Yesterday, Collective Bias Tweeted:

True influencer marketing is about content and storytelling, not reviews #influencermarketing

— Collective Bias® (@CollectiveBias) September 27, 2016

At first, I thought of Tweeting something concise back; but the more I thought of it, the more convinced I became that this should be turned into a blog post; as this topic is something I’d rather not see confined to the 140-character limit.

When it comes to the avenues for carrying the marketing message from the advertiser to the consumer, I couldn’t agree more with the above-quoted Tweet. Content creation and storytelling are extremely powerful means to use for this. However, if we were to discuss the nature of it, true influencer marketing is, first and foremost, about leveraging authenticity.

Over the years of being bombarded by ads and “expert” endorsements, consumers have gotten remarkably good at telling genuine from “sponsored” and authentic from said-so-only-because-it-was-paid-for. This is how influencer marketing differs from traditional advertising… As Los Angeles Times pointed out earlier this year, “an influencer’s individuality and authentic voice allows them to connect to readers in a way that” traditional media is “struggling to do.”

So, best influencer marketing campaigns aim not to simply leverage the influencer’s clout but to come across in authentic and resonating ways.

Next time you are designing an influencer marketing campaign, keep the above in mind.

Put yourself in the consumers’ shoes and ask yourself: Does your message have a chance of being perceived as genuine? Can it strike a chord with the influencer’s followers? When in doubt, rewind, and see what has to be tweaked or improved.