Part Four: Influencer Marketing On the Rise

This is the fourth blogpost in our five-part series discussing the most important trends in public relations and marketing.

Over the past few years, a new word has been introduced to the lexicon of marketing and public relations: Influencer.

That word, and associated phrases such as “influencer marketing” and “influencer branding,” has become part of our daily PR jargon – whether we are planning outreach for a non-profit in Loudoun County, a small business in Leesburg or a multinational corporation in Washington, DC. For today’s effective marketing strategies, influencers matter.

Let’s define our terms.

Influencer (noun): A person, usually not a professional journalist, who has cultivated a social-media following (within a particular community or among the general public) sizable enough to warrant influence with that audience.

Influencer marketing (compound noun): An increasingly common outreach technique in which businesses, non-profits and organizations will strategically partner with online influencers to disseminate and share their message in a direct, targeted way.

Now a few points demonstrating why influencer marketing matters: