Years back, influencer marketing was limited only to celebrities and a few dedicated bloggers, but given the fact that we are now introduced to different content and medium available, it goes beyond that.
Influencer marketing is a type of social media marketing that uses endorsements and product mentions from influencers–individuals who have a dedicated social following and are viewed as experts within their niche. Influencer marketing works because of the high amount of trust that social influencers have built up with their following, and recommendations from them serve as a form of social proof to your brand’s potential customers.
A Snippet on Metaverse
It’s been months since Facebook announced it was rebranding to Meta and would focus its future on the upcoming “metaverse.” Advocates from niche startups to tech giants have argued that this lack of coherence is because the metaverse is still being built, and it’s too new to define what it means. The technologies companies refer to when they talk about “the metaverse” can include virtual reality—characterized by persistent virtual worlds that continue to exist even when you’re not playing—as well as augmented reality that combines aspects of the digital and physical worlds.
However, it doesn’t require that those spaces be exclusively accessed via VR or AR. Virtual worlds—such as aspects of Fortnite that can be accessed through PCs, game consoles, and even phones—have started referring to themselves as “the metaverse.”
A lot of things in are engaging in the “metaverse” concept such as businesses who need to keep up and thrive.
Influencer Marketing in Metaverse
For established influencers, the metaverse appears to be an opportunity to evolve on their digital journey alongside their new digital twin, where they can partner and further cultivate their already existing relationships with brands. It seems quite difficult—to thrive in the marketing side of metaverse because we also might want to consider the shift and the futuristic vision. The Metaverse appears to carry the potential to change the landscape of social media.
CEO and founder of Facebook, Mark Zuckerberg, revealed his intention of becoming a “metaverse company”. Brands will have access to advertise on a whole new scale.
The virtual city will act as a channel for influencers to make the transition more comfortably into the Metaverse, as they are familiarized with the brands within the district already. And for influence who already established their name and made names for themselves already beforehand, this is where they can partner and further cultivate their already existing relationships with brands while interacting and communicating with their peers. It gives them a new opportunity to build a fresh audience in a new digital space, which one can argue is less saturated. Many Gen-Z’s and millennials do not differentiate between the real and digital world.
Social media and the internet are an integral part of their real world and that makes them the perfect candidate to target for the metaverse. Brands also created their own virtual influencers, also known as the meta fluencer, a strategic idea which gives brands scope to have their own representatives/ambassadors who can connect with users.
Virtual influencers also appear to cost less money than regular influencers when it comes to advertising and provide them complete autonomy in how they would like for the virtual influencer to communicate a brand’s viewpoint on current affairs, such as diversity, inclusivity and sustainability.
Influencer marketing here in the metaverse can be indeed the new level power of this generation. But know that, brands have plenty of work to do so.
