Influencers aren't real…well, sort of.

Let me clarify that statement. Yes, there are plenty of influential people on social media, but more often than not those people are also influential in the real world. That means that they’d likely think of themselves as a celebrity first and a social media “influencer” second. If you subtract those people from the equation, you are left with a massive echo chamber of “influencers” that get far too much credit for their followings.

The influencer marketing landscape has exploded, and creative outfits serve up influencer strategies to brands on the daily. The promise is simple: this young and influential person has a lot of followers...surely they can increase exposure for my brand? But too much is overlooked in this process, including the quality of their said followers and if that person even cares about my brand. The hunt for mindless engagement ensues.

What creative outfits have failed to realize is that 100 of a brand’s biggest fans can create more meaningful, more authentic, and more engaging content than one “influencer.” And, those fans are real people with real followings...just like you and me.

If the measurement of success for an influencer strategy is audience engagement, then surely there is something more engaging than watching an Instagram video of someone you’ve never heard of plugging a product that they’ve never heard of. This is passive engagement: the influencer has an interaction with the brand (engagement), but the audience simply views that interaction (passive engagement).

Instead, creative outfits should focus on increasing the direct engagement between brands and followers. That comes with personalized attention and collaborative campaigns that create an authentic experience. This experience is the next level of engagement.

Cinebody believes that everyone is an influencer. We’ve told stories with people of all ages, languages, sexes, and beliefs, and our technology has opened the door for brands to engage with them directly. We encourage brands to collaborate WITH the people that love them the most. This type of creative collaboration directly engages brand audiences throughout the content creation process, accelerating that engagement into distribution. They helped make it, they love sharing it.

In the modern influencer landscape (let alone, the modern video landscape), brands must strive to go beyond a passive engagement strategy and directly involve consumers, fans, and advocates in the creation process. I mean, people already promote their favorite brands everyday…I’m wearing Vans right now and I love them. I have a 4K video camera in my pocket and you do too. So, why wouldn’t we want to create with them?

- Scott McDonald, CEO at Cinebody