Influence Vs. Popularity

The million dollar question when it comes to marketing campaigns. Do you reach a targeted, yet engaged audience and aim to achieve a high conversion rate? Or do you get your brand out there with a big bang, viral strategy that scores impressions and ramps up your followers?

It’s becoming far more apparent that working with an influencer increases the likelihood of achieving mass exposure for brands. While this is true, it is also dependent on the type of influencer you choose to work with. Are you investing into this partnership with an aim to increase the extent of your reach or its depth?

So what’s the key difference? Influence and popularity, on the surface, appear alike but are actually quite distinct.

The Popularity Contest

An influencer that boasts a million follower count is not necessarily the best option for your campaign. This goes back to quality vs. quantity. A key success factor for a campaign involves engaging an influencer with aligned interests and commands a level of expertise within a niche market — and one that has a presence that will resonate with your targeted audience. Gaining followers only becomes of value when the audience actively cares and consumes your content. These are the followers brands should strive to attract, not the followers that are simply bought and have no intention of actually engaging with the brand itself.

The Influencer

This is the authentic and trusted source that you want to have become the voice that creates deep and meaningful conversations and interactions with your audience. As the logic goes, we are far more likely to buy into a product or service based on the recommendation of a friend, as opposed to that of a celebrity or Internet personality. While influencers do maintain a social media presence, they do create meaningful interactions with their followers — creating relationships, through which recommendations can be made.

So how do you gain success through following either of these approaches? By ensuring the authenticity of the content you produce.

Know your influencer — they represent you, they represent your brand.