Are you working with ‘influencers’?
EMarketer found most US marketers aim to do so in 2021, despite very low trust in this type of content.
The growth of the practice — and a host of issues including fraud — prompted the FTC to regulate the content. In short, the compensated relationship must be disclosed.
So, it would have been interesting to see how disclosure would have worked for the City of Minneapolis, whose public communication plan for the George Floyd trial was criticized this month. While claiming the effort “was never about trying to persuade or change public opinion…”, they’ve scrapped the tactic. And the plan will be tested.
Our view, based on years of direct experience, remains unchanged here: direct stakeholders (typically, employees and customers) are in the strongest position to inform, advocate and persuade; they have trust and attention that scales well.
Word of mouth remains powerfully important.
Please let us know if you need a hand in 2021.