What are the prospects for influencer marketing and how blockchain will help?

For the past few years the social media channels like YouTube, Facebook, Twitter, etc. have been growing their audiences. More than 3.5 million users visit social media platforms every day. That’s a whole realm for marketing and advertising campaigns. According to the recent researches, more than 60% of companies are going to increase their budgets on influencer marketing.
So, why is influencer marketing so popular? The answer is extremely simple – it allows to show the commercial within the content, which is relevant to the user. Thus the rise of engagement, the growth of brand visibility and product recognition. 76% of companies, that used influencer marketing in their advertising campaigns noticed exponential growth of all the metrics.
Influencers have an exclusive ability to model their follower’s opinion. A product, mentioned by a public person, gets an extra authority bonus. More than 30% of internet users learn about new products from social media posts and videos. Recommendation of channel-owners determines a buying decision in almost 50% of cases. That’s why influencers became so sufficient for marketing. Influencer marketing industry is expected to grow into a 5-10 billion dollar market by the end of 2020.
However, influencer marketing has several challenging issues to overcome.

The definition of the problem
To begin with, there is a an issue of the ROI calculation. That is what every marketer faces when it comes to dealing with influencers. There is no way of determining which customer comes to a site from a particular influencer recommendation.
Here’s an on-hand example. An advertisement is executed by a popular blogger. He mentions the brand in his post and provides a direct link. The followers would just click on a link. They will be tracked and calculated. But the others would type brands name in the browser. Most of the audience will come to a site out of its appearance in a blog, but a part will see the post a week, month or even year later. So, trying to understand if the campaign is effective becomes a total nightmare for a marketer.

Pricing challenge
There are no standards of grading the price of a post. Every influencer determines it from his colleague's experience and his own ambitions. Two YouTube vloggers with the same audience type and the same quantity of subscribers could ask for their service a price that varies up to 10 times. And for sure they will add a quarter if they don’t like your product. And if you use advertising intermediaries, the total cost of the campaign is growing from 30% to 50%. Therefore, the profit of using intermediaries rapidly decreases.

Time issue
Despite the eruptive evolution of communication, the reaching the influencers takes enormous amount of time. And the most difficult part is to find the owner of the channel. Most bloggers and vloggers never disclose their contacts. It could take a sterling investigation to get a chance to talk to influencer. And after that, you have to discuss the type of needed content, post frequency and the size. It is almost impossible to achieve 5 advertising posts from different influencers per week.

Fraud issue
Obligations could stay unfulfilled. A marketer could be faced with a situation, where not a single point of the brief is executed in a post. Oblivious or absent-minded influencer could even mention your competitor instead. The execution of bargains has to be controlled, but with more than 1 influencer in the campaign the task becomes even more time-consuming.
On the other hand, influencers also face difficulties. Advertisers sometimes just can’t provide plain and accurate requirements, while the descriptions of a product are often gappy. Expectations don’t meet the result, leading to sharp discussions.
In addition, there are a lot of fraudsters in this sphere. Imposters show themselves as influencer managers or even influencers themselves. When the discussion with the advertiser is over and the money is paid they just disappear. Such situations compromise influencers reputation and the marketer loses time and costs.

How to resolve the problem?
There is a great volume of money in influencer marketing, so the appearence of a solution that will resolve its issues was ineluctable. The SocialMedia.Market platform was designed for maintaining influencer advertising campaigns. With the usage of the blockchain it will resolve all the challenges of influencers and advertisers cooperation.
It’s based on Ethereum, making transactions fast and 100% secure. Smart Contacts eliminate human interference in the bargain maintenance, ensuring that all the obligations are going to be executed.
When a misunderstanding occurs, all the claims could be satisfied in a Decentralized Disputing System. Public discussions will help to get a fair solution. Every user of SocialMedia.Market will have an opportunity to take part in disputes – and gain some reward for it.
In the current state, accessibility of influencers advertising market is very low. Neither low-scaled influencers nor minor companies can enter it because of high risks level. SocialMedia.Market will provide secure and transparent space for collaboration.