Chapter 11: Opinion Leaders and the Influence They Hold
Today, many brands use their own consumers as marketing "tools".
Well... maybe referring to human beings as tools is a bit harsh, but companies move tons of product by smartly utilizing opinion leaders. These role models of consumerism have their own consumer bases, which marketers are able to target through sponsorships, paid videos and product reviews.
YouTube is a platform that houses many an opinion leader, each with thousands of subscribers who tune in each week to immerse themselves in the lives and cultures of these influencers.
One of the opinion leaders that I follow closely on YouTube is GearedTowardGear, aka Avery. Boasting over 80,000 subscribers, Avery creates content about fashion and clothing, posting weekly product reviews, "clothing hauls", and style advice videos. He also operates a blog which he makes sure to plug in every video. Avery acts as a style influencer to me and I value his opinion and expertise on fashion. I sometimes take inspiration from the outfits he shows off and the clothing he purchases. You could say that I fall within his influence network. Although he doesn't do sponsored videos or markets products for brands, he is still influencing the sale of the clothing he displays on his channel, based on the reviews and information he provides while doing it.
Caitlin Shoemaker is another example of a YouTube based opinion influencer. Caitlin advocates for a whole food, plant-based, vegan diet and lifestyle. With over 200,000 subscribers, this 23 year old college student holds quite an influence over a significant group of people. She posts weekly videos about recipes, vegan lifestyle guides and shows off what she eats in a typical day. Her subscribers and fans look to her for health tips and value her opinion on vegan food products and services. She is sponsored by many healthy lifestyle companies, whose target markets coincide with her fanbase. They will pay her to promote their products/services in her videos, and she'll give the company a little shoutout, giving them word of mouth exposure by an opinion leader who influences almost a quarter million potential consumers. If you take a look at the right side of the above picture, you'll see a list of other, similar, health-centric YouTubers. These content creators are other opinion leaders within the same hemisphere, and they make money off of product promotion as well.
Well... maybe referring to human beings as tools is a bit harsh, but companies move tons of product by smartly utilizing opinion leaders. These role models of consumerism have their own consumer bases, which marketers are able to target through sponsorships, paid videos and product reviews.
YouTube is a platform that houses many an opinion leader, each with thousands of subscribers who tune in each week to immerse themselves in the lives and cultures of these influencers.
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| Avery Ginsberg of GearedTowardGear |
One of the opinion leaders that I follow closely on YouTube is GearedTowardGear, aka Avery. Boasting over 80,000 subscribers, Avery creates content about fashion and clothing, posting weekly product reviews, "clothing hauls", and style advice videos. He also operates a blog which he makes sure to plug in every video. Avery acts as a style influencer to me and I value his opinion and expertise on fashion. I sometimes take inspiration from the outfits he shows off and the clothing he purchases. You could say that I fall within his influence network. Although he doesn't do sponsored videos or markets products for brands, he is still influencing the sale of the clothing he displays on his channel, based on the reviews and information he provides while doing it.
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| Vegan YouTuber Caitlin Shoemaker |
Marketers are able to work with these opinion leaders to increase brand awareness, gain exposure, and potentially drive sales through word of mouth marketing.
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