THE recent salvos fired between social media marketing firm Gushcloud and local blogger Xiaxue created a hullabaloo for a bit. The online vigilante group SMRT Ltd (Feedback) also got into the act, starting an expose against Xiaxue and sparking an uproar with netizens.

The episode briefly cast the spotlight on the trend of "influencer" engagement and so-called "celebrity" endorsements in the social media world. For businesses and organisations, the idea of riding on popular "influencers" - people who supposedly can affect others' ideas and decisions about a product or service - to tout their wares is certainly appealling. In fact, a recent study by SocialChorus has proved that offers shared by trusted advocates drive conversions at a rate of four to 10 times higher than those offered directly by the brands themselves.

Knowing this, naturally most public relations firms or in-house marketing and communications professionals tend to jump on the influencer engagement bandwagon. How they do it is simple - they would either use search engines to find the most popular bloggers within their industry, or rely on influencer networks such as Gushcloud (which operate in a similar manner to artiste management firms) to find the most popular and relevant digital influencers. These companies then offer something (usually cash) in return for influencers to blog, tweet or post nice things about their products.