For years, brands have treated influencers like digital billboards. Find someone with a big audience, pay them for a post and hope for the best. You’re basically just renting their followers for a day, hoping to win a fraction of their attention.
But that whole model is broken. In 2026, people can smell a forced brand deal from a mile away, and they’re not afraid to call it out.
Here’s the simple truth brands keep missing: the creator isn’t the prize. The real gold is the community they’ve built—the ecosystem of inside jokes, shared values, and genuine trust. The creator might be the face of the operation, but the community is where the culture actually happens.
So, if you want to get it right, you have to stop thinking like a media buyer and start thinking like a community member. The question isn’t “How can we use this creator’s reach?” anymore. It’s “How can we actually bring something cool to their community?”
Here’s what that actually looks like.
Vibe check the community, not just the follower count; a creator’s real power isn’t their follower count; it’s the trust they have with their people. That trust is earned over years. A one-off brand deal doesn’t just feel like an ad; it feels like it’s messing with the vibe of a space people love.
So, forget the vanity metrics for a second and go read the comments. Are people having real conversations? Do they ride for the creator? Do they get the jokes? That’s a healthy community. Earning your spot there is worth more than a million passive views.
Give more than you take, you have to show up to add to the culture, not just to advertise. The goal is to be a welcome guest, not a loud salesperson crashing the party.
Instead of a boring product post, why not sponsor a workshop just for that community? Or co-create a piece of merch with input from the creator’s top fans? A financial brand could host a real-talk Q&A about money that actually helps people. Do something that gives back to the space you’re trying to enter.
Stick around for a while, one-off campaigns are the junk food of this world. It’s a quick hit that leaves you with nothing in the long run. If you want to build real love for your brand, you have to commit.
When a community sees you supporting their favourite creator consistently, over months or even years, you stop being just another sponsor. You become part of the story. It takes patience and a move away from chasing short-term numbers, but the payoff is a kind of loyalty that money just can’t buy anymore.
The game has changed. It’s not about finding the biggest megaphone; it’s about finding the right conversation and earning your right to be there. The question for brand leaders now is simple: “Which community can we genuinely serve?” How you answer that will decide if you’re still in business in the years to come.
By Lindo Mkhize
