There are lots of celebrity and public figures on social media platforms such as Twitter. They gain thousands of followers, and brands are keen to get them as their spokesperson. But just because someone is famous, it doesn’t necessarily mean that they will be a good ‘influencer’ online. During a series of IDBYTE workshops last week, Raditya Dika, an Indonesian bookwriter shared his experiences and tips about being a good influencer in social media.
According to Dika, an influencer is a person who tweets various things to influence other people. Dika called it a “paid tweets mafioso”. It’s not just celebrities or public figure who can do this – anyone could be an influencer. Especially a “Twitter celeb” who has lots of followers. A brand could pay them to be their spokesperson, so that they send messages about the brand to their followers.
Being an influential person on Twitter, it’s likely they’re followed by public figures or other popular people, who might then retweet that message to their followers. For example, it could direct people to the brand’s page or Twitter ID for more information. Dika himself is an example of this, having recently guided his followers towards weight-loss products.
Brands could use such influencers to get a snowball effect. In contrast to traditional ads, the influencer acts as a key opinion leader who could raise people’s awareness and spread the word online. Brands must choose their key opinion leader wisely, choosing not just someone with mountains of followers, but also someone who will be a positive influence.
Dika explained:
It is better [for brands] to find a talkative and easy-going person who can deliver the message in a sincere way to their followers. Therefore an influencer can make ‘word of mouth’ even more useful. Some brands usually give only the raw material to their influencers, so the influencer must choose the right approach to deliver the message to the followers.”
An influencer is not a robot who will just send out messages, but rather he or she is a good role model who will choose words wisely to get the right audience. With the right style in leading a conversation in social media, an influencer can optimize followers’ attention on that brand.
Who do you think makes a good influencer in social media? Can anyone actually do it? Let us know your thoughts in the comments.
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