The influencer effect
After reading a few articles in the national media about Made In Chelsea Reality stars unable to maintain their fancy lifestyles for the show I have been really considering of late “the influencer effect” and can an influencer with a massive following really have a positive effect on your business and drive customers to your door.
I am a little bit hair obsessed, some people are car obsessed, cat obsessed, fashion obsessed food obsessed but whatever it is you like to watch on Instagram TikTok or your platform of choice does it really make you buy, change, try when you see something you like or is it just voyeurism and algorithms that make some people more visible than others.
I recently came across a fan feed on Instagram @gijsblom_luciaferrato I don’t know how. I probably was led there because of the girls hair colour, a bronde shade I like. I had absolutely no idea who these people were, where they were from, even if they were a couple, just 2 young attractive people being promoted and reposted by a fan. The girl Lucia Ferrato had long pretty hair similar to my own.
The fan feed has 14K follows so it made me curious to discover who these young people actually are and what they do. Lucia is a Milan born UK based model and TIKTOK sensation, known for her lip syncing videos and fashion dress ups. Her handle @itssluciaf has a 1.4M following. I haven’t chosen Lucia to feature especially, I am sure there are many other TIKTOKERS who have amassed a following of these mega proportions.
The interesting part of her feed for me was her support and features for her hairdresser @Lucale a boutique salon in Guildford Surrey.
Like many women I am very happy with my stylist, I am completely loyal and would not consider going elsewhere so it’s easy to see how marketing on this grand scale might not attract a big wave of new customers but I would certainly expect someone with this much influence on such a wide audience to have some effect, it’s reported she has gigs with big brands like L’Oreal and Calvin Klein so she must be great at driving business right? Her hair is really lovely too so I would think at least some of her following would also follow her stylist and flock to her salon in Guildford Surrey for the Lucia experience.
Like I said Lucia on TIKTOK has 1.4M followers her stylist has 125. The recent video she posted of a visit to Angela got 650,000 views and 54.7K likes and yet when Angela reposted the same TikTok reel on her feed on Instagram with 650 followers it got zero likes, one repost, and one comment. I wonder had it been J Lo admittedly with 17.8M followers or Sabrina Carpenter with a staggering 38.7M followers on TikTok if the response in Guildford would have been the same.
I am not sure if Lucia pays Angela to do her hair or if she uses her massive online “influence” to secure services for free but I think businesses need to wise up. Just because people sit scrolling all day doesn’t necessarily translate to business. I am in PR and exposure to sales is a tricky thing to measure. People aspire to luxury but everyone is struggling to keep the lights on. Even luxury retailers with millions of followers online like Hermes usually impervious to market conditions have reported the lowest results since 2021 and Chanel have moved into the menswear space for the first time in history to try and drive sales.
And yet brands like Zara who don’t spend anything on marketing continue to out perform their competitors with their retail model of smaller drops and faster turnaround. The get it now or it will be gone psychology creating urgency to shop for their customers. They also operate differently with influencers focusing on affiliate partnerships. While not as aggressive with mass gifting as competitors, Zara does send PR packages and gifts items to trusted and long term collaborators to showcase new collections.
Social media doesn’t create any urgency and as far as I can see no one is rushing to Lucia Ferrato’s hair stylist for a limited must have appointment. Of course this is just one example in isolation and doesn’t make a water tight case but as a small brand owner on the side of my regular job in PR and someone who spent 10 years building a following on Instagram initially working with influencers I learnt very quickly giving away free product to people with supposed reach, was a fools game. It may work better for massive companies but smaller businesses that desperately need PR and marketing the only winners were the influencers enjoying loads of free merch.
It may have worked for super cheap fashion brands like Shein, or Tiktokers selling gadgets under £10 drawing in a very very young audience with little or no disposable income but these models are already proving to be unsustainable as sales drop off and the only brands surviving in this current very difficult market are brands like takuma yoshida’s uniqlo focusing on quality staples, necessity people have to buy in any market with profits up a staggering 29%.
I know from my own behaviour I may look at hair styles online for inspiration but I would never abandon the trusted relationship I have built over time with the hair stylist I love, like a shiny beautiful influencer could not change my opinion on the brands I like, the restaurants I frequent, the airlines I trust. The only thing an influencer can do is perhaps show me something new but if I didn’t know them and didn’t trust them and their opinion, if I didn’t find them to be like minded, I probably wouldn’t believe them anyway.
Like anything copied, the days of the influencer are numbered. I think the media are finally recognising exposure does not equal influence. Only talent, originality, creativity and authenticity has the ability to truly influence and sell.
And so I want to share someone from Ethiopia I also discovered recently on Instagram @kaluputics if you haven’t seen this guy yet check him out. You’ll know immediately what I am talking about. There are two ways to succeed, either be the smartest or be first. This dude is a first.