Influencers Aren't Journalists

Author

Alex MacGregor
December 14, 2024

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Influencers aren’t journalists. But if you’re not working with both. You’re not doing media relations right. Why?

Perhaps the world's best tech influencer, Marques Brownlee, aka 'MKBHD,' took a lot of heat this week for getting a Tesla charging spec wrong.

Why does this matter?

The benefit of working with “influencers” for product news/reviews is that you’re hitting a lot of social followers.

Far more than any one particular journalist and some influencers have more followers now than legacy media outlets.

There's something else: often as a brand, you don't have to worry about the review being anything other than provided talking points — with zero scrutiny.

Many companies - not just Apple - now do this. Indeed some of the largest brands in our era have been built this way, just look at Fashion with Shein 'hauls' or crypto 'bros' tweeting about coins.

Anyway back to Marques, he made a mistake based on his own judgement to which Tesla corrected. Big deal? Kinda. It may or may not influencer people's purchasing decision.

But journalists get it wrong too, trust me, I've seen it countless times and had to step in to correct while working at a brand.

So influencers aren't journalists, and journalists aren't influencers. That's fine.

In PR and as a brand, you need to work with both.

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