A little bird told me …

Picture this: you’re browsing through your Twitter feed one lazy afternoon, and you happen to come across a friend repeatedly tweeting with the same hashtag. You aren’t quite sure why, but there is this urge in you to investigate. What you see is, in fact, the work of a social media influencer.

Simply put, a social media influencer is an individual on Twitter who is hired by a digital media firm to promote a brand by conducting competitions and gaining traction from users and consumers. The key parameter to becoming a social media influencer is easy: have a wide base of followers, in terms of both quality and quantity.

Amol Mathur (who goes by the handle @Shaitaaaaan) is based in Delhi-NCR, and works as a systems analyst in Larsen and Toubro by day. Early last year, he decided to cash in on his status as a popular ‘tweep’ and become an influencer, after being approached for a campaign.

“Once you get associated with an agency, others keep a watch on you and approach you for future campaigns. That’s how you get further campaigns,” says Mathur.

“There are two types of influencers: the ones who spam, and others who aim to cater to an organic audience. I was a spammer once, but now I don't promote anything and everything simply for monetary gain,” Mathur adds.

Karishma Saboo (@KismiBar) has been a Twitter user for four years now. Based in Jaipur, her interest in becoming a social media influencer began from being on the other side of the fence: as a participant in Twitter contests.

“After winning a few contests, I was motivated to become an influencer. I tailored my tweets in order to gain followers, and eventually, brands started approaching me to hosts contests for them,” says Saboo. Muskaan Dutta (@KameeniChhori) boasts a whopping 10,000 followers on Twitter. While her time as an influencer has been erratic , Dutta says that it is mostly an exciting experience.

“It’s a very easy way to mint some money. And of course, you get to communicate with a lot of people, and know a lot of people/products/companies,” says Dutta.

Not all cute hashtags and roses

While most influencers enjoy the experience, delay in payment and accusations of spamming are seen as the prime issue.

Ankita Sharma (@lady_gabbar) says that while it is a win-win situation in this line of work , it tends to be difficult to decide whether the positives outweigh the negatives.

“Hosting contests will get you a lot of haters; people who hate the spamming, people who hate that you're making money, people who hate that they’re probably funnier than you but have a lower follower count. There are the agencies. Most of them are professional, but some will run after you when they want to get work done, and then they’ll disappear when it’s time to pay,” says Sharma.

“There have been times when I have had to just run behind the agencies or individuals and follow up on the payment. That scene has not changed much today for most influencers but there are a few agencies which pay you on time,” says Mathur.

Dutta echoes the same sentiment. “Certainly. The only downside or negative experience, so to speak, of being an influencer is not being paid on time by the clients!” she says.

While social media marketing has become an overwhelming large industry in its own right, it remains to be seen whether certain sub-types of marketing would work. Tanya Seth, who is the former head of social media at Havas Media, works on various campaigns, and hiring influencers for these campaigns remains part of her job.

“Influencer marketing works best for lesser known brands on social media whose primary aim is to increase brand awareness and following,” says Seth.

“I feel influencers work best in such a scenario since it’s a far more effective means of communicating your message and engaging with the target audience within a budget constraint.”

“When we talk of social media per se, for most small and mid-sized brands, it’s not cost effective to set aside budgets for FB advertising or promoting a trend on Twitter. To gain a quick following, leveraging the already existing follower base of influencers on social platforms is a great option,” Seth concludes.

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