Influencers can now officially stake their claim beside the heroic likes of twinkies and cockroaches, joining the dazzling line up of things which will inevitably survive an apocalypse. 

Despite an erratic market and the loss of many sponsorship deals, influencers have realigned themselves to push through the cracks and continue to flourish. Music influencers have also become more commonplace, having been driven to digital after their interaction with fans in real life has diminished in the past year. 

In this post we’ll be running you through 6 trends happening right now in the influencer landscape, and what they mean for you. But before you dive in, we’ve got something pretty exciting to tell you…

We’ve started an influencer mailing list! 

What does this mean? Well, if you’re an influencer, you can sign up to be the first to know about upcoming campaigns we’re working on and let us know if you’d be interested in collaborating with us. 

Click here to join.

1. Social Media Usage Is On An All-Time High

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Social media use is higher than ever before, with a huge shift in behaviour that came as a result of the global lockdowns in 2020. During the last week of April, there was a 50% increase in social media use compared to the same time the year before. Social media usage has risen 13% on Friday nights and 15% on Saturday nights. Not only that, 27% of the population are on Instagram at least once a day, and 60% visit Facebook daily. On a global scale, these numbers are huge. 

What does it mean for us?

So many companies are saturating news feeds with an absurd amount of content. We’re seeing stunning visuals, captions prompting high levels of engagement, online competitions, and other forms of great content.

This is where influencers can be a great source of inspiration, and a great help. Having garnered a large following, influencers are able to use content that has been tried and proven to generate engagement. Moreover, musicians and music campaigns are a great amalgamation of creativity which affect an emotional response across the senses, making them a shining example of content creators which break through the clutter and command attention.

2. Video is King

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Ever noticed that when you go to your Explore page on Instagram, that video content is always significantly larger than image posts?  Well, when it comes to content, video is the leader of the pack with short-form video being the most popular with influencers. 

What does it mean for us?

IGTV, TikTok, livestreams, Reels, Stories and more. There are so many ways to elevate your campaign through video. When working with influencers, it’s important to work to their advantage by seeing which format generates them the highest level reach and engagement, depending on your objectives. When it comes to working on a music campaign, video is of course the stand out form of content to work with as the influencer can directly involve the music in their posts, allowing their followers to hear just how great the track is! Video also allows your campaign to feel more natural and, hate to say it, but ‘authentic’. 

3. Nano, Micro or Macro?

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Quality over quantity? Not anymore. Working with influencers is quickly becoming a numbers game. Following considerations like cost effectiveness, agencies are beginning to favour larger groups of nano-influencers (<25k followers) and micro-influencers (<100k followers) over just a few macro-influencers (>100k followers).  

What does it mean for us?

Follow suit! Not only will nano and micro influencers be more cost-effective, they also tend to have much higher engagement rates. The average engagement rate for a nano-influencer is the highest of all three, at 7%. This is because influencers with smaller followings are still growing their audience and tend to be highly engaged themselves. Additionally, these types of influencers often go above and beyond to impress the brands they work with. In their eyes, they have been given an opportunity and will strive to prove themselves worthy. All this means more results per dollar spent!

4. Instagram features for both creators and brands

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That's right! Instagram has provided more toys for online creators. The first feature is 'Guides’, which enables users to share top tips and was originally intended to provide wellness content to those who might have been struggling through the COVID epidemic. The power of AR Filters came also into full fruition in 2020 and they have enabled creators and brands to create and share augmented reality filters that are ace at generating a near infinite amount of user generated content. You can read more about them here.
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More recently, ‘Reels’ have also been an extremely popular new feature on the platform and a particularly useful tool through short form video content that has a huge scope for reach. We’ve laid out the basics on Reels here. 
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What does it mean for us?
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Use them! Whenever new features are rolled out on social media platforms, its creators will intentionally sway the feed algorithm to show profiles utilizing these features. You can guarantee influencers will already be on top of this, trying to figure it out. Especially in regards to AR filters, which have a near limitless potential in creating user-generated content - sky’s the limit! 

We’re always keen to keep you updated with the latest features that are released so keep your eyes peeled. 
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5. TikTok

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‍‍Unless you’ve been living under a large rock for the past year, we can’t talk Influencers without talking TikTok. TikTok is a video-sharing social networking app that has resulted in a huge influx of influencers for music. There’s a long list of reasons why influencers are being drawn to the app; with over 1 billion users, sky-high average engagement rate (yes, even higher than Instagram!) and the special TikTok algorithm that syncs movements to the music and more...
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What does it mean for us?
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This influx of influencers on TikTok presents an opportunity to break deeper into its majority audience, the Generation Z market. This particular demographic usually reacts skeptically to traditional marketing, as opposed to influencer marketing, which they feel is less intrusive. TikTok’s affinity for unpolished, trending, direct to camera video content makes it the ideal platform to reach Gen-Z’er (and a growing older audience who are finally catching on!). Our recent influencer campaign for Confidence Man helped their track to gain over 1.7million views! You can read more about it here. 

Take the time to study this new landscape and learn which TikTok influencers can cater to which niche and elevate your campaign, or single, to the next level. 

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6. Twitch

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Twitch is a live streaming platform which originally was a hub purely for gamers but more recently has opened up to be a highly popular live streaming platform for a wide range of content, music being one of them. With the ability to perform gigs in real life thrown out the window, Twitch has allowed musicians to display their talents whilst connecting live with their fans. 

One of the main reasons brands are turning to Twitch for influencer marketing is it’s impressive scope for growth. To put this in perspective, this is the number of simultaneous daily users on the platform in: 

• 2016: 590,000 users per day
• 2018: 1,070,000 users per day 
• 2021: 15,000,000 users per day

What does it mean for us?

The difference of influencer marketing on Twitch in comparison to other platforms is that everything is live. Live interactions are typically non-scripted, so are often perceived as the most genuine form of contact. Therefore, when a sponsored influencer mentions a brand, any growth is likely to be perceived as organic. 

In the context of the music industry, depending on the chosen influencer, elevating a single can be as subtle as the music playing in the background, listening to the track for the first time, reviewing it, incorporating it into their normal Twitch activities, hosting a giveaway for tickets to a gig, or it could even be a full-blown cover of a song (if the influencers were musicians themselves of course!). Observe and test which influencer approach is the most effective for your campaign before getting stuck in.