Are You A Social Media Influencer? Think Again

social media influencer

Social Media Influencer – How many times have you read this on numerous bios and wondered what they are?

Last week, as I was going through my Facebook Stream, stumbled upon this post by a good friend Prasant Naidu.

Twitter Bio: #I #am #a #social #media #influencer.I have 1100+ followersI follow 1000+ people

Posted by Prasant Naidu on Thursday, June 18, 2015

Needless to say, I agreed with him 100%. Being a strong believer in personal brand, I am often intrigued by how loosely many of us use or abuse this term and bring disrepute to efforts of the many folks who are ‘real’ influencers.

So many times, I stumble upon bio of so-called social media influencers who have no blog, no engagement on their posts and all that they do is broadcast messages without bothering to engage with the community.

The Indian social media influencer community saw a big outrage last year when few food bloggers were called for a blogger meet of a leading car manufacturer. While the food bloggers did write about the car but I still wonder, will I really visit the blog to know about the car or her recipes. Was the food blogger wrong in going there and reviewing the car, no! They were there because the brand considered them to be ‘influencer’.

Across other part of the world, here’s another rant around the same topic by Brian Fanzo. He covers the few other ills that has plagued the social media industry.

Maybe as an industry, we need to redefine what social media influencers are.

To start with,

Message for Brands

1. Number of followers doesn’t equal influence. Engagement has to be the real measure.

2. Klout scores are unreal. Again, check their engagement

3. Check their content. Is the social media influencer practicing what they are preaching?

In the end, quality will count more than quantity.

For me a influencer would be someone who can move mountains, literally. The person would have powers to create new order, change opinion, engage with community. If you aren’t able to do that, sorry, that is not real influence.

How do you define them?

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