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Troot's teams work closely with influencers and content creators. What does the audience expect from influencers and how do influencers themselves see their relationship with their audience? We interviewed leading influencers about the role of different social media channels and the future of content produced for these channels – here are three interesting highlights.
Channel-oriented thinking strongly guides influencers' creativity and content production and affects the audience relationship. Content that engages a TikTok audience doesn't work as-is in other channels, longer video content shouldn't be edited into short video format, and blogs should remain home to reflective, longer texts. Multi-channel presence must be taken into account both in influencer marketing annual planning and when planning campaign implementations.
"My Instagram Stories are diary-style and my IG Feed has more travel and beautiful photos. On Instagram I have a closer relationship with my followers. I still publish all kinds of content on TikTok that I'd dare show to children too. No swearing. I try to publish to TikTok regularly because I believe the algorithm favors this. TikTok views vary a lot depending on the topic: renovations and home projects work really well for me, as do ghost stories. More home renovations, tutorials and interior design content is also being requested. I'd like to organize dream Halloween cookies in our new home myself!"
–Jasmin NGO
Partners are easy to include in videos and texts where the story is explored in depth. Blogs and YouTube are therefore still places where things are discussed in depth. In blogs, audience attitudes toward commercial collaborations don't differ significantly from attitudes toward other content.
"I do a lot of partnerships that don't unfold in a single IG Story, so the blog is the place where I can explore things more deeply. People crave the opportunity to read. IG Feed is a good vibes place. I do this for my audience, so audience wishes influence my content production a lot. Instagram Feed saves are one important metric for me."
–Julia Thurén
A large part of Finns still trust influencers' product recommendations, even though the number of commercial implementations on social media channels is increasing and brands' share of voice is decreasing (Troot 2021). As long as the collaboration fits the influencer's profile and is relatable, influencers' recommendations are trusted. Well-planned, credible and value-adding content still works.
"My main channel is TikTok, IG serves as support. I don't get criticism about the amount of commercial collaborations – my audience isn't bothered by commercialism because it's integrated so well into my content, and commercial content doesn't really differ from my regular content. The best and most interesting content for the audience is created when you get free rein, on the other hand ideation is helped by having some concept to bounce off. Relatable stuff and the faijalife concept spark the most discussion among followers."
– Henry "Weksi" Weckström
