The Socializers | influencers

The Dawn of Synthetic Celebrities: AI Influencers and Brand Marketing

admin March 28, 2023 No Comments

Picture a world where the borders between reality and the digital sphere seamlessly blend, as AI-driven virtual influencers take the social media stage by storm, transforming marketing tactics and enthralling global audiences. These digital personas, entirely crafted by artificial intelligence, are already changing the face of brand promotion and consumer behavior. As we look into the not-so-distant future, we must ask ourselves: are we witnessing the dawn of a new era in marketing, shaped by synthetic celebrities?

The Genesis of AI Influencers

It all started with the first AI-generated influencers making their debut on social media platforms. These digital personas were designed to mimic human influencers, with meticulously crafted facial features, wardrobes, and even personalities. Powered by complex algorithms, these virtual beings began to amass huge followings and, eventually, caught the attention of marketers worldwide.

Here’s just a small taste of these AI-generated influencers:

Lil Miquela – an Instagram influencer and virtual model https://www.instagram.com/lilmiquela/
Bermuda – a virtual influencer who often promotes fashion and beauty products https://www.instagram.com/bermudaisbae/
Blawko – a virtual influencer who promotes streetwear and music https://www.instagram.com/blawko22/
Shudu – a virtual model who has appeared in various campaigns for luxury fashion brands https://www.instagram.com/shudu.gram/
Noonoouri – a digital fashion icon who promotes sustainable fashion https://www.instagram.com/noonoouri/
Kizuna AI – a virtual YouTuber who creates content related to video games and technology https://www.youtube.com/@AIChannel/featured
Imma – a virtual model who has been featured in various fashion campaigns https://www.instagram.com/imma.gram
Rae – a virtual influencer who promotes beauty and wellness products https://www.instagram.com/here.is.rae
Brud – the company behind Lil Miquela and other virtual influencers https://brudcreative.com/

Oh, and of course: https://www.instagram.com/realqaiqai (The family doll of Serena Williams and Alexis Ohanian, Qai Qai, which has transformed into a virtual personality.)

As AI technology continues to advance at an unprecedented pace, the depth and realism of these synthetic celebrities have become increasingly convincing. Today, they engage in conversations, participate in live streams, and even perform at virtual concerts. With every passing day, the boundary between the real and the digital is growing ever more indistinct.

Impact on Social Media Marketing

The emergence of AI influencers has opened up a new frontier for marketers, offering them the opportunity to tap into the immense potential of these digital personas. Brands now collaborate with AI-generated influencers to create highly targeted, data-driven campaigns that resonate with specific consumer segments. These synthetic celebrities are not only cost-effective but also provide marketers with unparalleled control over their messaging and brand image. Many prominent brands, including Balmain, Balenciaga, and Prada, have collaborated with virtual influencers such as Lu Do Magalu (with 6 million Instagram followers), Lil Miquela (with 3 million Instagram followers), and Guggimon (with 1.5 million Instagram followers).

Influencing Consumer Behavior

AI influencers are redefining the way consumers engage with brands and products. As they interact with their followers on social media platforms, they wield enormous influence over their purchasing decisions. By leveraging the power of AI-generated content, these virtual personalities can deliver highly personalized experiences tailored to the preferences of individual consumers.

Moreover, the novelty factor of AI influencers has a certain allure that captivates the attention of users. This appeal, combined with their seemingly flawless appearances, has led to a new breed of brand ambassadors with the ability to forge strong emotional connections with their audience.

The Future of Brand Promotion

As we venture deeper into this brave new world of AI-generated influencers, the implications for the future of brand promotion are profound. We may soon see a shift in marketing strategies, as brands prioritize collaborations with synthetic celebrities to reach wider audiences and create more engaging experiences.

In addition, the integration of virtual and augmented reality technologies could potentially amplify the impact of AI influencers, as they break free from the confines of traditional social media platforms and integrate into our daily lives. Imagine a future where your favorite AI influencer appears as a holographic companion, offering personalized shopping advice or fitness coaching or any of the following seminal roles:

• AI-powered Personal Stylists: Picture AI influencers that can analyze your body shape, skin tone, and personal style preferences to curate a tailor-made wardrobe. This virtual stylist would not only suggest outfits but also collaborate with fashion designers to create bespoke clothing items exclusively for you.

• AI-generated Meditation Guides: AI influencers could tap into your emotional state, using biometric data to create personalized guided meditations. These virtual gurus would provide soothing experiences designed to help you achieve the perfect balance of mind, body, and spirit.

• AI Art Collaborators: Imagine working alongside AI influencers to create unique, collaborative art pieces. By combining your creative input with the AI’s artistic knowledge and skill, you could develop never-before-seen masterpieces that blend traditional techniques with cutting-edge technology.

• AI Gastronomy Innovators: Envision AI influencers as virtual chefs, using their vast knowledge of global cuisine and dietary preferences to concoct innovative recipes tailored to your taste buds. These AI culinary experts would combine ingredients and flavors in novel ways, ensuring you always have a fresh and exciting dining experience.

• AI Dream Explorers: AI influencers could act as guides to our dreamscapes, using advanced algorithms to interpret our dreams and offer insights into our subconscious. By helping us decode and understand the hidden messages in our nightly visions, AI dream explorers could provide valuable guidance on personal growth and emotional well-being.

• AI Mindfulness Trainers: Virtual AI influencers could provide personalized mindfulness training based on your unique needs and challenges. By analyzing your daily habits and stressors, these AI coaches would offer customized meditation exercises, breathing techniques, and affirmations to help you develop resilience and cultivate inner peace.

• AI Quantum Healers: Imagine AI influencers with expertise in quantum healing, utilizing vibrational frequencies to balance your energy and promote physical and emotional well-being. By identifying your unique energy signature, these AI healers could create bespoke vibrational therapies to enhance your overall health and wellness.

• AI Astrological Advisors: AI influencers could act as astrologers, combining celestial knowledge with machine learning to offer personalized horoscopes and astrological insights. By analyzing planetary alignments and natal charts, these AI astrologers would provide guidance on career, relationships, and personal growth tailored to your unique cosmic blueprint.

• AI Environmental Guardians: AI influencers could take on the role of environmental stewards, using advanced data analysis to monitor and protect natural habitats. These AI-powered guardians would raise awareness about endangered species, climate change, and other ecological concerns, while offering practical solutions for individuals and communities to live more sustainably.

• AI Spiritual Companions: In a world where spirituality and technology merge, AI influencers could act as virtual spiritual companions, offering support and guidance on your personal journey towards enlightenment. By understanding your unique spiritual beliefs and practices, these AI companions would provide inspiration, wisdom, and encouragement as you explore new dimensions of consciousness and self-awareness

The Ethical Dimension

The rise of AI influencers also raises important ethical questions around transparency, authenticity, and consumer protection. As we continue to blur the lines between the real and the digital, it is crucial to ensure that users are aware of the nature of these virtual personas and the potential biases that may be inherent in AI-generated content.

Social Listening 2019

admin August 24, 2019 No Comments

SUMMARY OF SOCIAL LISTENING – 2019:

Social listening gives us clues related to our customer, our competitor and our marketplace based on conversation analysis at scale. These clues lead to insights that inform laser specific strategy for ALL silos in the enterprise. In addition, we can build a customer base from conversation analysis by enriching handles of those in the conversation. In addition, we can see who is influencing people talking about our chosen themes/topics.

Sentiment analysis and Emotions analysis gives us insight into what causes Joy, Anticipation, Fear, Disgust, Anger within conversations where our chosen themes and topics are being discussed. This is important because we can design better marketing campaigns, bring efficiency to our overall budget based on what’s working/not working in the marketplace, we can spot trends in the marketplace and anticipate where to focus our resources as a brand.

When we see WHO is talking about themes/topics important to our brand, WHERE these conversations are occurring, WHAT is driving awareness of our themes/topics, HOW customers are arriving to our channels AND to our competitors channels, then we make more intelligent decisions for our brand, for each silo in our enterprise.

Social listening is a process by which insights are derived from truly massive quantities of social data (online conversations, documents, and profiles). We distill these huge amounts of data into digestible insights for business stakeholders, accompanied by detailed datasets of prospects, and individuals/entities who influence these prospects. Software solutions combined with human analysts are our chief means for achieving this work

Our net deliverables are PDFs, spreadsheets and in-person meetings where we deliver insights & recommendations related to our research. These deliverables are important because brand leadership has a set of insights/action steps related to discovered individuals (our initial data lake of prospects). We also meet with stakeholders in various business units to discuss the findings, participate in action teams who are executing on initiatives supported by the insights, adjust process and rinse-repeat as needed, honing in on specific additional items desired. This refinement process is where we really drill into the “2nd concentric ring”* and find the exact targets worth acquiring. This is also where we find out what’s working and what’s not working for a specific unit/team.

*The “2nd concentric ring” is everyone who is following a specific influencer. Segmenting and defining the demographics/psychographics/personalities of every single person following an influencer gives us a better idea about whether this influencer is a good pick for our organization. We also find out a lot more about our ideal consumer when studying the “2nd concentric ring”. This is important because when we see every single person who has chosen to follow and engage with an influencer, we gain insight into the culture, buying choices, and online habits of our ideal consumer.

………..

THE NITTY GRITTY PROCESS 2019 (STEP BY STEP):

1. Define the questions/problem to be answered. This is done by sitting down with the client and interviewing leadership, then specific stakeholders, then those who work with specific stakeholders. It is best to do this in small groups or with individuals so as to get honest and truthful information. This is important because we want to start our study with a very deep set of insights on the organization and those who will be using our research. When I interview stakeholders and their teams on an individuals basis, I learn more than when I interview a group together. When I interview a group together, all of the politics and internal issues prevent individuals from sharing fully what is needed.

2. Define the scope/parameters – dates/topics/desired outcomes. After interviewing everyone, I have insight into how the organization will be most helped by the research work. Very few internal stakeholders and employees in the enterprise have the “big picture” view. Usually each person is interested in his/her own agenda or in pleasing specific senior stakeholders. When we know what is at the heart of the organization’s psyche, it’s heartbeat as it were, then we can deliver a scope of work that truly meets the brand’s need vs. individual stakeholders’ needs. This is important because we want our work to feed the brand, to nourish it’s life. A brand can breathe when fed useful insights, and it can die if it is shielded from useful insights. Truth about the marketplace, the consumer, the competitor, and, importantly, the inner body of stakeholders, employees, vendors, contractors and non-human drivers is vital.

3. Define the audience for the report(s) – who is this for/what is purpose of study/why are we doing this study. Each insights report we deliver will nourish a specific person, unit, division, region. When we know the true need, as stated in the last point, we can speak to the audience who has this need…we can speak to the heart of the organization itself. Knowing one’s audience affects one’s voice, one’s tone, one’s approach. This is important because we want our insights to be digestible, used, passed around. We want our research to truly affect change in the organization, change for the good of the brand.

4. Gather existing pre-study materials from the client and study these. Ask client questions about submitted materials. Gather more materials if needed/available.

5. Create boolean queries for conversation data aggregation in a conversation analysis tool.

6. Refine these boolean queries for more precise conversation data aggregation.

7. Download the raw mentions from the conversation analysis tool.

8. Download other relevant sheets from the conversation analysis tool, including Topics, Most Mentioned Authors, Most Used Hashtags, Leading Authors (in terms of Inf), Leading Sites (blog), Leading Sites (forum), Leading Twitter Authors, Leading Blog Authors, Leading Forum Authors, targeted Mentions downloads (using Rules and sub-queries within the search field in the Mentions tab.

9. Organize conversation data downloads, cleaning up columns, deleting un-needed columns/rows, filtering for site type and putting into separate sheets/tabs in Excel.

10. Enriching the Twitter handles/Instagram handles with additional info about those authors using audience intelligence solutions.

11. If needed, further enriching these titles with add’l social handles using APIs that give us PII (phone, email, address, etc.).

12. Analysis of conversation snippets for insights (junior analysts do this, filling in coding columns and insights columns).

13. Analysis of leading sites.

14. Analysis of leading authors.

15. Upload specific sets of conversation snippets into a tool using the LDA algorithm (Latent Dirichlet Algorithm) for Topic Modeling and Emotions Analysis.

16. Look over analysts’ hand coding work and develop macro insights based upon this work.

17. Look over emotions analysis and topic modeling for add’l insights.

18. Look over the types of people talking (from audience intelligence tools) and add add’l insights.

19. Conduct in-person focus groups, where needed/if required by client (using ideal candidates found from the conversation/audience data analysis).

20. Create final reports with insights, recommendations, appendix and, where needed, the working Excel sheets. Add charts and graphs to Appendix of report.

21. Deliver Insights report to client.

22. Deliver an Excel sheet of the enriched author handles, along with addl charts containing psychographic insights, influencer insights, related to these authors.

23. Deliver Excel sheets from audience intelligence dashboards (includes offline insights from sources like Acxiom and Experian).

24. Go over recommendations one by one with the client.

25. Ask client if there are add’l questions they have. Identify opportunities to collaborate on future research together.

Why study influencers' social streams?

admin November 27, 2011 No Comments

When one goes slowly and with imagination through a list of influencers, reading about their passions, studying their proclivities, observing the vicissitudes of mood and opinion in their social stream…a story emerges and forms about that individual, about their market sector and about the customer in that sector. And it is such stories that form the basis of potent marketing campaigns, the focus of which is to grow awareness of YOUR product/service.

Webcast: Social Intelligence and Foresight by Recorded Future and The Socializers

admin November 7, 2011 No Comments

Recorded Future (http://www.recordedfuture.com) was joined by Nathaniel Hansen, CEO of The Socializers, to discuss how temporal analytic technology supports in-depth social web research. We discussed how identifying key web sources and potentially catalytic future events supports social intelligence research.

The presentation includes an introduction to Recorded Future’s technology from CEO Dr. Christopher Ahlberg, a brief a live demo of our analytic tools, and discussion of how the Socializers map and measure the most influential online figures.

Useful questions related to assembling social intelligence reports

admin November 14, 2010 No Comments

a. WHO are the influencers around our topic? Who do we recommend as brand ambassadors and community managers from our findings? WHY do we recommend these individuals?
b. WHERE is our tribe, our customer in the social properties, blogs and major web communities?
c. WHAT VOLUME of conversation is there around our target keywords? Where are those large volumes of conversation taking place?
d. What is the SEASONALITY of conversation around our topics of interest?
e. What TIME OF DAY do people discuss our topics of interest?
f. Which LINKS and SPECIFIC CONTENT are people sending to one another related to our topics of interest?
g. In which CONTEXT are the ‘keywords’ of interest used?
h. Which CLUSTERS OF CONVERSATIONS tend to gather the most interest, volume of attention and influence?
i. Which clusters of conversation are most important to our MARKETING campaign’s needs? REPUTATION of a brand? PRODUCT DEVELOPMENT?
j. Which TOOLS proved most effective in our social media property research? Were there differences in our findings from the different tools? What account can we make for these differences?
k. Which METHODS OF VISUALIZATION are most effective in getting the message across to our client?
l. What INSIGHTS are MOST helpful to our client?
m. What can we find on ALL of the above about our competitors?