Make it real -- Influencers need to be authentic!!!

From #SMMW15, I loved Douglas Karr , the President and CEO of DK New Media, and his examples of powerful Influencer Marketing.

Authenticity is when your voice and input are helpful, real, verifiable and meaningful,  A simple example of the power of authenticity is a viral video hero!

The Authentic Rap

Did you catch the YouTube video that a husband filmed his wife in a very authenticate set of moves, as she raps to a song in the car.  It has about 18M views to date.   And the song playing by Salt and Pepper received another 500K downloads through the Ellen Show.

The Brand “takes over”:

Acura asked this “YouTube” star to do a commercial for them with their rap.   I still like the rap in their new commercial — but it only racked up 172K views on YouTube “Drive like a boss”.  Why?  It was not as authentic because of the heavy branding.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SElXfQdc2ZE

Why?

The second video is very branded, and not as authentic.   The big question is how do you leverage an influencer in an authentic way?

Doug’s 3 top pieces of advice:

1. Leverage influencers that have an audience that matches your audience.

2. Find influencers who are willing to share the story with their audience.

3. Measure the impact of the influencer