Maximum Media and JOE founder, Niall McGarry, joined our leading panel of Irish entrepreneurs for our first ever All In LIVE show at The Chocolate Factory in Dublin.
Among topics including Brexit (delightful), hiring the right people, how to use failure as a driving force and Ireland's SME culture, there was also some chat about influencers.
Yes, in the last decade the world of marketing has seen drastic changes in the age of the influencer. Speaking about JOE UK, which boasts a huge social following of over 12 million and has also worked with a number of influencers in the past, Niall said:
"...there’s genuine credibility in some of the influencers in the UK. I think the challenge in Ireland has been that some of the influencers in Ireland have obviously brought a hard time on themselves by maybe a lack of credibility.
We've had instances of people buying fake Instagram followers and so on and so forth and you know, the whole Bloggers Unveiled thing which a lot of people probably think went a bit too far. But like, there's a real mixed feeling around influencer marketing where there isn't actually around the world."...someone has to have a definable reason to be influential and I think in Ireland we just jumped on, 'Oh well I've decided to follow this course of action.'"I saw recently, I think there was a question asked to young women in terms of coming through school; 'What do you want to be?' I think doctor was number one and influencer was number two. "The reason why I think it's a bad career path is ultimately it's very like modelling. It's not sustainable for a long period of time because you lose your credibility, you lose your influence, and then where are you?"Watch this week's episode of All In, JOE's all-new business show, where Niall features alongside Alison Cowzer and Gary LavinAll In, backed by AIB, is available everywhere you find your favourite podcasts and on YouTube every Wednesday
