Is Ad Regulation Limiting the Freedom of Social Media Influencers?

1. Is Ad Regulation Limiting the Freedom of Social Media Influencers? Social media marketing such as that offered by Long Island SEO services plays a key role in brand building. Ad regulation may affect influencer marketing. With every year social media users are rising and today we have more than 3.196 billion social media users which is nearly half of the planet. It follows that no business can ignore social media marketing. It helps to build the brand and increase brand visibility through building relationships and communicating with potential customers. With the help of professional Long Island SEO services, businesses can increase users as well as sales.

2. There are many social media platforms -- Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Pinterest etc and there are many techniques in social media marketing like posting content, a photo or video or a comment or live sessions. Out of all the techniques, posting a video on Facebook alone gets 59 percent more engagement that any other type of post. Due to this wide reach of social media, businesses are hugely investing in social media marketing. Another popular technique is live video. Audiences like live experience and the organic feel of “on the fly” video. Some statistics about video Ad: •85 percent of US internet users watch videos. •Marketers who used video had 49 percent increase in revenue compared to non-video users. •By the end of 2019, internet video traffic will account for 80% of all consumer internet traffic. •93 percent marketers use video in their campaign. •92 percent mobile video viewers share videos with others. •64% of consumers make a purchase after watching branded social videos. •Social media generates 1200 percent more shares than text or image content. Brands are now seeing the value in engaging with consumers via voices of social media influencers. A social media influencer is someone who wields influence through social media. The right influencer can reach the target audience, build trust and drive engagement. These influencers can be micro or nano influencers who are active on social media and have hundreds and thousands of followers. Brands are increasingly securing endorsement deals and contracts for sponsored content. In 2017, around $570 million was spent on social media marketing. According to The New York Times, the social media influencer industry could exceed $10billion by 2020. Advertising regulation on social media As per a study by Johns Hopkins Carey Business School, the regulations introduced to protect consumers from voracious social media tactics are in fact leading to poor competition between influencers. This has in turn caused the total amount of paid content to increase and audience engagement to drop considerably. For the study, Carey economist ItayFainmesser and co-author Andrea Galeotti from the London Business School created a mathematical model of the complex interactions and decisions of social media influencers, followers, and marketers under different parameters. Usually social media influencers develop a following by creating attractive content and provide advice in specific areas. These influencers are approached by companies that offer to pay them to promote products to their potential customers. Followers do not know whether the influencers are paid or not and the uncertainty about a post whether it is paid or not affects the audience’s trust n the influencer. In order to retain follower’s trust, there is high competition among influencers to produce the right

3. balance of organic and paid content. Such competition between influencers increases the quality of influencers' recommendations. However, this system has started to change over the last three years as the authorities of USA and Europe sought to regulate the market by increasing transparency and as the first step influencers have to reveal which content is sponsored. This is an extension of advertising legislation from the 1960s. Although this regulation did not affect TV or radio ads, it affected social media influencers, their content and their unpaid recommendations. The study found that this regulation led to an overall increase in the amount of paid content posted by influencers. This resulted in a decrease in the quality of advice and recommendations provided by influencers. This regulation is not suitable for marketers because they see a lower audience engagement for their paid content while social media influencers receive lower pay from marketers. According to the study, the solution is not to regulate influencers but to enhance search technology to better match followers to influencers irrespective of whether they are sponsored or not. Improving search technology would help potential customers to find their preferred influencers and also increase competition among influencers to get more followers. This would reduce the amount of paid content. Advantages include excellent quality recommendations, higher audience engagement and higher pay for influencers. Social media marketing plays a crucial role in business advancement and business leaders are investing hugely in it. Providers of Long Island SEO services can help businesses with social media marketing as well as search engine marketing. (631) 494-3324