Can we please kill Authenticity?

Two weeks ago I spent several hours judging entries in an influencer marketing awards contest. Part of the submission was for the brand or agency to describe their organization’s unique selling proposition. Every single entry had some version of the following in their answer: “We focus on authentic, transparent and human connections with our … blah blah blah.” You could literally copy and paste one agency’s answer to that question into the spot on any other agency’s entry and no one would have known the difference. It’s like they were told if they didn’t include some indication that they were all about authenticity, transparency and creating human connections, they were disqualified. But, it was an influencer marketing award competition. That was to be expected to a degree.  Then I flipped over to my Instagram feed and saw the following quote in a meme sent by a different agency. It read, “Honesty, transparency and authenticity are the key factors that will set your personal brand apart from the competition as a trustworthy, reliable source.”  I snapped. It’s high time we kill all the talk about honesty, being human and transparency. And once and for all, stick a dagger in the heart of authenticity. I’ll explain what I mean in today’s commentary. This episode of Winfluence, the podcast, is sponsored by Julius. I mention that software more than others in my book because it’s the platform I’ve been using for a few years now to find influencers, engage with them and manage campaigns.  Julius really is easy to use but super powerful all at once. I can search for influencers by topic, interest, geography, age … I can also filter them by the demographics of their audience, which networks they’re relevant on … the permutations of isolating the ones that are super relevant for me are seemingly endless. Then, I can build lists of candidates, reach out to them for engagements, share contracts and assets with them, load in deliverables that I can track, measure the ROI of everything … it’s got it all.  I literally work in Julius every day for my clients at Cornett. It’s become a required tool in my arsenal. I think you’ll enjoy having it in yours, too.  All I want you to do is a demo. They’re free and will show you the magic I use every day for influence marketing campaigns. If you love it like I do, you’ll sign up. If you don’t, what harm is there in checking it out, right? Sign up for that demo! Go to jason.online/julius and request one. That’s jason.online/julius. I think you’ll be impressed! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices