I have been blogging since 2003, but I don’t consider myself a full-time one. The original intention of my setting up a blog website was to have a personal online repository of interesting things I saw when I travel, to record events that I attended, and to have an online space for my technology-related commentaries, and stuff. Blogging is more of a hobby for me.
I am truly grateful whenever people who read my blog entries leave comments on my posts, or took the extra mile of sending me “thank you” emails for posting something that I originally intended just for myself. This eventually led to receiving invitations from brands to attend their product launches and at times, to be sent with their products for me to try myself for a possible review post on my website. Up to that point, I still consider blogging and posting on my social media channels about products and services I use something casual — not on a full-time, professional level. But low and behold: some of these brands consider me as an “influencer” — a micro-influencer, that is.
What really is an influencer? In the marketing world, an influencer is someone who has the ability to influence potential buyers of a product or service by promoting or recommending the items on social media. In general, this is known as “influencer marketing.”
I personally don’t consider myself an “influencer” as I do not have that many followers on Twitter, Instagram, and even on my Facebook page. But there is one thing that I am most proud of about my social media channels: most of those who follow me are real people and not bots.
Articles posted here on my website are promoted on my Facebook page, Twitter account, and LinkedIn profile. While on my Instagram feed, I normally post personal stuff to show my gratitude to brands who sent me their stuff as a token or simply for me to try them out.
At the onset of this ongoing pandemic, I found myself having more time to spare for writing on my websites. With everything happening online — from press conferences to product demonstrations, and meetings — I saved a lot of time, which I normally would spend stuck in Metro Manila traffic, queueing in parking lots, or waiting for a press event to start and finish on time.
The number of press and media events I attended during this pandemic has doubled compared to the physical (in-person) activities I had until 2019 — thanks to the power of online communications platforms like Zoom, Google Meet, and Microsoft Teams. Not to mention countless webinars I attended on Facebook and YouTube.
According to an article posted by Forbes, the pandemic has clearly led to higher traffic and engagement on influencer sites — and I firmly believe in this. For my website alone, I saw a dramatic increase of 80.44% in new site visitors in 2021 compared to 2020; and a 135% jump using the same metrics between 2020 and 2019. Putting it in layman’s terms: I never had so many website visitors in my website since I started it. I was asked a couple of times if I planned for this, and my quick answer: NO. Remember, I said that writing is more of a hobby and not a full-time thing for me.
It was also during this pandemic when I decided to have a separate, dedicated website for aviation-related stuff, thus AvGeekPH.com was born. I see the need to have this particular blog site to cater to those who are into aviation news, not necessarily related to travel tips and tricks.
Personally, I believe that the up-trending traffic generated to blog sites and social media channels of influencers will continue in the next twelve (12) months or so. With most people staying at home for work and schooling deemed as the new normal, it is inevitable for them to consume online content from people they follow and idolize — the influencers.