What is KOL & KOC?
Key Opinion Leaders (KOL) and Key Opinion Consumers (KOC) are people who advertise products, to give out information about the product for instance its functions, durability, and appearance. They work in the world run by social media and influencer marketing as parts of the brands’ online marketing strategy to get brand awareness and recognition from their target audiences.
Key Opinion Leaders (KOL) are people who already hold a certain reputation in society, and were asked to advertise brands to get the news spread wide. They are individuals who are trusted and respected specifically for their status quo or specialties. Famous people like movie stars, models, celebutants, or people who made themselves famous on certain social media platforms are all Key Opinion Leaders (KOL).
KOC is much different as they are not famous nor asked to advertise. KOCs are valued by their opinion on their experience with certain products and services. They are people of no status quo, which makes them relatable to the audience. The size of KOCs’ followers may be smaller compared to KOL but KOCs’ followers are very loyal, as KOCs are relatable to their followers. Therefore, they are not to be underestimated as they also are influencers in society. Here are some examples of our KOCs on our website.
Difference Between KOL & KOC
Just as mentioned above, Key Opinion Leader (KOL) and Key Opinion Consumer (KOC) are different in many ways even though they work in the same industry. They work the same way, however, we can’t bring them together as there is an actual difference between them, the most well-known difference is Initiative, Audience, and Authenticity, now let’s move on to those topics.
Difference Between KOL & KOC 1: Initiative
KOL usually gain offers or were contacted to do their advertising, as they may gain the product and some content for advertisement while the brands gain a reputation for their newborn product. With this kind of business relationship, they both obtain a satisfying result for both parties.
On the other hand, Key Opinion Consumers (KOC), don’t get any offers nor were they contacted, instead, they would contact the companies to test or review the product that they are interested in. This is due to KOC are mostly just consumers that advertise for fun or to spread the word to other people, that a new version of a certain product has been published.
KOCs don’t initiate an advertisement for certain companies, they only advertise specific products as they are well-versed on that type of product to give a detailed comparison. While on the other side, KOLs initiate when they received an offer and will only advertise when the offer arrives.
The main difference that can be seen between KOL and KOC is the number of audiences looking at their blog, videos, and posts. Technically, both KOL and KOC have targeted audiences, the amount that watches is mostly different from the amount that may be the main difference between KOL and KOC.
KOLs had a reputation to start with, and they are given a product from a considerably well-known company, their audience amount is at least 1 million, this does not necessarily include the non-targeted audience. Due to them having a large amount of audience, a lot of brands will contact them to initiate an advertisement and is willing to offer a certain amount of benefits to the KOLs for their advertisements, as it does worth that much.
KOC does not necessarily have an audience at first, they mostly post their advertisement randomly in terms of time, however, as they are well-versed in the product that the audience wishes to buy, they hold a certain amount of influence in society. The amount of audience for KOC’s advertisement is mostly from one thousand to ten thousand, which is not much compared to KOL, still, they are well trusted for their experience and honesty in terms of the product in question.
Difference Between KOL & KOC 3: Authenticity
Key Opinion Consumers (KOC), have their blog site or Youtube channel which they own. This makes them more credible among readers as product testing and reviewing is their expertise. consumers know that Key Opinion Leaders’ paid collaboration with the brands, therefore, the authenticity is lower than KOC, click here to learn more about our KOC community.
Due to this, KOLs’ advertisements, are highly unable to influence the consumers’ decision-making. It may also be one of the reasons Key Opinion Leaders (KOL) do not do product advertisements as much as KOC, as most of the readers or viewers are highly not going to use KOL’s advertisements as a reference in purchasing products.
It is also due to this reason that KOC is rising in many markets around the globe, as people are more influenced by KOC than KOL. Here are some videos made by our KOCs, to know more about blogs, click here.
That will be the main difference between KOLs and KOCs, even if they are in the same industry, we need to be clear that they are different. That they have a difference that can be seen and understood, we need to clarify that so that no one else will get mistaken by them. However, whether the advertisement is made by either of them, we should trust what we believe in. Whether to be swayed by KOL or KOC comments is pretty much up to us as in the end, we decide what to choose in our life.
The KOC Live has been founded in Malaysia in 2021, we have been aiming to help our clients to reach out to their targeted audience within their social media platform and attempted to assist in influencing purchasing decisions of consumers.
We have always tried to ensure our clients in achieving their business goals and are passionate about connecting brands to the right audience and consumers. We understand that currently, businesses are struggling with their business by not being able to reach their target audience, especially now that everything is turning remote. We hope that we can help our clients in bringing the best to the world.
To know our KOC live, Click here.
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