It’s true, brand­ed con­tent works! Not only is it afford­able, but it can build strong brand affin­i­ty quick­ly while dri­ving incred­i­ble ROI. The prob­lem: it’s pos­si­ble to go about it the wrong way. In fact, many brands still approach brand­ed con­tent cre­ation like they do tra­di­tion­al adver­tis­ing – talk­ing at the audi­ence and push­ing out con­tent that is far more inter­est­ing to them than it is to any­one else.

To cre­ate effec­tive brand­ed con­tent, brands need to shift their think­ing and put the audi­ence first. Here are a four key prin­ci­ples that every brand should abide by in order to get brand­ed con­tent right.

1. Creation Through Collaboration

Don’t cre­ate con­tent your­self and expect it will go viral and give you cool sta­tus with mil­len­ni­als overnight. While there is a lot of val­ue in cre­at­ing and pub­lish­ing your own con­tent for exist­ing cus­tomers, it just isn’t effec­tive to talk at peo­ple who don’t already know and love your brand. More impor­tant­ly, it’s less authen­tic to sing your own prais­es and broad­cast your own val­ues. Think about how poten­tial cus­tomers who have nev­er heard about your brand might want to receive the mes­sage. Then deliv­er that mes­sage in a way that res­onates with their pas­sions, aspi­ra­tions, and needs. The mil­len­ni­al audi­ence wants to feel con­nect­ed to brands and their sto­ries, which is why work­ing with influ­encers is key. It’s not only that influ­encers under­stand tech­nol­o­gy or that they can nav­i­gate the most pop­u­lar social media chan­nels with ease – it’s about authen­tic­i­ty, pop­u­lar­i­ty, and the abil­i­ty to build loy­al fol­low­ings and start engag­ing con­ver­sa­tions. Influ­encers are plugged into every­thing that is new and trendy because they them­selves define it. They are con­stant­ly cre­at­ing, craft­ing, show­ing, eval­u­at­ing and inspir­ing their audi­ences. Brands can tap into that influ­ence and join con­ver­sa­tions that are already hap­pen­ing, rather than try­ing to build out their own fol­low­ing from scratch.

2. Define Your Content Purpose Early

There is a lot that you can do with brand­ed con­tent: inform, enter­tain, announce, moti­vate, shock, charm, and so on. Defin­ing your pur­pose ear­ly will help you select the right influ­encers and nar­row down the most appro­pri­ate social media chan­nels on which the con­tent should live. For instance, YouTube is a fan­tas­tic choice for infor­ma­tive long-form con­tent such as reviews, favorites videos, and skits that tell a great sto­ry and live on the chan­nel for a long peri­od of time. Alter­na­tive­ly, Twit­ter is incred­i­ble for short-form con­tent such as polls, flash tuto­ri­als, and announce­ments that make it super easy to inter­act with audi­ences in a clever way in real time. Each social media chan­nel, whether it be YouTube, Twit­ter, Insta­gram, Face­book or oth­ers, has its own unique advan­tages and the most suc­cess­ful approach is a mul­ti-chan­nel approach with con­tent that is native and suit­able for each chan­nel.

3. Give Influencers Creative Freedom

Once you define your con­tent pur­pose and hire the right influ­encers that share your pas­sions and pur­pose, you need to give them cre­ative free­dom to craft the sto­ry. The biggest mis­take that brands make time and time again is when they push their own scripts and cre­ative agen­das onto the influ­encer. Suc­cess hap­pens when influ­encers have cre­ative free­dom to tell brand sto­ries in their own voice and when the brand joins the con­ver­sa­tion nat­u­ral­ly, with­out dis­rupt­ing the audience’s expe­ri­ence. Brands should give influ­encers the oppor­tu­ni­ty to pitch their own cre­ative con­cepts because not only are they the artists but they already under­stand what their audi­ence loves and how to engage them best. Here’s an exam­ple of what 3D Robot­ics was able to accom­plish by giv­ing the influ­encer cre­ative free­dom:

4. ‘Perfection’ Is A Bad Word

We all know that no one is per­fect. Your brand is no excep­tion. One of the most valu­able and amaz­ing aspects of work­ing with influ­encers is that they strip the glossy exte­ri­or and add a human com­po­nent that makes your brand more relat­able. Espe­cial­ly when it comes to con­tent such as reviews or favorites videos, peo­ple are look­ing for con­tent that is help­ful and filled with per­son­al expe­ri­ences and opin­ions. Cus­tomers are look­ing for both the good and the bad, so they can make pur­chase deci­sions that are right for them. If the con­tent feels a lit­tle too per­fect and pol­ished, the audi­ence may per­ceive it as inau­then­tic and even call out the influ­encers for with­hold­ing and being dis­hon­est, which will ulti­mate­ly not only hurt their rep­u­ta­tion but also the brand’s. The most suc­cess­ful rec­om­men­da­tions tend to be the kind that list pros and cons of a prod­uct or ser­vice and approach the dis­cus­sion from an hon­est place. This doesn’t mean that influ­encers should bash your brand and cre­ate neg­a­tive con­tent but you do want them to be authen­tic and true to their expe­ri­ence. Ulti­mate­ly, the key to suc­cess is to hire influ­encers who would nev­er cre­ate con­tent if they did­n’t believe in your brand. Give influ­encers time to use your prod­uct as well as the option to back out if they need to. The best influ­encers will be your cham­pi­ons, but also your crit­ics.