Influence Me: How Persuasive and Impactful are Social Media Tastemakers?

With all of your favorite primetime shows on hiatus for the summer, reality shows abound. Chances are, some of the colorful reality TV personalities gracing your screen this summer will try their hand at becoming social media influencers.

We surveyed 1,031 members of our consumer panel to get their take on influencers: are they following them and are they buying the products they hawk online? What we learned:

They like their influencers. The majority (67%) follow at least 1 influencer, and three-in-ten follow 10 or more influencers.

Influencers sometimes pique enough curiosity for their followers to buy products they endorse. Of those who follow at least one influencer, seven-in-ten have bought an item an influencer has promoted online at least once. Four-in-ten have made 2 to 5 purchases.

Influencer endorsed products tend to measure up to the hype. Nearly all of our purchasers feel these products are “sometimes good quality and worth the money” (55%) or “usually good quality and worth the money” (38%).

Anyone else curious to see how many #sponsored posts will start to crop up in August once most of the reality show contestants have lost their shot at love, money, or instant fame?