Working with social media content creators has become an inextricable part of the marcomms landscape in recent years. In the past it could often feel like we saw the same few, fairly homogeneous faces coming through in campaigns, but with more awareness around inclusivity and smarter targeting of various consumer groups that weren’t feeling seen and heard, we’re seeing a shift. 

We spoke with prominent content creators Cynthia Andrew, Nicolette Mason, Kier Gaines and Catie Li about the opportunity working with more diverse talent presents for brands, and giving the insider’s perspective of how to up your influencer marketing game.

The takeaways:

• Advice for creating your personal brand: Be human, unafraid to show both strengths and weaknesses
• The moment your focus is on getting followers, you set yourself up for failure. If you have an interesting perspective – your story to share in your way of putting it our there – everything else will come 
• One hurdle diverse content creators face is that, while brands are including diversity in their campaigns more, there's usually only one slot for ‘diverse’ influencers – so you have to fit what they’re looking for
• While diversity and inclusion on the size front has improved, it still lacks for the LGBTQ community
• Sometimes diversity is what gets you in the door, presenting an opporutnity to spark change. Some brands out there will be very responsive to this. Creators have a responsibility to make sure the door isn't closing behind them 
• The ultimate way for brands to engage diverse content creators: Trust them! Give them creative control. Given the opportunity, they will offer consumers a perspective they haven’t seen and can relate to on some level
• Content creators watch out for brands that mean more than selling a product; they prefer brands that care about the community/audience
• Brands seeking to strengthen diveristy and learn must do the work, don't just rely on talent. Consider that questions around how to work with diverse content creators and other DEI topics are consulting questions and merit proper compensation (some brands have budget for this) – don't exploit your influencers in the name of 'learning'
•  
• Don’t treat influencers as monolithic representation of a community As Cynthia points out: One Black woman’s perspective doesn’t represent every Black woman. Brands should be having many conversations and doing their own research 
• Don’t assume that diverse influencers only impact diverse audience. It’s a missed opportunity for brands to not verage working with diverse content creators
• At the end of the day, it's about doing the right thing. It's important for brands to be acting behind the scenes and not just as a marketing tactic, i.e. brands that launched initiatives in August 2020 that are no longer in action February 2021
• Marketers take note: you have the power to work towards a future where this conversation doesn’t need to happen, and diversity will be part of the process from the get