Is KOL Useful and Needed by Brands?

The Internet has been proven to play an important part in many people's lives within the past few years. The number of internet users has also increased seamlessly as it becomes more accessible to everyone. According to Statista (2019), as of 2017, the internet is used by approximately 3.7 billion people, which means that half of the global population has their dependence on the Internet. Within the Internet itself, people usually use it for their various facilities, mostly social media. Social media is needed by many as their medium to converse with people far from them. Some people even use social media as their place to promote their brands.

Usually, when people want their brand to be known by the public, they ask people with big reputations, such as celebrities, to influence the public to buy and try their product. Nowadays, people who are not as big as celebrities, but still have that power to influence people, are used by brands as their "brand ambassadors". These people are called as KOL, the short form of Key Opinion Leaders, or simply known more as influencers. 

KOLs are seen to become an influence for people to try new things or brands that they are currently promoting, and brands are seeing them as their key to success. Nowadays brands like to use them more than celebrities due to some reasons. Firstly, since KOLs may still be seen as something unknown to some people, it could be a jumping start for both KOLs and the brand to be recognized. Second, KOLs are usually more open-minded than celebrities. When people become more famous, they usually have more terms and conditions before working together with other people, with their reputation on the line. Third, KOLs do not set an extremely high price to work together with them, thus budget efficiency becomes something important for them. 

In general, KOLs are people that brands find easier to work with and when they get more famous and known by the public, the engagement that both the brand and KOLs get can be the same and it ends up as a win-win solution for both sides. In fact, some parts of the public trust KOLs more as they feel that they can relate to them more than celebrities. In the end, KOLs do play a huge role, especially in today's digital marketing. 

Raras Nareswari
1806240920

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