Contents
Success
Authenticity and closeness play a crucial role in the success of people who succeed on Instagram, Twitter, Facebook, Snapchat, and YouTube.
In the middle of the social media It is a miracle to find a person between the ages of 13 and 38 without an Instagram profile or Facebook. More so now when influencers have broken into our lives and are the «advertisers», par excellence, of all kinds of products, many of them even becoming obfuscated, especially, the so-called «millennials” Yet the “Generation Z».
The term “influencer” is already so heard and used on a daily basis that sometimes we do not stop to think about its meaning. Those acquaintances with this concept were born thanks to social networks, which gave them the opportunity to capture the attention of their followers. In other words: «An influencer is a person who, due to their presence and influence on social networks (Instagram, YouTube, Twitter, WordPress, Facebook, Pinterest …) has some credibility on a specific topic. It becomes a good influence for a brand and has a significant number of followers, “he says. Dafne Catalonia, a psychologist at the European Institute of Positive Psychology.
The psychologist challenges: “If your coworker recommends you use a certain hair product because you see that it works for him and he personally tells you that it works great, would you try it?” Surely yes, but if that same product appears on television, without any credibility of someone you “know” you don’t give the slightest importance. Therefore, he points out Dafne Catalonia, «We let ourselves be guided by what is recommended by people who are ‘close’ to us and provide credibility and speak from experience».
These are the effects that make influencers succeed, according to psychologist Dafne Catalonia:
Trust
It highlights the strength of authenticity and honesty. «It is presented not only in being sincere, but in showing ourselves as we are, without masks or conceals. When a person is being frank, we cancel out our most analytical part. The psychologist Daniel Kahneman differentiates between two ways of working in our mind. On the one hand there is “type 1”: instinctive, to make quick decisions, and “type 2”: who makes more analytical decisions. We take perspective and distance before acting. If a person is authentic, what favors is that the person who listens shows “type 1”. This means that many times we do not start our judgment and accept things without thinking, “he says.
Closeness
“This differentiates them from the big brands. This closeness makes them use a very colloquial language and connect with you ‘as equals’. There are two psychological principles: sense of belonging. It has to do with all human beings we want to feel part of a group. With this closeness I feel similar to that person and I am part of their circle. Another of the needs that is covered is that they reinforce us socially: by answering us through social networks, they make us feel valuable because that person has taken time to answer, “says the psychologist.
However, there are also some consequences that occur in this profession and that affect those hundreds of thousands of followers …
They help us make decisions
«We go to them many times when we have a question about something: clothes, makeup, perfumes, travel… Before we tried it ourselves and made the decision, assuming that we can be wrong or right. On the contrary, with influencers, the decision-making is theirs. In this way a responsibility that the decision is not made by me, and just because those who succeed on Instagram recommend it, it already makes me think that I will like it. We avoid going through the moment of doubt and of deciding. They make our lives easier, but sometimes they negate many people’s ability to take decisions», Says Dafne Catalonia.
Originality
When a influencer it begins to make itself known, it tends to attract attention for showing itself as it is, and that draws a lot of attention because the new and the different awakens our attention. There comes a point where they spread out en masse and lose that originality because they become one more trend. The person who goes to the influencer does it many times with the intention of absorbing their way of being, their point of view, their experience … That causes us to lose, on many occasions, our essence “, warns the psychologist of the National Institute of Positive Psychology .
What makes an influencer successful
- They are shown as they are, without masks and concealments. Build trust
- They use colloquial language and try to connect “as equals.” They create closeness
- They test products and describe their feelings. They help make purchasing decisions
- They try to be themselves, they are natural and they give free rein to their originality