Unfortunately, many confuse audience with influence. Having a lot of followers or fans doesn’t give you the power to drive action, it gives you the power to drive awareness. We’ve been hearing the word “social media influencer” a lot till we reached a point where the true meaning faded. “Social influencers,” as they’re known, are social media users with a strong group of followers. While many social influencers tend to have large followings, what’s more important than the number of followers is how many of them will mention, respond to or share an influencer’s posts.
Trying to convince influencers to tweet, blog, instagram, or pin nice things about your company is not credible nor honest. Where on the other hand, advocates would go the extra mile to share your message and correct the wrong facts about your brand without you asking them to do so. Advocacy is driven by the depth of conviction, and influencers typically are less committed to the product or company than are actual advocate.
Again I say, having a lot of followers or a “large” blog readership doesn’t make a person influential in any way. It gives them an audience. True influence drives action, not just awareness.
We overrate audience and underrate advocacy.
Brands should understand that they can’t live on audience alone, they need true advocacy. Why are you even bothering with influencer outreach when you have an advocate for your brand?!