A Review on Evolution of Social Media Influencer Marketing: Reflection on Consumer Behaviour and Consumer’s Decision-Making Process

Abstract

Since the past five years, the size of social networks as well as social media users have been doubled and this growth is creating a new marketing hurdle i.e. noise. Suddenly, the paid advertisements on social media have become less effective because of the noise that has been developed by these online users. This is the reason that 615 million social media users are using ad-blocking software and applications which is growing by 30% every year. On one hand, users want to have an organic and genuine connection with the brand, but this noise is not allowing them to do so. While on the other hand marketers are reconsidering their advertising strategies and finding new and more effective techniques of marketing. It is the reason that marketers are striving hard to find the best way that would influence consumers as well as bring sales conversion. The best way to do this is to focus on consumer-oriented marketing strategies such as Product placement, native advertising, content marketing, and influencer marketing to avoid the noise that is created on social media. Social media influencer marketing is a term that refers to leveraging the ability of key people to support a brand and spread the word to their followers. It has been established as a new as well as a highly effective method for brands to build and engage with audiences on social media. This paper focuses on the evolution of influencer marketing from traditional marketing i.e. e-WOM from WOM derived from various kinds of literature available on the internet.