If you search on Wikipedia, it shows that "Key opinion leader" and "Influencer" are redirected to “Internet celebrity.” However, there is a difference between KOL and influencers. Influencers start their careers on YouTube and focus on “lifestyle,” a synonym for everything. An influencer can engage the audience with content including fashion, cooking, traveling, and many more. KOL is a sub-category of influencers, who often specialize in a specific area that requires more complex knowledge such as medical, scientific, financial, and others. KOL can also share lifestyle content, but the main difference is the domain knowledge and sometimes KOL holds a full-time job at the same time as working as an influencer.
Social media has drastically changed the way businesses market themselves. It enhances the word-of-mouth effect on about consumers’ 20 to 50 percent of decision-making. It also creates transparency and leverages influencers and KOLs as salespeople to communicate brand image. The advantage of KOL marketing over influencer marketing is that KOLs usually have a specialized and targeted audience. This feature allows brands to narrow down their target and marketing budget. It is quite embarrassing to share this, but I sometimes watch 3Blue1Brown on YouTube for fun. Well, how much I pay attention is a different story. If Grant Sanderson decides to use Texas Instruments calculators in his videos, it would be a great match for them both. Grant, being the KOL in math and science on YouTube, and Texas Instruments, who supplies many schools for calulators in Math classes. With a targeted marketing strategy, it would also direct these types of partnerships to a long-term alignment.
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Micro-influencers in the above category have been quite popular in recent years because business tends to target more affordable individuals to cut cost. Parallelly to Micro-influencers, there is a concept called “Key Opinion Customers” (KOC) who focuses on reviews. The term originated in China, where KOL is a widely used term, and has been rapidly growing in recent years. KOC has the trend of replacing KOL because of its affordability and review features. They can be your next-door neighbor who is using and making a review of the product. Although KOC might have small followers, they report and review their personal experiences with less monetary reward from the brand. The authenticity of these reviews will sway consumers buying choices sometimes more than the Mega-influencers.
Micro-influencers have gained some traction on TikTok, but not every brand has realized the potential of this marketing strategy. The 2010s have been the era of influencers and the KOLs and KOCs will stay for the long-term gain.
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