Influencer marketing is a nearly ubiquitous element of today’s brand marketing mix, not just for established companies but for young businesses as well.
The statistics may surprise you: a 2024 global survey conducted among brands, marketing agencies, and PR agencies showed that 37.6% of respondent organizations have worked with up to 10 influencers. Also, 14.7% have worked with more than 1000 influencers.
Furthermore, some 81% of consumers say that they’ve considered buying products recommended on social media by influencers or trusted members of their networks. Influencers can do real magic for brands, thanks to their targeted follower bases and high engagement rates. While these numbers are impressive, just collaborating with niche-relevant leaders hardly guarantees success for marketing campaigns, whether they have huge audiences or not.
Authenticity is the true game-changer, as it resonates strongly with followers. Consumers seek authenticity from influencers, gravitating toward those who offer original, relatable content, or provide credible expertise. Besides the commercial impact, authenticity fosters genuine connections that build trust and engagement for the long haul.
The significance of authenticity for your influencer campaigns cannot be overemphasized. However, achieving it requires hard work and commitment. Although there aren’t any shortcuts, you can follow these tips to win the authenticity advantage.
Partner with the Right Influencers
Authenticity begins with finding the right influencer to promote your brand. Let’s talk about Gymshark’s Sweat Headband campaign as an example. The product targeted people with textured hair, tapping into an evident gap in the fitness accessory market.
Gymshark made a smart move by collaborating with curly-haired influencers like Abbie Knight and Whitney Adebayo. The authentic partnership and content resonated deeply with people struggling to find workout accessories suited to their hair type. Had the brand chosen other influencers, their campaign wouldn’t have been this successful.
When it comes to identifying influencers who align with your brand, the Popular Pays platform can be a big help. Here you’ll find a diverse influencer database to help you find a perfect fit for your target buyer personas. You can filter by topic niche, social channel, engagement rate, audience demographics, and geo-location to create a collaboration that feels organic rather than staged.
Measure Engagement Beyond Likes
Finding the right fit shouldn’t be just about follower counts, especially given that these metrics can be easily manipulated. It’s important to also focus on engagement performance. High engagement rates indicate active interaction between an influencer and their audience.
Tracking genuine interactions can give you a fair idea of what to expect. An analysis of comments and shares per post will give you an insight into the involvement of viewers. Tracking how often users save posts is a good idea. This metric shows interest beyond immediate reactions like likes or comments.
Once your influencer campaigns are running, you can use sentiment analysis signals to track the impact of influencer activity on how people feel about your brand. Brandwatch provides insights into whether discussions about your brand are positive or negative. You can use it to refine future campaign strategies based on consumer feedback.
Leverage User-Generated Content (UGC)
UGC is undeniably one of the most authentic ways brands can market themselves. After all, who will look more genuine when promoting a product than a real customer? GoPro has utilized UGC to showcase the exhilarating adventure experiences real users have captured with their cameras. The campaign has been a huge success.
GoPro launched the #GoProHeroChallenge in 2024. Users worldwide were asked to share the most exciting moments shot with GoPro cameras. The pictures were to be posted on social media along with the #GoProHeroChallenge hashtag. The best ones were given prizes like adventure trips, exclusive gear, or the opportunity to be featured in promotional material.
Brands can take a cue from the idea to leverage UGC for their influencer campaigns, with customers being their influencers. Repurpose.io is a tool that can help transform UGC into various formats suitable for different platforms. For example, submitted customer videos can be repurposed as Instagram Reels, TikToks and YouTube Shorts.
Showcasing real users’ experiences alongside professional endorsements will help you reinforce transparency. This approach can boost engagement and serve as social proof by demonstrating real-world applications of products or services.
Detect Fake Followers and Bots
Genuine influencers can actually influence people, earn their respect, and drive them to take action. Everything boils down to authenticity, but what if the influencer you choose is not real? A collaboration cannot be authentic if they don’t actually have the followers they claim to have.
Surprisingly, influencer accounts with fake followers, consisting of bot accounts, do exist. They can cause dire harm to your brand, from wasted spend to damaging reputation. Even worse, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) has a new rule to penalize brands and influencers with fake followers.
Buying followers, automated bots, and pod groups are some red flags you should steer clear of when planning authentic campaigns. Unrealistic follower numbers, erratic activities, and spam-flavored comments are some factors to watch out for.
You can still fall prey to influencers with fake followers and bots, but tools like Modash can help. Modash can detect fake accounts by analyzing patterns indicative of bot activity versus real user behavior.
Build Long-Term Relationships with Influencers
Building long-term relationships with the right influencers is another good way to ensure authenticity in your campaigns. After all the hard work you invest in nailing valuable collaborations, you shouldn’t let them go. Moreover, an influencer can become the face of your brand once the partnership clicks. You can lose trust if they stop endorsing your brand down the road.
Transitioning from one-off deals to ongoing partnerships is a strategic shift for brands. Long-term relationships foster deeper connections with the target audience and amplify sustained credibility for your brand. Platforms like Traackr help manage and track the business impact of influencer relationships over time, ensuring consistent communication and collaboration.
Cultivate positive relationships with your collaborators by giving them creative freedom along with competitive payouts. Sometimes, brands expect creators to get too salesy, which affects both authenticity and mutual relationships. This is something you should avoid.
The Takeaway
Authenticity can be the fuel for influencer campaigns because consumers can generally sniff out the difference between content that’s just there for the money and content based on genuine recommendations. They expect trustworthiness and credibility from the influencers they follow. Losing trust means loss of followers for influencers and eventually affects the reputation of the brands they endorse.
For brands, choosing the right influencer should not be just about finding someone popular but ensuring they are genuine and relevant to what you want to convey.
To read more content like this, explore The Brand Hopper
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