Artificial Intelligence is the topic on everyone’s lips. With incredible new capabilities and potential benefits for marketers and business owners, everyone wants a piece of this exciting new technology.
Artificial Intelligence doesn’t mean a robot keen on world domination, so no need to run for the hills. People tend to overestimate what AI can do, in the words of child prodigy and AI expert for IBM, Tanme Bakshi, “think of it as Automated Intelligence…while AI can do amazing things it is built to help us humans do what we do better”.
We’re going to get you up to speed on some of the power of AI today, what is in store for the future of AI, what adverse implications can come with the rise of AI technology and how we can combat them.
AI and Influencer Marketing today
Brand and Campaign Managers can gain valuable insights with advanced AI analytics and benefit greatly from AI’s unparalleled ability to analyse and sort through data. Social platforms are now providing quality insights that can help us gather valuable information about the influencers we work with. We can now easily find information on an influencers audience or details on post results meaning Campaign Managers can save time that would be spent collating data and spend more time researching influencers, finding valuable insights, improving ROI and their service overall.
Specialised influencer marketing technology like what we use internally here at The Social Club are able to pull even more detailed data based on social media users profiles settings and content. Valuable information like the income, marital status number of children and more can be gathered with the help of AI and that can then be used to help identify the best influencer for the job.
A New Virtual World
This might sound strange, but virtual worlds are being created on social platforms with the help of AI. Virtual Influencers are an extraordinary new part of the influencer marketing world and it seems that they are just as influential as their human couterparts. Lil Miquela is probably one of the better-known examples of a virtual influencer, she boasts 1.6 million followers and documents herself taking part in all of your typical influencer activities like photoshoots for Calvin Klein with Bella Hadid, attending events and just hanging out wearing looks fresh from the runway.
These influencers offer very real opportunities for brands, a survey by Fullscreen found 55% of 18 to 34-year-olds would not object to a brand due to a CGI/virtual influencer and 55% of followers have made a purchase based on a CGI/virtual influencers recommendation.
The future of AI
AI will continue to grow in ways that can help marketers and campaign managers. The demand for influencer marketing is growing and so is the demand for the development of AI to help improve this service.
Image recognition technology will soon become a helpful tool for influencer marketing.
‘Computer Vision’ is AI that trains computers to interpret and understand the visual world. It is what your phone uses for facial recognition and can also be used to filter through large volumns of images to help identify specific details like people, products and logos.
Google uses image recognition technology with their reverse image search function and soon this AI technology will be able to be used for influencer marketing. It will be possible to analyse large volumns of images on social media platforms like Instagram to find specific content for example user-generated content featuring your products. AI could also help to analyse the kind of content influencers, competitors and industry leaders are posting, allowing campaign managers to access even more valuable information in order to further refine their services.
What could possibly go wrong?
“Deepfakes” – The Newest Form of Digital Manipulation
There has been a lot of buzz, especially in the US, about this new form of AI known as a “deepfake”. These are videos made with the help of powerful machine-learning software that can automatically paste one persons face onto the another persons body. An app named FakeApp is making it easy for anyone to create a deepfake video, this technology could have serious negative ramifications for public figures of all types as well as the general public. People are worried about what the impact of fake footage of politicians could have, along with the impacts on softer targets like it being used to bully young people at school.
Thankfully the technology is not yet at a level where it is indecipherable from a real video of a person by the naked eye, however as the technology improves it will be. Tech companies are working to combat deepfakes themselves, YouTube has already removed a number of videos and Zuckerberg said that he’s considering a new policy for policing deepfakes on his site, enforced by a mix of human moderators and automation.
A Black Market of Fake Accounts and Engagement
With any great super-power, it can be dangerous if it gets into the wrong hands. While most AI is created to make life easier, there are some made with the purpose to create fake accounts and false engagement. The creation of these AI’s has created a black market where ingenuine Influencers can purchase followers, likes and comments.
A world of bots has diminished some trust between Marketers, Brands and Influencers. Brands want to know that they’ll get a good ROI and are using Influencers they can trust. Likewise, an influencer marketers reputation is on the line when putting forth potentially ingenuine influencers for a brand to consider, making it key for them to verify the authenticity of their influencers, thankfully we have technology that can help marketers identify fakes.
Who do I Trust?
This highlights the importance of transparency and follower-awareness in Influencers. Thankfully Instagram is working hard to remove as many fake accounts as it can. You can also check out our guide on how to spot and avoid Fake Followers to keep harmful AI’s from impacting your campaigns or reputation. Here at The Social Club, we’re fighting fire with fire, using our own technology to ensure all our influencers are genuine and to ensure our clients always get great, authentic results.
Now you’re up to date on the latest in AI and influencer marketing you can not only sound impressive when you talk to your workmates about it but you can also use it to your advantage when you run your next influencer marketing campaign.
Speak to one of our awesome team members to get started on your campaign today and we can help you achieve some amazing results with the help of our expert campaign managers and AI. Send us an email at enquiries@thesocialclub.co today!
