The Future of Influence, A New Framework for Talent

This is part one of a three-part series looking at the future of influence.

The global pandemic and U.S. politics have exposed a crisis in leadership, ignited a rise in societal fears, and fueled a cycle of distrust that is now our society’s default emotion.?

To combat that level of distrust, we’ve seen a rise in personal information literacy. In an era where agreement on any topic seems improbable, 70% of consumers say trusting a brand is more important today than in the past. In fact, 63% of consumers trust what influencers say about brands much more than what brands say about themselves in their advertising.

As consumer skepticism continues to rise, brands must evolve their strategies to build trust alongside awareness.

However, continuing to use influencer marketing as a tactic underestimates the power of human capital to transform the relationship between consumers and brands.

FROM INFLUENCER TO INFLUENCE

The marketing industry has taken a transactional approach to working with influencers. Brand pays talent. Talent produces content. Brand moves on. Talent moves on.

It becomes an unsustainable cycle of finding new talent, briefing them on your brand, and educating their audience. Ultimately, the lack of consistency and presence in their community limits the impact your influencer marketing program will have.

It’s vital that we shift the conversation about talent partnerships from influencer marketing to influence marketing.

Smart brands understand the influence culture and community have on brand love. That a deeply human approach can influence the behaviors we desire and build a lasting network of impact.

A NEW FRAMEWORK FOR TALENT

Influence marketing requires a new talent framework for identifying, evaluating, and selecting brand partners.

Once we align on an organization’s goals, we use GMR’s proprietary talent scorecard that has six categories of influence and dozens of different criteria that can be adjusted and tuned by client and campaign to ensure we reduce selection bias, ensure creative alignment, and provide brand protection.

Establishing a framework and scoring methodology for your brand can help elevate marginalized voices, ensure we understand the communities we hope to connect with, and align brand and talent around common goals.

The result is a scalable model that helps establish and understand talent archetypes, maximizes personal strengths of your talent, and facilitates a stronger relationship with their fans and followers.

If you’re interested in leveraging the power of influence or just talking about the future of social marketing, reach out in the comments below or DM me on LinkedIn.