Imagine you just went out with a guy who spent the entire evening telling you about each and every feature on his brand new BMW. You steal a glance at the license plate and realise: It’s a rental.

There will be NO second date, right?

In the marketing world, as in the dating world, you can’t build a future on fake.

Why Micromanaging Is Bad for Business

Despite frequent lip service, most marketers still struggle to embrace transparency.

A recent report by PR firm, Splendid Communications surveyed 2,000 UK adults in an effort to determine how audiences view influencers.

Here’s what they found:

· 61% unfollowed an influencer who worked with “inappropriate” brands

· 43% think influencers are “often inauthentic” and work with brands “they don’t believe in”

· 52% assume that if an influencer promotes a product, it’s because they’ve been paid

The consequences of choosing the wrong influencer can be devastating.

In TV terms, it’s the difference between Budweiser’s incredibly moving 9/11 advert and Pepsi’s incredibly painful Kendall Jenner spot. (Guess which one attempted to manipulate the message?)

But finding influencers you can trust is MAJOR work. Here’s how we do it.

• First, we use an algorithm to calculate influencers’ engagement rates and weed out any candidates who don’t meet our minimum of 1k followers, 50 posts, and 1% engagement.




• Then, the profiles get passed on to our community team. We go through each one by hand, filtering out all the spam and shady hashtags. Our trained (human) experts make sure every influencer has an organic following (with zero #like4likes!).




• Next is the concept accounts. We don’t accept brand accounts, fan accounts, or mood boards dedicated to sharing concept-specific content, such as memes or quotes. Consumers want to see personal stories and original content from individuals they can relate to.




• For influencers who make it this far, we then test a random sample of likes and followers to make sure the majority of their audience is real and relevant.




• By the end of the process, we have found our Takumi superstars. With only 7% of applicants making it through to become a verified Takumi Influencer.

What you’re left with is a stellar lineup of talented content creators, each with a firm dedication to quality. All of our micro-influencers are committed to amazing content that can be used and reused to increase relevant engagement across digital and social channels. (Want to see for yourself? Check out our Instagram feed.)

Most of our influencers are extremely picky, and we love that. We want them to be picky. Not just about the products they choose (these days there’s no shortage of amazing goods and services) but about the brand culture they choose to support.

And we practice what we preach. We’ve had many requests from all types of brands wanting to use our platform, including some that just don’t belong on Instagram. We have to hold our ground and turn away brands that just aren’t a fit.

Why Brands MUST Learn to Let Go

At its core, business is about connecting with people. And marketing is how you start the conversation. But in today’s fast-moving MarTech landscape, it’s easy to forget simple truths.

Brands and influencers face the same risks.

When you participate in a campaign that doesn’t fit your aesthetic, you not only lose followers, you lose credibility. On the other hand, when you know who you are and what you’re about — and you aren’t afraid to tell that story — you make it easy for others to do the same.

It’s no coincidence the best campaigns we see are the ones with the shortest briefs. When brands step back and allow the creators to be creative, influencers are free to interpret the brand’s story in a way that resonates with their audience and their own personal brand.

That creative freedom is what makes influencers influential. It’s what enables them deliver the authentic engagement that drove brands to embrace influencer marketing in the first place.

Why Micro-Influencers Are Your Biggest Brand Allies

Micro-influencers know inherently what so many marketers and ce

lebrities still can’t seem to grasp: When you’re transparent with your audience, everything you say holds more weight.

For them it’s easy. They aren’t burdened with data and metrics. They don’t see your customer as an “18 to 24 year-old female who lives in the UK, reads Cosmo, and makes £25,000 pounds per year,” because they don’t see themselves that way.

Less than 0.5% of the photos in our micro-influencer campaigns have been flagged by brands. And of the ones that were, these were mostly due to minor issues that were easily rectified. When brands trust influencers, they’re almost always blown away by the results.

If you’re doing it right, your micro-influencers ARE your customers. And if you trust them, they’ll stay with you.

Because after all, none of us really care all that much about perfect. We just want honest.

Ready to put your influencer marketing campaign in capable hands? Contact brands@takumi.com or give us a call at +44 (0) 203 143 4326.

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