While influencers may achieve significant success in terms of follower numbers and financial earnings from working with brands, and even become recognizable celebrities, they do not have to be celebrities to start with. One of the characteristics both influencers and businesses working with them strive for is creating a sense of accessibility for the audience. As social media continues to grow in terms of technological development and international reach, so do the ways in which influencer marketing is implemented.
While these days seemingly anyone can count off a number of popular social media platforms, the leading platform for influencer marketing worldwide is the app Instagram. Instagram has several features that play directly to the nature of influencer marketing. Influencers can post both videos and pictures of themselves; commenting and messaging are also available within the app. The latter provide opportunities for both follower and business engagement. Compared to traditional online marketing, German businesses saw several advantages of influencer marketing. Based on a survey conducted in 2020, 36 percent considered generating content very important, and 31 percent felt the same way about influencers showing more authenticity. That same year, 22 percent of German companies planned to spend between 10,000 and 50,000 euros on influencer marketing.
