Keeping up with the next generation of social climbers
Depending on how you define influencer marketing, you could say it has been around as long as traditional marketing has. The first radio soap operas were initially created so that soap powder could have influence on their target audience as long ago as the 1950s. Product endorsement from well known celebrities are nothing new either. From George Clooney’s partnership with Nespresso to Kim Kardashian’s partnership with JetSmarter – the private jet app (Oh, to be famous) and every celebrity that exists social partnerships with strange teas that promise to make you thinner. But, we are now amidst strange times. Social Media and niche communities of interest have meant that influence can now be extended purely though people’s social channels – hence the birth of the ‘social influencer’.
Keeping up with the next generation of social climbers
It might be bold to say it, but I’ll go ahead anyway - the influencer marketing market place lacks sophistication in some areas and even lacks competence in others. But why is this? Is it because there is a disconnect between the way that campaigns happen and even between young audiences at the end of the influencers content and the people putting the briefs together?
There’s no denying that influencer marketing works, and that’s why everyone wants to do it. 67% of Generation Z would rather see ‘real people’ endorsing a brand and consider them more important and credible than ‘traditional’ celebrities. Typical campaign click through rates can be between 0.05% and 0.2% where as with influencer campaigns, we’re looking as high as 10-40%.
Generation Z really do love these social influencers. They feel a deep connection to the talent on a personal basis. It’s a new way to ‘fan girl’ and a great way for brands to reach different audiences.
Everyone wants to try it and the markets becoming overcrowded which is why we saw the need for some tact. Hence the birth of Social Circle. Not only do we manage influencer campaigns, but also we are trying to create an industry standard for influencer marketing. We’ve created a platform that connects brands and social influencers plus a data analytics tool that allows you to live track your campaigns.
Organising influencer campaigns has many layers and many people are involved in the process. Essentially, a brand is buying into a person rather than a space. This can cause confusion for more traditional media buyers and even for traditional PR agencies that are used to free editorial coverage.
The demand for influencers is going crazy. As with anything new, every one wants a piece of the action and it’s no wonder the market place is changing so frequently and so drastically. Influencers now have agents and prices for talent seem to be plucked out of the air dependent on what an influencer needs to get by, rather than more sensibly on what their value actually is. Judging an influencer by subscriber numbers seems ludicrous to us – firstly, a lot of people watch YouTube without subscribing to any channels and the likelihood of someone unsubscribing to channels they have out grown is slim to none.
If you compare some of the biggest YouTube talent’s views with their subscriber numbers, they’re actually getting quite a small watch rate. We had to find a way to make sense of the soaring prices and keep everything fair and so, we came up with our own metric for effectively measuring talent – an engagement metric. What this means, is that we take every interaction that someone can have with a piece of social content created online and give it a value. For example, if you look at Twitter, a retweet is far more valuable than a view because you are naturally expanding the reach and audience of the content.
What this also means is that we are able to figure out suitable Cost Per Engagements when it comes to working with social influencers and we know when we are overpaying. We tend to ‘buy’ at £0.01 - £0.16 CPE yet some of our favourite YouTubers charge over £1 per engagement.
Through the tracking on our platform and the metrics we have created, we are able to monitor not only the big names, but also find the up and coming ones – the social climbers. These are the people to watch – they don’t necessarily have management nor are they necessarily used to brand collaborations but they are often most reasonably priced and also, most excited for brand work opportunities meaning lots of added value.
SOCIAL CLIMBERS
1. Daz Games
Reach: 5,227,162
Avg. views: 2,806,782
Avg. engage: 2,876,342
1,408,594 subscribers
146,099 views per video
-5% average views growth
1% subscriber growth
Reach: 4,248,201
Avg. views: 2,962,566
Avg. engage: 3,047,043
280,588 subscribers
279,029
2% average views growth
1% subscriber growth
Beginning his career on the now defunct platform Vine, it has been fascinating to observe both Daz’s growth, and his approach to maintaining career longevity, especially when faced with the prospect of losing your entire following.
His decision to create two channels, one for comedy content which is longer form than his Vine content (which suits the YouTube platform better), and one for gaming content, which is incredibly popular with his particular demographic of young males.
With both of his channels prominent in our Social Climbers database, it’s no wonder that he is our top Social Climber for the month, and we look forward to continuing to watch and track his growth.
2. Nile Wilson
Reach: 41,620
Avg. views: 93,277
Avg. engage: 95,786
41,620 subscribers
93,277 views per video
660% average views growth
159% subscriber growth
Nile’s channel was relatively unknown only one month ago, and compared from then to now, his growth has soared through the roof. A young Olympic gymnast, he creates content around his sport in a relatable manner for his peer age group audience. He has experimented with more clickbait over the past two months, and it has indeed paid off. It is this model of Hero - Hub - Help content which has driven traffic through his viral hits and into his brilliant more day-to-day content.
3. Sonic State
Reach: 93,942
Avg. views: 2,181
Avg. engage: 2,258
93,942 subscribers
2,181 subscribers
679% average views growth
0% subscriber growth
Reach: 134,440
Avg. views: 6,209
Avg. engage: 6,511
134,440 subscribers
6,209 views per video
346% average views growth
0% subscriber growth
5. Steejo
Reach: 32,009
Avg. views: 4,711
Avg. engage: 4,836
30,108 subscribers
4,616 views per video
348% average views growth
1% subscriber growth
Uploading a whopping 8 times a day - every 3 hours - it’s no surprise that Steejo has made his way onto our radar. A Scottish gaming YouTuber with an incredible backlog of gameplay, his content averages views from the mid hundreds all the way to the high tens of thousands. His approach to tackling the YouTube algorithm is a unique and modern one, however his consistency yields a channel which, with dedication, only continues to grow exponentially.
6. Coreross
Reach: 70,544
Avg. views: 9,828
Avg engage: 10,407
70,544 subscribers
9,828 views per video
288% average views growth
1% subscriber growth
7. AlmaDeutscher
Reach: 25,798
Avg. views: 101,305
Avg. engage: 102,299
25,798 subscribers
101,305 views per video
285% average views growth
1% subscriber growth
Twelve-year-old Alma’s YouTube channel is by no means the most impressive thing about her - a musical prodigy, she has just debuted her first full length musical opera in Vienna, which she wrote entirely by herself. A master composer, pianist and violinist, she posts her performances and practice videos to her YouTube channel, with consistently high viewership, even though her uploads are perhaps less frequent than other YouTube channels.
8. Exxkun
Reach: 43,916
Avg. views: 10,836
Avg. engage: 11,243
43,916 subscribers
10,836 views per video
305% average views growth
0% subscriber growth
Reach: 90,415
Avg. views: 32,328
Avg. engage: 115,605
287,604 subscribers
17,856 views per video
2% avg. views growth
0% subscriber growth
10. Suzy Lu
Avg. views: 8,987
Avg. engage: 9,388
72,082 subscribers
8,987 views per video
227% average views growth
4% subscriber growth
Matt Donegan, Managing Director, Social Circle.
Tel: 020 7748 9237
Email: matt@socialcircle.media
Web: socialcircle.media
Twitter: @socialcircle_
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