Influencer.in Releases Report on Influencer Marketing Trends in India - 2016

Chennai, India, January 12, 2016 (Newswire.com) - Highlights:

· Twitter is the most popular channel among the influencer community, followed by Facebook, Blog and Instagram

Over the last 8-12 months we have seen tremendous traction, both from brands and influencers. We are starting to a see a lot more professionalism from the influencers with many of them focusing on the quality of content & conversation being created. Brands are also starting to leverage with the relevant metrics being tracked. 2016 is going to be a growth year for influencer marketing in India

Vikas Chawla, Co-Founder

· Lifestyle, Food, Travel and Entertainment ranks among the most popular blogging category in India

· Top 3 challenges faced by Influencers while working with brands: Untimely Payment, Expectations of Quick Results, and Undervaluing of work done

The Report on Influencer Marketing Trends in India – 2016 was released by Influencer, one of India’s largest influencer marketing platforms. The Report is based on a pan-India online research survey carried out by Influencer.in over Nov-Dec 2015. The Report provides insights into the rapid growth of influencer marketing as a brand marketing channel in India.

95% of influencers in the study sample were from the 4 major cities – Mumbai, Delhi, Chennai & Bangalore with an almost equal gender distribution. Traditionally Facebook has been more popular in India among the masses but the Influencer report suggests the contrary when it comes to the Influencer community. Twitter tops the chart with 94% active influencers followed by Facebook at 88%. Google+, considered to be doomed by many, seems fairly popular among the bloggers with almost 50% respondents active on the platform. Communities like Zomato & Trip Advisor also rank among the top-10 platforms. When it comes to leveraging their social media presence for brand promotions, Twitter, Facebook, Blogs and Instagram rank right at the top.

Lifestyle (67%) emerged as the most popular blogging category followed by Food & Travel. Sectors like Healthcare and B2B are not too far behind. 55% of Influencers in the study worked with more than 5 brands in a month. Brands have an added incentive in leveraging influencer marketing because approx. 57% of the influencers use the products of the brands they promote while 58% often recommend the products to their circle of family and friends.

The study also delved in to the challenges faced by influencers when it comes to promoting the brands. Most of the listed Untimely Payment, Expectations of Quick Results, and undervaluing of work as the 3 most important challenges followed by mismatched expectations in the 4th place.

Speaking about the survey, Mr. Vikas Chawla, Co-founder – Influencer, said: “Over the last 8-12 months we have seen tremendous traction, both from brands and influencers. We are starting to a see a lot more professionalism from the influencers with many of them focusing on the quality of content & conversation being created. Brands are also starting to leverage with the relevant metrics being tracked. 2016 is going to be a growth year for influencer marketing in India”

It is interesting to note that 83% of the influencers considered blogging as a good full-time career option. This seems a far cry from the earlier perception that looked at blogging as a hobby alone.

Despite the challenges faced, most influencers were open to working with any brand. FMCG brands like Loreal and Dove topped the list of brands they would want to closely work with. Influencer marketing is maturing abroad but the Indian market has seen a rapid growth only in the last 1-2 years. It would be interesting to watch this space closely and see how it pans out.

The full report and info graphic on Influencer Marketing Trends in India can be downloaded here.

About Influencer.in:

Co-founded by Suneil & Vikas Chawla, Influencer.in is India’s largest influencer marketing platform that connects brands with digital influencers. It’s an initiative of South India's leading digital agency, Social Beat. With its web & app platform, Influencer.in helps brands create quality content and amplify the reach among the target audience by leveraging digital influencers across twitter, facebook, linkedin, youtube & industry specific platforms. They have a 30 member team with in-house expertise in creating content across multiple languages. Their clients include Housing.com, Sony Music, Murugappa Group, Citibank India, Viber App, PlanetSuperheroes.com amongst others.

For more details, please visit www.influencer.in or https://www.twitter.com/SpotInfluencer

Media Contact: Abhishek Kumar – abhishek@influencer.in