Your company’s reputation is not merely a reflection of your public image, but a tangible asset with measurable impact on the most essential aspects of your operations. This ReputationUs five-part series delves into the key areas where the concrete value of managing your reputation has clear business benefits–financial and otherwise.
In this third part of the series, we consider the value of social media influencers on your reputation. Our final two parts of series will explore the value of 1) customer loyalty and 2) staff retention.
By cultivating a reputation for excellence and trustworthiness, your business can attract the attention and collaboration of key social media influencers (SMIs). This can amplify your message and expand your reach in the digital landscape. The dynamic relationship between your corporate reputation and influencer engagement underscores the importance of building and safeguarding a positive brand image.
Related to the value to your good reputation, Influencer Marketing Hub’s State of Influencer Marketing 2023: Benchmark Report found 90 percent of marketers believe that influencer marketing is effective, and 72 percent agree that influencer marketing provides higher quality customers.
Customer Perspectives
Simply put: Customers view brands with an active social media engagement, including positive reviews and recommendations, as genuine and credible.
- People overwhelmingly rely on reviews when it comes to purchasing decisions. A 2023 survey from BrightLocal shows 76 percent of consumers regularly read online reviews when browsing for local businesses; 46 percent feel that online business reviews are as trustworthy as personal recommendations from friends or family.
- The Digital Marketing Institute found that 49 percent of consumers depend on influencer recommendations.
- The Sprout Social Index™found 51 percent of consumers agree a business responding to customers on social media makes brands the most memorable.
Leveraging the popularity and credibility of SMIs, ReputationUs can help you solidity and amplify your message in order to engage with consumers in more authentic ways.
Budgeting for Influencers
As influencer marketing grows in popularity, more brands have dedicated budgets for it. According to Influencer Marketing Hub’s 2023 Benchmark Report, 82 percent of respondents planned a dedicated budget for influencer marketing. This increased from 77 percent in 2022, even more notably from 2017, when only 37 percent of respondents claimed they would create a budget for influencer marketing.
Taking influencer marketing seriously and ramping up your efforts to grow your reach can add value to your good reputation.
Academia’s Deep Dives
The success of influencer collaborations is closely tied to a company’s reputation, according to numerous studies — many of them academic. Companies with positive reputations receive more engagement from social media influencers than those with less favorable reputations, according to, “The persuasive power of social media influencers in brand credibility and purchase intention,” published in the science journal Nature in January 2024, reflecting trending research in humanities and social sciences.
A 2022 Global Business Review study published in SAGE Journals, titled “Social Media Influencer and Corporate Brand Reputation—An Experimental Study,” confirmed that SMIs help promote corporate reputation.
Research shows that negative publicity, scandals, or controversies surrounding a company can tarnish its image and erode trust among consumers and influencers alike. In such cases, influencers may distance themselves from the brand to safeguard their own reputations and maintain the trust of their followers.
As a business executive, it is important to prioritize reputation management as an integral component of your business strategy, recognizing its profound impact on your online presence and brand perception. ReputationUs can help you put a crisis communication plan in place to protect your reputation and mitigate against any detriments to the effectiveness of your influencer collaboration.
