New monthly ranking selects top Swiss influencers

At Influencer-check.ch, everyone can gain insight into the ranking, which weights seven indicators determined by experts from science and practice from over 10,000 Swiss influencers - instead of the mere number of followers - in the evaluation algorithm. The current top 3 of the ranking: Roger Federer, Ivan Rakitic and travel blogger Mango Butterfly.

About two years ago, the topic of influencer marketing rapidly gained momentum - in the meantime, budgets for influencer marketing are a fixed part of the annual marketing budget of the majority of Swiss companies. Influencers are people who regularly create publicly accessible content in social media with which they influence the behavior of their followers. They are the opinion leaders of the Millenials and Generation Z.

With influencers as advertising media, companies are reaching a young target group that is increasingly spending time on social media instead of in front of TV or other traditional media. In times of ad blocking software, the relevance of advertising ambassadors on social media whose posts are not affected by this continues to increase. Moreover, according to several studies, buying recommendations from people like influencers enjoy higher credibility than those coming from brands. Even if the influencer posts are recognizable as advertising messages.

Algorithms capture over 10`000 Swiss influencers

With the increasing purchasing power of the target group with an affinity for social media, influencer marketing will continue to gain in importance in the future. Influencers on Instagram are particularly interesting for the advertising market because this platform, along with YouTube, is the most frequently used in Switzerland in the young target group up to the age of 24.[1] As a result, the communications agency Jung von Matt/Limmat and the influencer marketing platform Reachbird, in collaboration with the University of St. Gallen, decided to develop a Swiss influencer ranking based on seven indicators determined by a survey of experts from science and practice (see box on page 2). "Successful influencer marketing combines the characteristics of the brand with the product USP as well as the influencer DNA. This intersection creates authentic and relevant content. Thanks to the algorithm, we are better at selection," says Cyrill Hauser, Chief Client Officer of Jung von Matt/Limmat.

The monthly magazine, which is published free of charge on Influencer-check.ch The ranking analyzes more than 10,000 Instagram influencers with more than 1,000 followers. The cumulative gross reach is over 96 million followers. In addition to the top 10 influencers overall ranking, newcomers with less than 5,000 followers are also listed in a separate section. The initiators also highlight one of a total of 14 Reachbird influencer categories each month and create a separate ranking of the most successful influencers in specific topics such as fashion, sports, travel, food or technology. Also available on the website: the most successful campaign posts of the past month in terms of engagement (likes and comments).

The current top 10 overall ranking is a colorful mix with athletes such as Roger Federer or Ivan Rakitic, fitness influencer Debora Gabriella Cicciolina, Le Grand JD from the French-speaking part of Switzerland, who is best known for YouTube, or the account @swissposters, which photographs posters with eye-catching graphic design on Swiss streets.

Not only the number of followers determines success

The central concern of all those involved was that the ranking should not be based solely on the number of followers of the influencers, but that seven indicators should determine the evaluation algorithm. Martin Faltl, research associate at the University of St. Gallen, explains: "Many other rankings are based purely on the number of followers of the accounts or attribute great importance to this value. With our ranking, we offer an alternative that approaches the actual influence. That we have succeeded in doing so is shown by the fact that the top 10 includes both very large accounts like Roger Federer, but also much smaller influential accounts." Thus, despite having half as many followers as Ivan Rakitic, Roger Federer is ahead of the FC Barcelona footballer in the ranking.

As the February ranking proves, you won't find only the typical Swiss celebrities, who also have a high profile outside of Instagram, nor exclusively the big Instagram stars in the current ranking. Julian Freese, Chief Marketing Officer of Reachbird, comments: "Especially the very big accounts experienced a significant drop in followers in January and had a very high share of promotional posts. This had a big impact on the ranking, which rewards a growing community and a low number of ad placements."

These 7 factors determine the Swiss Influencer Ranking:

1. Average engagement rate (ratio of number of comments/likes to number of followers)
2. Comments / Like Ratio (ratio of number of comments to number of likes)
3. Followers / Followed Ratio (ratio of number of followers to number of accounts the influencer follows)
4. Mentions (how often the influencer was tagged by other profiles)
5. Ad / No-Ad Ratio (ratio of the number of posts with ads to the number of posts without ads. Few ads are positive for the ranking).
6. Follower growth rate (change in number of followers within one month)
7. Sentiment of comments (analysis of the sentiment by means of emoji evaluation in the comments).