Deinfluencing Is Not Relevant
TikTok insiders have declared “de-influencing”, a response to influencer marketing where people share products they don’t think are worth the money is the hot new trend.
I couldn’t disagree more.
The marketing trends that have the most staying power are the ones that feel like they make sense within our daily life. And if I have a trusted friend: I have a friend who always knows the best shade of blush, the best new restaurant, the best new movie, the best new book. Those are the questions I'm gonna ask her.
It's kind of normal, commonplace small talk to ask people. “Hey, what's the last great book you read?” “Is there a new podcast you really like?”
We ask people what their best experiences are when we're trying to connect with them. And when we're trying to figure out where to spend our time.
At the end of the day, asking what they hated is kind of a time waster. If I went around asking everyone for the worst meal in town—and I wanted to make dinner plans for Friday night—yeah, I'd have a long list of places not to go.
But conversely, if I had gone to a trusted blog or trusted influencer or trusted friend and said “What is the best [insert style of food here] that you'd have recently?” Then, looked up that restaurant and made a reservation there…It would have given me beneficial information that would have made my sales journey that much shorter, which is beneficial for the brand or the company. And it also just would have made my experience better which is better for me as a person.
The other thing is that we always have to think in trends: Is this proactive or is this reactive? So lots of times when a trend really catches fire, it's because it's new and it's fresh and it's leading us. (That's why we talk about thought leadership. That's why we talk about trends setters.
When something is reactionary it really only has the moment in this space of what it's reacting to, to go viral. So for example, all the articles are saying that de influencing is happening right now are because on TikTok people are saying: “I'm so tired of influencers and all their crap and other scandals.” Well once we move on from that, and once we really just want to know how to make a great five ingredient dinner, and are the best pair of leggings, etc., we’re going to be over this trend.
It's reactive. It's not proactive. And people who aren’t on TikTok haven’t even heard of it.
