Lesson video

Welcome to the RSHE lesson, internet safety and harms; gambling, debt and targeted advertising.

My name's Mr Duffy, I'm really glad you've joined me today.

We're going to look today at influencer endorsements.

So hopefully you've done your intro quiz and you did really, really well on that.

We're then going to look at clarity over paid influencer promotions.

Cautionary approach to online reviews.

And you'll do your exit quiz at the end.

So let's take a look at some keywords, then.

So social media, these are websites and applications that enable users to create and share content or to participate in social networking.

And an influencer is a person with the ability to influence potential buyers of a product or service by promoting or recommending the item on social media.

So first lesson you will need an exercise book or paper because you will need to do some tasks throughout the lesson, and in which case, you're going to need to write something down.

So you will need a pen or a pencil.

So what is social media? So social media is an interactive, computer-mediated, technologies that facilitate the creation or sharing of information, ideas, career interests and other forms of expression via virtual communities and networks.

So why do we have social media? Social media comes down to a simple basic human desire, which is to connect with other humans and to be part of the group.

Social media came about at a time after the world had, in many ways, become one.

Technology and the internet have made it so we can connect with anyone, anywhere, anytime.

We are connected to people 24 hours a day, seven days a week.

And we can meet people who share similar interests to us, which is why the influencer is really important because they have people following them of a similar interest.

So how old do you have to be, then, to have a social media account? I want you to pause the video and write down your ideas, and I'll see you in a second.

So for many social media apps, you would need to be 13 years old.

So Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat, Twitter and TikTok: 13.

WhatsApp is 16, which was actually something I didn't realise, to be fair.

It was only until doing the research for these lessons that I realised and found out that you need to be 16.

YouTube is 18 years old.

However, you can be 13, providing you've got permission from your parent or a carer.

So write down some groups of people that you are influenced by.

Pause the video, and we'll you see in a second So who did you get, then? Family? Absolutely, we're definitely influenced by our family members.

That may be our parents, siblings, might be even further family members, such as cousins, our aunties and uncles.

We're all influenced by the decisions that they make, maybe the things that they drive, the clothes that they wear, the activities that they do.

We are influenced by them.

We're influenced by our friends.

Our friends create a bit of a, a brand themselves, and wear certain clothes, and do certain things, and play with certain toys, maybe with younger children particularly, and as a result, they're influenced by that.

And ultimately they want what it is that they've got.

Celebrities.

We follow a lot of celebrities on social media, generally because we're interested in what they're doing.

But also, that then manifests itself into actually being influenced by what they're doing.

Certainly my wife is interested in Stacey Solomon, and will watch and follow Stacey Solomon.

And as a result, we have Tupperware tubs in our utility room because she's influenced by the things that she's doing.

And then finally we have influencers themselves.

And we're influenced by the things that they put out to us.

An influencer is someone who has the power to affect the purchasing decisions of others because of his or her authority, knowledge, position or relationship with his or her audience.

They may follow a distinct niche with whom he or she actively engages within.

It is important to know that these individuals are not merely marketing tools, but rather social relationship assets with which brands can collaborate to achieve their marketing objectives.

So what are they, social media influencers? Well, over the last decade, we've seen social media grow rapidly in importance.

According to the January 2019 "We Are Social" report, 3.

4 billion people actively use social media.

That's 45% of the world's population.

Inevitably, these people look up to influencers in social media to guide them with their decision marketing and their decision making.

So influencers in social media are people who have built up a reputation for their knowledge and expertise on a specific topic.

They make regular posts about the topic on their preferred social media channels and generate large followings of enthusiastic, engaged people, who pay close attention to their views.

Brands love social media influencers because they can create trends and encourage their followers to buy products they promote.

And part of that is because they've built up a trust.

The influencer has built up trust with their many followers.

So there are different types of influencers, and you can separate different types of influencers in multiple ways.

Some of the most common methods are by follower numbers, by types of content, and by the level of influence.

You can also group influencers by the niche in which they operate.

This means that influencers who may appear in a low category by one measure may seem more influential when looked at in another way.

For example, many mega-influencers are also celebrities, yet both these groups often have less real influence on their audience because they lack expertise in a dedicated narrow niche.

Some micro- and even nano-influencers can have tremendous impact on followers in their specialist niche.

They may be of significant benefit to a firm selling a product targeting that sector.

So let's take a look, then, by follower numbers.

Many mega-influencers are celebrities who have gained their fame online, movie stars, sports people, musicians and even reality television stars.

Some mega-influencers have gained their vast following through their online and social activities.

However, only major brands should approach mega-influencers for influencer marketing.

However, their services will be costly, up to $1 million per post.

And they will most likely be extremely fussy about with whom they choose to partner.

In virtually every case, mega-influencers will have agents working on their behalf to make any marketing deals.

So macro-influencers are one step down, and may be more accessible as influencer marketers.

You would consider people with followers in the range between 40,000 and a million followers on social networks to be a macro-influencer.

This group tends to consist of two types of people.

They are either B-grade celebrities, who haven't yet made it to the big time, or they are successful online experts who have built up more significant followings on the typical micro-influencers.

The latter type of macro-influencer is likely to be more useful for firms engaging in influencer marketing.

Macro-influencers generally have a high profile and can be excellent at raising awareness.

There are more macro-influencers than mega-influencers, so it should be easier for a brand to find a macro-influencer willing to work with them.

They are also more likely to be used to working with brands than micro-influencers, making communication easier.

So the next one down is micro-influencer.

Micro-influencers are ordinary everyday people who have become known for their knowledge about some specific or specialist niche.

As such, they have usually gained a sizeable social media following amongst devotees of that niche.

Of course, it is not just the number of followers that indicates the level of influence, it is the relationship and the interaction that a micro-influencer has with his or her followers.

Micro-influencers usually have between 1,000 and 40,000 followers on a single social platform.

Finally, we have a nano-influencer.

These are the newest influencer type to gain recognition is the nano-influencer.

These people only have a small number of followers, but they tend to be experts in an obscure or highly specialised field.

You can think of nano-influencers as being the proverbial big fish in a small pond.

In many cases, they have fewer than a thousand followers, but they will be keen and interested followers willing to engage with nano-influencers and listen to his or her opinion.

We also have types of content.

These can include bloggers, YouTubers, podcasters and social posts only.

We can also look at by the level of influencer.

Influencer marketing grew out of celebrity endorsement.

Businesses have found, for many years, that their sales usually rise When a celebrity promotes or endorses their product.

There are still many cases of companies, particularly high-end brands, using celebrities as influencers.

So what I'd like you to do is copy the mind map outline, and try to add two examples to each section of the mind map.

Pause the video.

Off you go, I'll see you soon.

So can you identify any social media or online influencers? Pause the video, and I'll see you in a second.

So these are, according to the Digital Marketing Institute, the top nine influencers currently.

So we've got there Daily Dose, Huda Kattan, Cameron Dallas, Kayla, Cooking with Mima, Selena Gomez, Kylie Jenner, Cristiano Ronaldo and Zach King.

It's really important to understand that, and it's certainly something that I didn't realise, is I don't recognise half of those names.

Certainly Selena Gomez, Kylie Jenner, Cristiano Ronaldo, obviously.

I don't know any of those other ones.

And it's possibly because they attract maybe a niche, or certainly it's not something that I'm certainly interested in, in terms of what I need or want to find out.

And my wife, she will certainly follow different people, because she's interested in what they're saying or what they're doing.

So influencers target people based on what their interests are, which is why they're perfect for marketers.

So how do influencers, then, try to actually influence us? Pause the video, write down some of your ideas, and I'll see you in a second.

So one of the things that they do is they create what we call trends.

And this could be as simple as creating a fashion trend, in which a fashion brand may create a trend that social media influencers wear and use.

In which case, their followers then become used to seeing and want to follow it as well.

They use user-generated content, so watching someone use the product.

So it might be that maybe a particular influencer is a tree surgeon and a brand may get them to use a certain type of chainsaw.

And people who follow this particular tree surgeon, maybe tree surgeons themselves, will see this, and as a result, will hopefully go and purchase that particular equipment.

Engagement, so brand loyalty through social media is a really big one, and I think brand loyalty is really important to a lot of people.

And one of the things is they're using a certain brand over a period of time.

And, again, they are creating what we call trust with the influencer.

They trust them.

And it's like a little family.

Sometimes the numbers aren't huge, we're saying up to 40,000 people, potentially, for certain types of influencer size.

And if they have a real trust within their little close group, the marketing companies and media influencers are more likely to want to work with one another.

Peer recommendations.

And promotions, discounts, and deals on social media.

So how do you know if you're being influenced or not? Pause the video, and we'll see you in a second.

The honest answer, really, here is it can be quite difficult.

Certainly adverts on things like TikTok will say "skip ad," or that this is an advertisement.

They have to make it clear.

And an influencer needs to make it clear.

And there's certain bodies out there that will ensure that these influencers, celebrities, will follow advertisement guidelines.

So that's really important.

So the influencer must state to the viewer that they are being paid to recommend a product or service.

And if they don't make that clear, then they can be in breach of advertising rules.

Adverts will show up based on your cookies and search viewing history.

So one of the things is that your cookies, and the things that you've been on, will be monitored.

And then adverts will be targeted towards you based on what you're looking at.

So that's one way of knowing how you're being influenced.

So what can you do, then? So one of the things you can do is become a bit of a critical viewer.

And what that means is that you need to be able to have the confidence to differentiate between an advert and advice, and understand and differentiate between where you're trying to be influenced by an influencer to buy a certain brand of, whatever it may well be.

But it's also to differentiate, really, and understand this is clearly an advert, and this isn't.

You can delete or remove your cookies, but one thing I will say here is please ensure that you have spoken to an adult before doing this, and ideally get an adult to do this for you.

But one of the things you can do, is just remove or delete your cookies, in which case you won't get all those adverts aimed and tagged at you.

But once again, please speak to a trusted adult before doing this.

The other thing that's really important is do not click on anything that you do not recognise.

And I think the biggest important thing to learn here is that this could be a virus or malware, which could affect your computer.

So just become a little bit of a critical viewer.

The people that you follow on social media, they will be paid at times to endorse certain products or services.

And just be aware of the ones where they're just talking about general day-to-day life, or whatever it is that they're talking about, and when it becomes an advert.

So on that, then, you should trust all online reviews.

Is that true or false? Make your choice, and I'll see you in a second.

It's false.

Online reviews are there to help you.

Online reviews are there to help you make a purchasing decision, whether that's for a holiday, or whether that's for a product or service.

And like with any review, whether you hear it face-to-face from a friend, you should always treat that review with caution.

Some reviews are, yeah, absolutely accurate.

Sometimes when picking a holiday, you certainly might get an understanding of the person writing the review.

Because actually something that they don't like, might be because maybe they are older than you and don't want that experience.

But for you, absolutely perfect.

But sometimes they can be unreasonable.

They can be undetailed, and in some cases can actually be fake.

So how to spot a fake review can be really difficult.

Certainly do your research.

Certainly have a look around at different products, and get a feel for that product.

Check out other reviews on other websites.

Generally reviews, certainly for big, high expensive products, whether it's a holiday or a car, generally come with more than one review.

Something maybe of a lower monetary value may have maybe just a review on a particular website.

But, again, read all the reviews.

Get a bit of a feel for it.

On websites like Amazon, Yelp or TripAdvisor, take a look at the users' profiles and read other reviews that they may have posted.

Certainly on Amazon, and Yelp or TripAdvisor, sometimes people can make fake accounts and make fake reviews, sometimes positive, to try and get people to buy that product, And sometimes negative, because they're trying to take you away from that product and point you in the direction of another one.

And I think that sometimes that can be to try and place a product inside a review, which they're not really allowed to do, and certainly isn't helpful to you when looking at reviews.

And be aware of those, particularly the reviews where it says this product is rubbish, or this product doesn't work very well, however, I purchased this product instead and here's a link.

Those ones generally are trying to jump into the review and create what we call a fake review to try and get you to purchase something else.

If their only reviews are praise for one particular place or product, or complaints about a particular place or product, they're likely to be untrue.

Because not everybody is going to like a particular product or service.

It's unlikely, yes, you might get five stars, but generally, reading through, you start to build up a picture of things that are good about it, and things that aren't.

Even all five star reviews will have some form of negative.

Look at the reviews that have a bit of a balance to them.

So, if you'd like to, please ask your parent or carer to share your work on Twitter, tagging @OakNational and #LearnwithOak.

I hope you've learned something today.

I hope you've really enjoyed the lesson today.

Like I said, I've been Mr Duffy.

I'm really glad you could join me today, and hopefully I'll see you soon.

Goodbye!.