The real and increasingly fast and loose playground inhabited by influencers is the various social media platforms popularly accessed from worldwide.
Influencer presence in the supply chain was originally initiated by clever marketing of products seeking support or the manufacturers/distributors promotion of the product by augmenting it with an often times perceived "third party" opinion and credible exhortation to buy.
In the introduction of the third party "corroborator" to the buyer market canvassed on social media for sympathetic credibility for the product claims what could be more persuasive than the attractive engagement of a young and appealing media regular voice? Accordingly, from zero beginnings the influencer marketing activity has become enormous so much served by influencers – at least of the personal and human kind – who have pulled on board of their platforms often many tens of thousands of followers.
The persons who the fiery Scottish reforming preacher John Knox in 1568 epitomised as "the Monstrous Regiment of Women" have as lady market influencers over our present 21st Century maintained a warmly cohesive community social media following in the fields particularly of cosmetics and physical fitness.
Of course, producers whose products or services are serviced by the influencer activity are happy to pay for product sales growth attributable to the warmth and human responsive influencer "service". This cosy relationship has resulted in often massive and exponentially growing income for the influencer platform operation – in a sometimes yes and sometimes no compliant reporting in a particular tax regime.
So great has this become that producers if not the target consumers have found the attraction of virtual influencers to be even more user friendly – at least to the selling producer – because they can be so cleverly and persuasively modelled as stunning young charmers whose principal virtues and purported credibility are their attractive looks, their sweet voices, their always on and wakeful energy, their inability to strike and their constant online fully aware and fresh availability. Given that the use of virtual influencers removes the entire influencer credibility from actually authentic human kindred messaging the increasing reality is that of a machine preaching to the market – no matter how charming and appealing its presentation.
Does this cause, if not worse, a clear case of "the blind leading the blind"? The answer is likely yes and given the enormous outreach power of influencers, there is a growing swell of opinion worldwide that some legally enforceable control of influencers is highly desirable – if only to bring them into frontline liability in the event that a particular product is defective or otherwise not conducive to legal action. Worldwide commentary on this issue is now rife with clamour, Of course you all watch the ways in which damage can be – and has been – inflicted and what is or should be the liability which can be visited with – at least of human influencers – and likely also of the controller of virtual influencers.
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