by Kim Rittberg / © 2024, Fast Company. Mansueto Ventures, LLC. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.
When I started posting videos regularly to grow my on-camera video-coaching business, a friend said to me, “Are you trying to be an influencer?” I am trying to influence people. I want to influence them to communicate better, to make creative content, to help them be more visible, and land more sales and leads through content.
The ‘influencer’ stigma
The word “influencer” was coined in the 1600s, but it’s the 21st century where the term has become associated with subtle negative connotations. I asked Neil Patel, founder of NP Digital, an award-winning marketing agency, who has amassed millions of followers, if he’s an influencer. He replied with “kinda.” Why is that?
“Because I don’t really try to monetize any of my social profiles,” [Patel said]. “So even though I have all these followers, and yes, it helped my business make millions of dollars, and I run a B2B company focused on large global 5000 companies, in most cases, someone’s not gonna give you a multimillion-dollar contract because they saw a YouTube video or Instagram reel or a TikTok video.”
Patel agrees with my assessment that he’s a thought leader. And to become a thought leader, he recommends you “speak at events and post content on social daily” for at least three years.
The distinction between thought leader and influencer
Jo Piazza, author and podcast host of Under the Influence, who has become an influencer to promote her books, including The Sicilian Inheritance, says, “I think of thought leaders as someone who wants to influence what you think and your ideas. Influencers want to influence how you live.”
Tara Clark is the creator of Modern Mom Probs, an Instagram account, podcast and community with more than 800,000 social media followers. She considers herself a content creator and not an influencer because, “I think the difference between an influencer and a content creator is that influencers nowadays have a very set sort of lifestyle that they’re promoting. They tend to have a certain look about them. It is different from a content creator who may be focused on comedy.”
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