Influencer marketing and influencer marketing platforms have come a long way in a short period, and the emerging challenge in this domain is maintaining authenticity for many brands and influencers. Maintaining real influencer connections is a learning curve for modern marketers who must remain agile and open to an ever-changing marketplace. It is crucial for brands to filter the right influencers for employing them in a particular product or service. To get the best results, what brands need to check is the metric of quality score that a specific influencer provides, their engagement ratio, the activity among the influencers’ audience, and the comment growth and authenticity. As audiences are becoming more receptive towards authentic content, brands want their products and services to be marketed along the same lines. In recent years, influencer marketing platforms have shifted to accommodate this and are adopting new trends to help brands achieve their desired growth.
Authenticity vs Perfection
A popular trend on influencer marketing platforms is authenticity; authenticity on social sites is an efficient method of developing a digital community. Creators are abandoning the flawlessly managed feed look to share less filtered and more in-the-moment content.
Collaborating with influencers who understand how to make advertising and sponsored content not sound like ads will help brands give voice to their products. Brands should not be concerned about finding influencers with the “ideal” look. Instead, they should pay attention to the creators who cultivate genuine relationships with their audience and provide valuable, authentic content.
This method of employment, of bringing authenticity through content creation, has brought in a wave of reality, which assists brands and influencers in collaborating towards building their value. It’s simple: Nobody enjoys being duped. What perfection and polished content bring to the audience in a world of fantasy and illusion, one which is not believable and acceptable, polishing the material interferes with the establishment of authenticity, as they intimidate the viewer and brings in them a sense of discomfort in accepting a particular product or service. While many people expect brands to have a fixed agenda throughout their marketing, they look up to community leaders and typically believe their statements. Authenticity is what distinguishes influencers from the general population. Resulting in both sides of the coin placing a premium on authenticity.
What Should Brands Prioritize?
With authenticity being one of the primary essential trends for influencer marketing platforms in 2021, It is vital for brands to prioritize this in order to relate to and establish customer loyalty in the future. Credible Influencers, or those who have a genuine passion for their speciality and audience, actually understand and trust their followers. As a result, when an influencer of this calibre recommends a product on their page, you can bet their followers will pay attention. Brands that engage in their communities via influencers foster retention while creating long-term, organic growth. Brands can leverage influencers to bring people together and create actual, authentic communities. As 75% of brands shift their marketing budgets to influencer marketing platforms, influencers are becoming a one-stop shop for brands due to their ability to produce value-driven, high-quality content and engage audiences. Brands can utilise influencers to bring people together and establish natural, authentic communities.
Consider, for example, the quarantine, where influencers collaborated with multiple brands to provide comfort, information, and a sense of community. This maintained the brands at the forefront of people’s minds, but it also helped build a community around those brands.
