How to ensure authenticity in influencer relationships

Influencers are a powerful tool for reaching specific audiences and driving the actions we want. However, in today’s landscape, saturated with advertising messages and brand collaborations, not just any profile will do. That’s why it’s essential to select creators who genuinely inspire trust among your audience.

So how can authenticity be ensured in influencer relationships? At Keepers, we share a few key recommendations.

Focus only on profiles that share your brand’s values

Knowing which profiles are trending is important, but do they actually fit your brand? What does their organic content look like? Which topics do they regularly cover? What content lines do they follow? How are they perceived by their audience? And, ultimately, does all of this align with your brand?

Reviewing the values and image creators project on social media before selecting them for a collaboration is essential to ensuring the content they generate feels authentic and credible.

Prioritise the long term over one-off collaborations

We know this isn’t always possible, and that one-off collaborations are sometimes necessary. However, working with creators over several months helps content evolve more naturally and fully reflect the brand’s DNA. It also makes the emotional connection between creator and brand feel far more believable.

The clearest proof of this can be seen in creators who act as brand ambassadors year after year. Through recurring collaborations, they naturally integrate their favourite products into their daily lives and, as a result, into their organic content. Over time, audiences begin to associate them with those brands, reinforcing credibility. Well-known examples include Dulceida with GHD and María Pombo with Agatha Paris.

Trust their judgement

No one understands a creator’s audience better than the creator themselves. If a profile aligns with your brand’s values, then their audience is likely to do so as well. Trust the influencer’s recommendations when shaping content that will resonate most strongly with their followers and deliver greater impact.

Remember: it’s advertising

The aim is to integrate advertising naturally into organic content, but it is still advertising and should be clearly identified as such. Audiences are not easily misled, and a lack of transparency can not only breach regulations but also damage trust.

A good example of this is Pabs Pérez and Óscar Font for NYX. They introduced their long-term ambassadorship by positioning themselves as “brand interns”. This approach not only produced engaging and relevant branded content, but also established a clear, recognisable content line that could be sustained throughout the collaboration.

Content should reflect both brand and creator

The final content should be the result of a genuine collaboration between brand and creator, showcasing the best of both. Involving the brand in the creative process while trusting the creator’s input is the best way to achieve strong, balanced results.

Don’t focus solely on sociodemographic data

While quantitative data such as audience location, engagement rate and age range are important, it’s equally essential to consider qualitative factors. How does the audience talk about the creator? Is engagement generally positive? What do the comments reveal? Have there been any recent controversies?

Reviewing all of these aspects helps ensure you’re selecting the right profile and that the relationship won’t negatively impact the brand.

In summary

Taking brand values into account, prioritising long-term partnerships, trusting creators’ judgement and clearly identifying advertising content are all key to building audience trust. When done well, these elements help ensure that both the development and results of your influencer marketing strategy are genuinely positive.