Influencers are leaders and leaders are influencers
Seriously
For a slightly less personal topic this week…
Consider this hot take: An influencer, a CEO, and a politician are all doing variations of the same thing.
If I said this to my Grammy, God love her, she wouldn’t have any idea what I’m talking about and almost certainly wouldn’t understand what I mean by “influencer.”
But as someone reading this post, you (probably) intuitively get this.
In abstract, an influencer’s tactics could be described as:
Maintaining a consistent persona through all possible interactions
Making it easy for a follower to do whatever they’re being asked/influenced to do
Reinforcing a sense of community through regular feedback loops
All of those are also what a good leader does, no matter the context.
I couldn’t help but think about this when I saw
‘s excellent edition of After School yesterday, in which she shared a report she authored with Day One agency about the state of influencers.
It’s a well-done summary with some fascinating stats that directly connect to some of my arguments on next-generation leadership as I lay out in When We’re In Charge (out in stores on May 13, preorder now!) — and that are also coming up a lot in the conversations about next-gen leadership I’m having for work! — so I wanted to call out a few things to connect the dots on.
The report begins:
These days, 88% of Gen Zers follow at least one influencer on social media, and nearly 1 in 4 follow more than 50.*
But "follow" doesn’t begin to describe the complexity of this relationship. Influencers don't just inspire. They command.
That emphasis is mine, because Casey nails it: Influencers are leaders. (And ideally, leaders are influencers, in that they are able to influence people to take action…)
I literally make this argument in my book. After a lengthy intro, in part one of the book, I get into the weeds about how to think about authenticity and why the seemingly hard-to-define quality matters for next-gen leaders to cultivate.
Then, as ironic as it might sound to tell people how to be authentic, I do it! I walk through a guide for how to be authentically yourself but responsibly, with boundaries, and in a way that serves your goals.
To that tactical end, I write about breaking down exactly how influencers perform authenticity (and it is, indeed, a performance 👀) in order to understand its components and consider how to replicate it. It feels weird to quote myself, but whatever:
Influencers are a form of leaders—on most platforms, they literally have followers, but beyond that, they are doing what leaders do: building a relationship with a community over time in order to drive a desired action.
Maybe the influencer wants their followers to buy something, maybe they want them to take action, maybe they want them to cyberbully someone else on the internet. The end goal is (mostly) irrelevant for our purposes. It’s more useful to focus on what the influencer is doing with each post and each interaction in order to build their most important currency: trust.
And what they’re doing is working, according to the D1A report:
49% of all consumers make daily, weekly, or monthly purchases because of influencer posts, with 30% saying they trust influencers more today than they did just six months ago.*
Trust in social media influencers is on the rise among younger consumers, in particular, with Gen Zers and Millennials jumping from 51% in 2019 to 61% in 2023.*
Understanding the role influencers play and how they operate matters, even if you’re not a marketer or a content creator (or if you diverge from the 57% of Gen Z who aspire to be an influencer one day).
The way influencers shape society affects you, whether you like it or not.
As Casey goes on in the report:
Because they've grown up interfacing with influencers, young people expect transparency and vulnerability, whether the communication is coming from a creator or a corporation.
I’d add one more clause there: People (especially millennials and Gen Z, who will make up a majority of the workforce by 2030) expect that communication from the leaders in their life, too. This is one of the challenges I heard come up in so many of the interviews I did for When We’re In Charge.
People say they want transparency and vulnerability — and next-gen leaders want to give it! But actually being transparent and vulnerable in a way that helps you reach your desired end-point is much more complicated than it seems. It’s not impossible, but it requires extreme clarity on both who you are and what you want to accomplish, and constant vigilance about boundaries.
I have so many more thoughts on all this, including on how to do it all, so if this is the kind of thing that interests you, pre-order the book. (Shameless this week? Maybe. But unapologetically so! I didn’t put all this work into the book while also running an organization and growing a person just to have it not get read!)
(And also: read the full report: It’s quick, engaging, and super interesting no matter your field.)
P.S. I really liked hearing from folks about last week’s email on the NYC mayoral election — if you have more specific questions about how to think about politics or your political engagement, or how to think about activism in this moment (see: my previous edition about avoiding the grifters…), hit me in the comments or just reply. Happy to answer in a future email.
Only one book rec this week, because my brain could not stick with anything longer than a few pages — I kept picking up my phone to scroll and lost track of time; my brain was mostly liquid, which is also why this newsletter is shorter than usual…
Passion Project by London Sperry — Bennett moves to New York City while she’s grieving her dead college boyfriend. A few years removed and still listless but nudged to go on a date, she ends up standing up handsome Henry, and then running into him a few hours later — they connect and somehow make a plan for him to help her find her passion again by bouncing around the city. Sparks fly, etc etc. A sweet romance, good grief portrayal, and excellent New York City stuff. I liked this a lot!
A bunch of other reading recs:
“These days, we have zero interest in telling people what to do, based on society’s norms — because there are no more norms!” [I bet you can’t guess what this quote is from, but boy does it ring true.]
“Millennial Hobby Energy is big and ambitious. It’s swallowing. It’s barely keeping the impulse to optimize and monetize at bay. It’s not unique to millennials, but it is endemic among us. I have a bad case of it, but I don’t think it’s bad — it’s just part of my personality, alongside the paralyzing fear that the other shoe is always about to drop.” [Anne Helen Peterson, duh, who is worth paying for]
One of the reasons I wrote When We’re in Charge is because so much of management content treats gen Z and millennials as nuisances to manage around, not leaders in our own rights. Example one million and three! [WSJ: The Locker-Room Playbook for Managing Gen Z Employees.]
Maris Kreizman on what it means to be a Good Author has me thinking more about what success for my book looks like. I do unambiguously want it to sell a lot of copies! But also, I want it to succeed in either ways that I can’t quite quantify yet, but maybe I’ll write about later. [LitHub: What Does It Mean to be a Good Author When You Publish a Book?]
I loved this essay from my college pal Maura Brannigan on finding yourself after motherhood. [Am I Getting My Pink Back?]
wow amanda! thank you so much for sharing your thoughts!!!
I’m slowly catching up on all of your excellent columns. The brilliant leader/politician/influencer that came to mind for me is Francesca Hong (76th Assembly District representative, WI State Legislature), whom I am fortunate to know personally. A millennial and the first Asian American elected to Wisconsin’s state legislature, she represents downtown Madison/the Isthmus, which includes the state capitol. Her values are impeccable and her authenticity is unquestionable. Her communications game is clear, consistent, and on point. Daily. In addition to her legislative impact, she and her terrific chief of staff throw their considerable energy into helping WisDems ensure that other new leaders get elected around the state. Fran is one to watch—and support.