Influencer marketing isn’t anything new, it’s been the foundation for product placement (natural or manufactured) since the beginning of time.

In a recent conversation with friends, someone said that social media influencer marketing is relatively new and probably not the most responsible way to disseminate information. When I asked him what he meant he said, “Since when do we listen to bloggers & Vloggers about what’s what?” Forever. That’s all I could say. Forever.

Humans have been communicating their likes, dislikes and recommending better ways to rub sticks together since the cave-people. Thank you Geico! The platforms to generate buzz may be newer, Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, Periscope, etc….but the messages have always been the same. One person has an attraction for something and wants to share it with the world!

From the Old Stone Age to the Bronze Age to the Iron Age. How did they actually transition from one to the other? The Ages throughout history weren’t simply determinate on new materials discovered but how those resources were developed. Prehistoric people were learning to survive. The first sharp, pointy object was a musical instrument! (I remember that from music theory class. My influential music teacher told me so) yet somehow, someone discovered that an object with a point could pierce the skin of a Sabre Tooth Tiger and help them disassemble the animal for sharing. A Neanderthal Visionary shared this information with other hunters and a new weapon was born.

These early people were Neanderthal Visionaries or, as I like to call them, the first Great influencers! Adapting to new climates, utilizing new techniques to forge for food; fire! How did this information travel from one cave to another? The platform was possibly visual person to person (Instagram), though many believe they had their own way of communicating through short bursts of verbalization (Twitter) and of course drawings fixed in the walls (Facebook). Forms of media back then were a little different but they did communicate and it did get around. If it hadn’t, we may still be wearing animal skin and sharpening our teeth with sticks. These were the first influencers! Someone communicated a piece of information about something, others qualified its value and off we go! The Influencer was born!

Influencers have been ingrained in societies all over the world forever; a town crier, the barker at a baseball game, politicians actually stood on platforms to get their message out! Our new world has just discovered more streamlined and accountable ways of influencing. We simply have documented platforms that reach the other side of the world in seconds! Ah, the Influencer – we finally figured you out. Now, go forth & influence!