Who told you about the last thing you bought?
I’ll go first. I’m very, VERY influenced by Juliet Mackay. If she’s using it, I’m already halfway to checkout. I once watched her ad for The Laundress, twice, on purpose.
I trust her taste, and because of that, trustworthiness is sprinkled like magical fairy dust over whatever brand she’s showing off.
If you’re reading this, I hope it’s because you trust my professional taste too (I do not take that lightly!). Either way, you’re not here because a brand told you to be.
So, full disclosure: Sprout Social is sponsoring today’s send. Also full disclosure: I’m a Sprout user AND fan. They’ve been a fixture in my stack for years, because they know organic better than I do. Taking social advice from them is like taking Excel lessons from Microsoft.
So, when they asked me to tear apart a few of my favorites from their recent Social Intelligence Summit, I may have squealed.
Today, our subject is BORROWED TRUST: what Sprout’s new research says about who people trust on social now, 4 ways brands waste that trust, and how to find the creators, customers, and employees already vouching for you.
WHO PEOPLE TRUST ON SOCIAL NOW
First, some intel for you. According to Sprout’s 2026 Influencer Marketing Report:
1️⃣: Only 17% of consumers look at follower count when deciding whether to follow a creator.
2️⃣: 80%+ say influencers should actually use the products they promote.
3️⃣: 40% of consumers discover products through employee-created content every month. (For Gen Z, it’s 62%.)
4️⃣: On Instagram Reels, 60% of creators have audiences where 70%+ of viewers don’t follow them.
If you mostly live in paid like I do, note the last 1: distribution now has a lot less to do with followers, and a lot more with the content itself.
4 WAYS BRANDS WASTE THE TRUST THEY BORROW
Presenting: my top 4 Mega-Dumbalina mistakes to never ever make with influencer/affiliate. You’d be shocked how common they are.
1️⃣. (STILL) VETTING CREATORS BY FOLLOWER COUNT
Remember, only 17% of consumers check it! And we’re still building it into our partnership power ranking? Make it make sense.
JK, I know why: because it’s effortless shorthand to use for “effective creator.” Try a different shorthand: the subjects a creator covers. That’s what your shopper looks at when deciding whether they’ll follow, according to the data. It’s also the reason niche creators hold their own on sales: 21% of consumers are more likely to buy from a niche creator’s recommendation, vs. 15% for a big influencer.
2️⃣. TREATING CREATORS LIKE 1-OFF MEDIA BUYS
1 post, 1 invoice, then everyone acts surprised when the content feels like an ad (derogatory), and whatever lift you see ghosts you right after. Longer partnerships speak to that 80% who want the creator to use the product, and the 44% who want them to use it long-term. A single shout out on organic = often useless. Being woven into the fabric of their routine? Priceless.
3️⃣. SLEEPING ON YOUR OWN EMPLOYEES
Fact: shoppers often find employee creators more authentic than the brand’s main account, especially frontline employees (read: not C-suite). Remember the wild success of the Staples baddie?
So: have you asked any of yours?
4️⃣. NOT TYING IT TO REVENUE.
Half of marketers say brand awareness is a top reason they use influencers. Only 24% say the same about direct sales. As someone responsible for all ecommerce at the brand I work for, makes me want to lie down.
Awareness is a fine goal, and helps with incremental. But if you can’t connect a creator program to sales, it’s the first budget to get cut when things get tight. Avoid that!
OFFICIAL PARTNERS AREN’T THE ONLY PARTNERS TO WORRY ABOUT
Those 4 mistakes all apply to people you CHOOSE to partner with. But plenty of people talk about your brand with no contract at all, and they carry weight..
For example: every brand is vulnerable to Reddit sentiment. Search engines and AI pick up that chatter, and it absolutely affects where you’re recommended, and how.
But also: each of those little moments contributes to your brand, for better or worse. This is why I always read ad comments.
No signals is also a signal, too: the scariest of all being apathy. When customers who used to comment, tag, recommend, and review go quiet, PANIC they are telling you something.
Which brings me to the importance of…professional eavesdropping.
LISTENING IS ONLY HALF OF IT
The creators posting about you, the comments on your niche, the customers going quiet: all of these show up on social before they ever hit your sales.
The key is to track what people say about your brand, your category, and your competitors…then act on it, across the entire business.
That “act on it” part takes you from eavesdropping to Social Intelligence. It’s also where most people get stuck: Only 10% of brands say they can move on social insights within hours.
If your insights tend to die before they leave the social team, grab the Social Intelligence Playbook before you go. Inside this toolkit is the data, an intel masterclass, and an AI prompt library that’ll get you collecting and analyzing insights in no time.
4 WAYS TO FIND (AND KEEP) THE PEOPLE WHO ALREADY TRUST YOU
My first Summit rec: Borrowed Trust, Real Impact. Moderated by Lia Haberman (author of the wonderful newsletter ICYMI), the panel tackled the question: how do you figure out who your brand advocates are?
A few highlights:
1️⃣: Start with the people already talking about you. Pull every unprompted mention from the last 90 days across formats & platforms. Sort them by customer, employee, or creator, and see who shows up more than once. Boom, your starter list of advocates.
2️⃣: Test long-term partnerships. Panelist Ari Berkowitz, Head of Creator Solutions at PMG (another Ari, love that for us), gets into this, including compensation structures that can quiet the budget alarms in your head that go off when you hear “long-term partnership.”
3️⃣: Make it dead simple for employees to post, then HANDS OFF. Want your own Staples Baddie? Sprout’s Creator-in-Residence suggested building shared folders with assets and boilerplate language so nobody starts from scratch, and Gap Inc.’s Head of Creator Marketing said whatever you do, don’t lead with a brief.
4️⃣: Put paid behind what gets traction organically, and tie to revenue. When I was agency-side, we’d only run a client’s TikTok ads if they also committed to posting at least 1x a day. Organic tells you what works. Paid scales it. Whitelist early performers (run it as an ad from their handle) and measure against your other ads on revenue.
THE SESSIONS I’D WATCH 1ST
Borrowed Trust, Real Impact with Lia Haberman, Brandon Smithwrick, Ari Berkowitz, and Cory Weaver. Listen for Gap’s employee program, plus what SharkNinja and Lowe’s are doing with creators.
The Proof is in the Signal, Jay Schwedelson’s keynote (!!! go Jay!) on how brands can treat social as a business foundation instead of a 1-way megaphone. YES I’m biased, but I’m still right.
First to Know, First to Move with Josh Rangel (Ogilvy) and Tulani André (Zalando), on telling a passing moment from a trend with legs.
From Signals to Strategy with Curtis Midkiff, Paige Walker from Hershey, Bianca Shaw, and Ben Nicholson, on why good insights stall before anyone acts on them. (I’ve talked to Curtis and the Sprout team before. They’re genuinely the people I trust most on this topic.)
BACK TO THE FUTURE
Remember when I asked who told you about the last thing you bought? If you’re lucky, someone out there is doing that for your brand, right now. A customer, a creator, maybe even someone on your own team (I recommend my brand relentlessly, so, case in point.)
I think a lot of growth over the next few years will come from brands that know WHO these people are, and use what they say (about the product, the niche, and the competition) to make decisions. That means listening on social as closely as you post, with a system to act on what you hear (not just inspo for your next post).
To steal a quote from my husband, social is the most valuable source of intelligence your business has. For 2027, my best advice to you is to start acting like it. 💘
My other advice is to take something for the road:
🌱 Watch the free sessions at the Social Intelligence Summit, like Borrowed Trust.
🌱 Get the Social Intelligence Playbook (your homework, plus an AI prompt library).
🌱 Bookmark the Influencer Marketing Report to go deeper.