Influence is nothing without a purpose: welcome to the community-economy

I was tired of — and almost allergic to — the word and the term ‘influencer’ before I even started working with it. Upon reflection, I realise that the term influence without answering ‘why’ or ‘how’ doesn’t have any context, and that’s the reason for the bad taste in my mouth. Influence is nothing without a purpose. We all influence, but in various ways. But without purpose, what’s the point of the influence? In this read, I’ll take you through my thought-process of the very opinionated influencer space, how it will need to change, and why that change should matter for everyone, today and everyday.

The past ten years I’ve professionally followed — and contributed to — the evolution of influencer marketing in a modern form. Influencer marketing isn’t a new phenomenon in any way — influencers have been around for ages but in various forms and expressions.

Before Social Media cracked traditional media (TVC, OOH etc) and its monopoly on eyeballs and attention, we saw fictional characters as the influencers in traditional adverts. Following that, we saw brands start using real people in ads, welcoming celebrity endorsements and putting famous people as faces of the brand. Some are way more sticky than others. When Instagram, along with other social media networks, arose the monopoly on attention and distribution was disrupted. Suddenly, anyone could earn attention and eyeballs. Suddenly anyone could create their own channel and grow their audience i.e. eyeballs and attention.

Now, Instagram has been around for over 10 years alone, and at the same time, we’re only just now dipping our toes into a new revolutionary version of the internet — web3 — a version of internet that enables people to own their digital self and product, instead of being a product for others. We are about to enter an ownership and community economy, where brands and centralised companies will lose their power, and power will be reallocated to people, creators but most importantly — communities. Brands and companies are losing their ability to both earn and pay for distribution, and people are soon becoming the only solution for true distribution and meaningful connections. And via new web3 technologies, people can come together as communities to create, collaborate and own together.

This comes with a lot of new demands, and possibilities. Creators, influencers and people get more careful with the brands they collaborate with, as they’re not in any brand dependency anymore. Alongside this, creators with distribution can carry their community elsewhere, getting rid of the middleman that is monetising them as if they were the product. Now, a creator, or anyone with distribution, forms a community. A community of like-minded peers, supporting each other and finding new, authentic grounds to meet.

What does this mean for the evolution of influencer marketing? It means we move from mass-influencers, and saturated creators, to community leaders and community builders. We move from sell-out influencers to impact-drivers and culture-makers. From quantity, scale and 15 minutes of fame to long-term impact and brand loyalty. We start to pay to make, instead of pay to promote. I’m a big advocate for paying creators to create for your brand, but rather than using them as solely ad pillars, let’s have them co-creating with you, and do what they’re good at — creating and making. A product placement post would likely give you the 15 minutes of fame, and to some extend a spike in growth — but then what?

We need to move from fuelling a fire with gas that continuously builds people into products, to building a sustainable future for culture-makers who impact culture and society. We need to choose to influence with purpose for long-term success, and that’s what the future is about. It’s about building for community, by community, powered by community and culture-makers.

The next evolution of influencer marketing is about culture, sub-communities and true impact. It’s about building strategies, tactics and movements around various cultures over demographics — because as we live more online than ever before, we remove the borders between countries and form new, online neighbourhoods together with other like-minded people. Neighbourhoods where communities and people can come together to hang, create, collaborate and own together thanks to the blockchain and its products. It’s moving from one-to-many to one-to-few.

This whole new influencer marketing era is about giving back, about representing and reinvesting in the people who’ve shaped our society and various subcultures. The people who are building up suburbs and areas via creativity and bold visions, but yet, they’re still the last people in the queue to get a mortgage or other financial support. Other professionals higher up in the society hierarchy, they move up the society ladder, get a mortgage, move into the built-up ‘cool and edgy’ neighbourhoods that ‘all of a sudden’ just popped up — like Soho, Brooklyn, Shoreditch and so many other neighbourhood worldwide that are formed by the creatives. What happens at this point is that the creative communities gets pushed further out as prices goes up, and then we start over again — until they’ve built all of it, but in return got nothing but a paid partnership to promote som new sneakers on Instagram.

Co-creation. Co-ownership. Collaboration. This is the future if any brand wants to be a part of it, or disappear. We’re at a shift now where change will happen, where communities and people no longer need brands, as creating your own is easier than ever, and you already have your community who will advocate for your brand forever. But where brands are in desperate need of communities and people to get eyeballs, attention and connections. A brand without connections and distribution is nothing.

At Culture Defined we believe that it’s time to give back to the people who were — and are — forming, shaping and creating culture. We call them culture-makers. The early adopters, opinion leaders, connectors, innovators, community builders and community leaders. The people who dare to enter neighbourhood after neighbourhood and build from nothing. The people who are deeply passionate about creating legacy and impact. We will always put culture-makers at the front row of every situation, and together build, and own, together with them.

And to shine a light on some culture-makers out there that we admire.

@Mabdulle — for the ongoing support of the next generation of photographers and videographers, for being mindful and authentic to your community and helping people get closer.
@Gialu — for continuously fighting for the queer and non-binary community.
@Kidscircus — London-based photographer who’s creating job opportunities for his community via his ‘jobcentre’ on Instagram Stories
@Patrisse Cullors — artist, abolitionist, and writer. The movement maker of Black Lives Matter.
@Joy Yamusangie — a visual artist specialising in illustration, pioneering self-expression through art.
@Nicole Crentsil — Founder of Black Girl Fest, who aims to empower Black women and non-binary people through educating and equipping community members with tools for professional success.

Welcome to the community-economy. Let’s create, collaborate and own together for a brighter future.