. In effect they told their ideal client “We don’t want you to use our furniture that way and we don’t like your community”
So, who do you know that you would consider a social media influencer for your business or industry? Share you business and the influencer below!