How to capitalize on an influencer’s trust with users

Nowadays, it seems like just about every social media user has taken an influencer’s opinion on something, whether it’s about trying a product or visiting a new restaurant.

Even if they don’t know each other in person, the time they spend watching videos creates a kind of relationship that lets them build a rapport, even a sense of trust.

“Influencer and creator platforms are built on trust,” said Blair Huddy, founder and CEO of Hudson Davis Communications. “Their audiences trust them for information, product recommendations and more. Part of what helps them build an audience is being authentic, which helps others relate to them.”

Recent data from Podcastle, a content creation platform powered by AI, supports Huddy’s comments. The survey reveals that users want authenticity more than ever from their influencers. In fact, 61% of Americans prioritize authenticity over everything else in the content they watch.

“Trust and authenticity go hand in hand, and that’s exactly why it’s rated so highly as a quality users want to see,” said Arto Yeritsyan, Podcastle’s CEO.

“Influencers create content, but what an audience buys into is the person, driven by their unique personality and worldview,” he continued. “Being relatable and credible is important for an influencer, whether they share knowledge-based content or try to be funny – users want to know that person has lived what they’re saying and can empathize with them.”

Building a genuine connection

Huddy believes that it comes down to people looking for genuine recommendations from someone they trust. “A lot of people feel like they know their favorite creators intimately, and when they push products in a way that feels inauthentic, those posts don’t do very well,” she said.

She gave an example of working with creators who typically get millions of views on posts, but when they post an ad, it only gets hundreds or thousands of views, so the audience can definitely tell when the content isn’t organic.

Huddy recently worked with lifestyle brand influencer @shondarogers on an air purifier post. While the creator’s posts tend to do really well, Huddy said her paid ads tend to see a noticeable difference, with far fewer views than her normal content.

What tends to work best for her, Huddy said, is finding ways to help an influencer’s authenticity come across. It doesn’t work when it comes off as an ad and you can tell they don’t care about your product or company.

To that end, you’re really looking for creators who are personally and professionally aligned with your brand, where the “endorsement” of your product or company makes sense. In short: Don’t just search for folks with the highest follower count.

“On the other hand, when you see people talking about and recommending a product they genuinely love, those posts tend to do really well,” Huddy said.

Huddy gave the example of an experience working with a user-generated content creator for a fashion brand called Rewash. The user was a frequent customer who happened to be chronically ill, and she shared her experiences in buying new clothes to look and feel better while combating her illness.

These posts had a much greater impact than other creators for Rewash, Huddy said, with a purchase-through rate of more than 50%, which is “insanely high for creator campaigns.”

Huddy attributed that success to the creator being genuinely supportive of the brand and her audience responding well to her feelings and recommendations about products.

Don’t create a digital pitchman

Huddy believes that if an influencer’s social channel starts to feel like a glorified entry point for a TikTok shop or some other platform, it can turn people off.

Podcastle’s numbers back that up. Yeritsyan noted that American social media users find it excessive when an influencer posts more than nine times a week, stating three new pieces of content per week are ideal for most creators.

If a product or angle is inconsistent with the brand they followed and if they oversaturate the market, seeming more like a pitchman than an influencer, users will lose interest, Yeritsyan said.

Podcastle found that people don’t want to watch content that feels inauthentic or staged (69%), features excessive brand partnerships (63%) and includes repetitive or unoriginal content (58%). The research showed that 81% of Americans will unfollow influencers who share videos that lack substance or value, emphasizing the need for authenticity.

Nearly 70% of users felt that when influencers post too frequently, it’s usually because they are trying to push a product or service.

Building a new influencer relationship

Ultimately, no one understands influencer audience data better than the creators themselves, Huddy said. She’s a firm believer in letting them have a controlling stake in the promotion.

“It should be a partnership,” she said.

Huddy recommended providing a general brief of what you’re hoping to do with the campaign. Then ask them to provide you with ideas for how they might get the campaign ethos across to their audience in a way that feels genuine to the rest of their work.

“That lends itself to a situation where you’re developing a genuine connection with the creator and helping them deeply understand your product and company and how it fits into the ecosystem they’ve created,” Huddy said.

While working with the brands Karma Wallet and Integrate, Huddy’s team found that the process was more beneficial when they allowed the creators to have creative input. One Karma Wallet creator, Tyler Chanel, even recommended a blog post over picture content because she thought it would perform better for her audience.

“Don’t be overly prescriptive; it can often come off as too scripted and unauthentic, making the entire strategy ineffective,” Huddy said. “If you want a shot-by-shot narrative, it would be better to create an ad than to work with a creator.”

Casey Weldon is a reporter for PR Daily. Follow him on LinkedIn.