Looking to turn your followers into a fanbase? Then get in touch – we’d love to talk.
For years, brands have been encouraged to build audiences – more followers, more impressions, more reach, more people seeing what you have to say. But it’s becoming increasingly clear that visibility and influence aren’t the same thing.
The rise of Digital Opinion Leaders (DOLs) is one sign that the way influence works is changing. Authority is no longer concentrated solely in the hands of journalists, analysts, academics or institutions. It increasingly moves through networks of experts, practitioners, creators, employees and customers who interpret, recommend and debate brands and businesses every day.
This creates an important distinction: Followers create visibility. Fans create genuine momentum.
This is much more than just an evolution of influencer marketing. It’s a much broader shift in who people trust, and who has the power to shape decisions.
In B2B, trusted experts and industry voices can influence purchasing decisions long before a salesperson enters the conversation. In consumer markets, creators and communities are increasingly involved in shaping culture around brands. Even highly regulated sectors such as healthcare are recognising the growing importance of trusted digital voices.
Essentially, it all boils down to trust.
Businesses can say they’re innovative, responsible, effective or category-leading. But when somebody credible chooses to say it for them? That lands differently.
The strongest businesses therefore aren’t simply accumulating an audience around their own channels. They’re creating networks of people who understand them, believe in what they’re doing, and are willing to talk about them even when the brand isn’t in the room.
Bear with us – this is a useful analogy.
Sports teams have some of the most dedicated followings found outside of religion. But they don’t create fandom by endlessly broadcasting messages about how brilliant they are. Players perform, pundits interpret, journalists report. Fans debate, celebrate, criticise, share and create culture around the team. The organisation may sit at the centre, but it doesn’t control every conversation happening around it.
Brands and businesses increasingly operate in much the same way. Customers, employees, creators, industry experts and DOLs all contribute to a business’ reputation, often long after a particular campaign has finished.
This means that the role of communications has changed. PR isn’t just about identifying the right gatekeepers and getting a message in front of them. It also needs to understand how influence flows through communities, and how brands can earn a credible place within those conversations.
The goal shouldn’t be to recruit more influencers to repeat your message – it should be to create something genuinely worth talking about.
Those questions are much more interesting than just: “How many followers do we have?”
Your real influence network might include the obvious people – journalists, creators and prominent industry commentators. But it could also include employees with specialist expertise (see M&S’ Director of Product Development Kathryn Turner); customers who regularly recommend you; practitioners explaining your category online; niche creators whose audiences genuinely trust them; industry figures who help other people make sense of complicated subjects.
The size of their audience matters less than the strength of their credibility with the people you’re trying to reach. Businesses need to understand who recommends them (or could recommend them), who explains their market, who shapes purchasing decisions, and who starts the conversations others follow.
This is where the distinction between an influencer programme and genuine advocacy becomes particularly important.
The most credible advocates have their own voice. Trying to control every word they say risks removing precisely the thing that makes their contribution valuable in the first place – independence. Their independence breeds trustworthiness. Don’t strip it away.
Instead, make sure that you have chosen the right voice, then give people a reason to participate in the kind of conversation you want to be a part of. That means creating useful ideas, genuinely interesting experiences, valuable expertise and stories people actually want to share rather than starting with a promotional message and searching for people prepared to amplify it.
For communications teams, this can feel alarmingly like relinquishing control. But if you’ve chosen the right DOL who is a great match for your business, then you should be in safe hands. By allowing them to step forward on your behalf, you’ve shifted the focus away from controlling messages in an advertisement-style format, to earning a place within relevant conversations.
If this is going to be your approach, then you also need to reconsider what success looks like. Think long-term. Reach and impressions still have a role, but they tell you whether someone could have seen something; they don’t necessarily tell you whether anyone cared.
An interesting question might be: “What happened next?” Did people discuss the idea? Did other credible voices add their own views? Did the campaign create further conversations that continued without paid support? Those signals can tell us far more about genuine influence. The numbers you’re looking at may seem smaller than traditional reach figures. But they can be mighty. They are impactful.
Fanbases aren’t built through campaigns alone. They’re built over time through a drip feed of advocacy, solid brand values, authenticity and community.
In a world overflowing with AI-generated content and manufactured attention, this matters more than ever.
The most influential businesses therefore won’t necessarily be those with the biggest budgets, or the largest audiences. They’ll be the ones surrounded by people who genuinely want to talk about them.
Digital Opinion Leaders are one manifestation of that shift. The bigger opportunity is understanding the new way that influence can work for your business, and building comms strategies that create credibility within the communities that truly matter.
The future of influence probably isn’t about earning another thousand followers. It’s about giving people a reason to become fans.