Are you an influential brand?

I recently came across a published ranking -

“Top Most Influential Beauty Brands of 2019”.

“Most Influential?” I thought. 

And so I reviewed the list, hoping to gain insight into which brands were the movers and shakers of the beauty space

But when I looked at the list, I immediately felt something was off. This didn’t look like an influential list. While some were admittedly influential and digitally engaged, many on this list, were brands I would argue as being a bit out of touch and perhaps even falling behind, in terms of relevance. 

In looking into the “methodology” - it turns out they simply ranked the brands based on the number of social media followers each had. 

Excuse me?

To put it bluntly, followers do not equate to brand loyalty. Nor does it represent influence. Followers represent potential loyalty; and to a lesser extent, potential influence.

Particularly given the criticism around many companies buying followers and the discovery that many social media accounts are in fact BOTS - this is just a crazy misleading valuation.

Imagine you and I were planning a party - and we asked each other - “how many friends do we have to invite?” - and we looked at our address books. 

Our address book contains various “tiers” of contacts. Some are close friends, others are mere acquaintances - and further more, some are people we’ve met once, or perhaps twice, who may not even remember we exchanged info. 

Our address books simply represent who we can invite to our party - it does NOT represent people who are are likely to come to our party. 

And I’d like to think that if I am influential - I would have the convincing power to make someone likely to show up at my party…

Similarly, your brand has an audience of people (I.e. followers) who represent who you might have an opportunity to build a relationship with - but they do not represent a body of people who trust you.

So next time you are pondering how your brand can become more influential - ask yourself how you can build closer relationships and earn that trust so that when you do have that party (or launch that new product), - they will not only want to come, but they’ll show up.

-Christina