Digital Creators Vs. Influencers: Which Works Better For Your Brand?

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You may have heard about influencer marketing, which is helpful for your brand awareness. On the other side, everyone talks about digital creators too. You may wonder who digital creators are and if influencers and digital creators are the same. If not, what are their differences? In this post, we will explain more about these two types of content creators. In the end, you can determine which is better for your business. 

Digital Creators and Influencers— Differences and Similarities

Both digital creators and influencers create content on online platforms. That’s the main thing that connects them. But if we look deeper into their missions and characteristics, we will find out they are not identical. First, let’s see what each of them does.

What Do Digital Creators Do? 

Generally, a digital creator is anyone that creates any type of digital content, including videos, graphics, photos, blog posts, etc. They are also known as online content creators because whatever they create is used on online platforms such as websites, social media, etc. 

Their primary focus is on creating engaging content. They usually don’t have any impact on their audiences; that’s what they create that has this impact, not who they are.

What Do Influencers Do?

When we talk about an influencer, we usually mean someone who can impress others. As their name indicates, they work to influence others. They typically have thousands of followers. Due to their large number of followers, brands collaborate with them to promote their products or services, reach new users or build brand awareness. Therefore, influencers are brands’ sponsors. That’s why they usually use a “sponsored” tag to show they are advertising something or promoting a brand name.

On the other hand, influencers create content too. They are also online content creators because they post a story on online platforms such as Instagram. Thus, they are very similar to digital creators or may even be digital creators. But unlike digital creators, influencers focus on audience engagement. That’s the person that impacts others, not exactly what they create.

They are actually social media personalities who can convince their followers to do or purchase something. They may be athletes, home designers, beauty bloggers, etc. That might be the main difference between a digital creator and an influencer.

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Common Skills of Digital Creators and Influencers

Influencers’ skills

Somehow the main skill an influencer can have is confidence in front of the camera. But that’s not what may affect your business. They should be up-to-date about technology, have the highest knowledge of using social media tools, and how to grow their audience and their engagement. The more skills they have in this field, the better result your business will gain.

That’s not the end; the influencers should also be familiar with editing photos and videos, have knowledge of advertising, and have an excellent convincing tone of voice! That’s why being an influencer is not that easy for everyone. 

Digital creators’ skills

The skills that a digital creator has depends on the type of content they are creating. But the common skill that all digital creators should have is knowing about their audiences. They should know for whom they are creating blog posts or videos. 

They also need to be very skillful in searching and gathering information in the field they are creating content because the topics they may have to work on are somehow very different. They might not have wisdom about all of them. Therefore, they have to do deep research.

To wrap it up, we can see that both digital creators and influencers have these skills:

  • Editing photos or videos 
  • Creating impressive content (of any type) to engage their audiences 

However, a digital creator doesn’t need to know about social media, and an influencer doesn’t need to research what they offer because they usually receive details about what they are promoting. It’s up to a digital creator to do the research and leave the rest to the influencer.

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The Pros and Cons of Digital Creators and Influencers

You may not have been convinced which one is better for your brand: a digital creator or an influencer. To learn more about this, let’s see what advantages and disadvantages each one has: 

Digital Creator Advantages

  • They can create quality content. Since their primary focus is on producing engaging content, they are the best online content creators. Whether they are writing a blog post or creating a video, digital creators are skillful in what they do. 
  • They focus on your project. Because that’s what they are hired for. Therefore, they focus on creating unique content, especially for you. Consequently, you can expect them to be more creative and have more free time to think about promoting your business through their content. 
  • They can be helpful in different fields. As mentioned, a digital creator can create content for an online platform. Sometimes, they can create a script to help an influencer promote your brand with more details.
  • They offer dedicated content. Whatever a digital creator builds is used by your brand’s name, and you will be the owner.

Digital Creator Disadvantages

  • They don’t have any channels or power to influence others. All they do is create informative or creative content.
  • They can’t be your brand’s sponsor or ambassador. They can only create quality digital content. 
  • You can’t use them to improve your brand awareness. However, what they produce may affect this objective.

Influencer Advantages

  • They can introduce your brand to many people. Since a large number of people follow influencers and see their content, their channel is the best place for your brand awareness or even product release.
  • People trust them. Did you know that people have more trust in influencers than brands? That’s why most companies use influencers’ channels to buy trust for their brand.
  • They help you drive more sales. It’s more likely for followers to buy what their favorite influencer offers. Research shows that promoting a product via an influencer will have a higher ROI for your business.
  • They know people even better than you. Then, they can help you find your potential customers.

Influencer Disadvantages

  • Your relationship with influencers is usually a one-time project. They promote you, and the relationship stops until the next time. However, if an influencer becomes your brand ambassador, you may have a better chance for a long-term relationship. 
  • They may not be an expert on your business or know your product as much as you do. 
  • You need to spend more money on influencer marketing compared to having a digital creator on your team.

Digital Creator Vs. Influencer: Which Is Right for Your Business?

Now it’s time to decide which one you need to choose. Generally, deciding between choosing a digital creator or an influencer depends on your goals: 

  • If you want to raise brand recognition, working with an influencer will lead to a better result. 
  • If you need high-quality and continuous content creation for your brand’s website or social media, it is better to work with a digital creator.
  • If you want to increase your sales, having an influencer promote your products will have a better result.
  • If you want to gain more trust from your targeted audience, find an influencer close to your business. For example, a fitness influencer will be the best person to introduce your brand if you sell sports clothes.
  • If you want to be more active on Instagram, you can promote your Instagram page via an influencer and have a digital creator write captions or capture high-quality photos for your posts.

Conclusion 

As you can see, a digital creator and an influencer are the same. However, an influencer can be a digital creator, too, but a digital creator can’t necessarily become an influencer. Choosing between them depends on what objective you want to reach and what marketing strategy you have. You can even work with both because working with a digital creator doesn’t mean you don’t need to promote your brand via an influencer.

1- What is a digital creator on Instagram?

Being a digital creator on Instagram may have a different meaning than what we explained about a digital creator in this post. Clearly, this type of person creates content only for Instagram. Any person can become a digital creator on Instagram. They only need to switch their Instagram account to a professional account and choose “Digital Creator” as “what best describes you.” However, it’s just a label that Instagram gives to your account; it doesn’t mean a digital creator on Instagram is as skillful as an actual digital creator. Moreover, a digital creator on Instagram might not be an influencer too.

2- What are the key differences between digital creators and influencers?

The main difference is that a digital creator only produces content. However, influencers can promote your brand name via the content they create.

3- Are YouTubers digital creators? 

Yes. YouTubers create video content, which is a type of digital content. Therefore, they are digital creators but not always influencers.

Cyrus Nambakhsh

Cyrus is a serial entrepreneur, product-led-growth expert, a product visionary who launched 7 startups. He has built scalable platforms to help businesses and entrepreneurs. Contact: Cyrus@ainfluencer.com