What Brands Can Learn from Social Media Influencers

One thing I see a lot of influencers do that brands don’t is this…

So many brands tend to make random one-off videos where they talk about themselves or their products. Many influencers on the other hand tend to create highly formatted series that build curiosity, tension, or reflection (allowing the viewer to relate).

Brands can learn from this by using consistent format / structure, and thinking about their content as a continuing series. To tie your series together, break your video up into repeatable chunks (e.g. hook, intro, some pattern, outro). Every video will follow this structure.

For example, there’s a creator on TikTok who shows what she eats to “stay skinny”.

Every video opens with the same line, “Here’s what I eat to stay skinny, I’m 5’4″ for reference.”

Here, we see her standing in full frame.

The next time we see her, it’s a more close-up and intimate setting as she’s drinking her morning coffee in her kitchen.

She says a line about the coffee, and says “Churrs” (her way of saying ‘cheers’.)

Then she takes a bite of sangak bread.

Then she eats other stuff throughout the day, usually talking about something meaningless.

She often says the line, “Always to content, never to full”, a mantra of sorts that viewers can adopt and remember throughout their day to help them with their dieting goals.

Every video follows this format.

You may think this could get boring, but her followers love the predictability.

That’s why most TV shows and movies follow very predictable patterns (setup, conflict, resolution), and most consumers don’t mind seeing the same thing over and over.

Now think about how this could apply to your business.

What’s your opening line to hook the viewer?

What do you say or show to establish context quickly?

What do you say next to establish credibility?

Then what do you do or say (show an example, mention a brand you admire, talk about a news story…)?

Then what’s your outro?

Why does this work?

It works for viewers / consumers because:

1. people like predictability, which helps with retention
2. it helps build trust and affinity,
3. it helps with recall

It works for internal teams because:

1. it makes it easier to create content at scale,
2. it builds a distinct, ownable brand identity,
3. it makes the brand feel more human and relatable

DM me if you need any help, because I can go into a lot more detail.