Have you noticed that we use “popular” as a blanket term, often to also mean authoritative? I’m not trying to be pedantic — there’s an important difference between them. Understanding this difference can make or break your business.
Yes, you need both. But one is better than the other.
Reactions and trust: how does your audience react to what you say?
I said this before: getting attention is easier than retaining it.
Likes < comments < followers < subscribers < buyers.
It all starts with popularity because popularity = how many people consume what you say.
The number of likes and social media follows is a good indicator of popularity.
To get to the authority stage you need more than a few supporters because authority = how people react to what you say.
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Are you popular or are you authoritative?
You’re popular if:
- People “like” your content
- They cheer you on
- They support you
Congrats! You seem like a nice or interesting person that people want to be around. Unless you’re publishing content to make friends, let’s take it further.
You’re an authority if:
- People engage with you meaningfully i.e. they also contradict you at times or build up on your ideas.
- Your ideas make people change their minds.
- Your conversion rates are well above industry rates.
I emphasized the latter because it’s a key factor. It means that your audience, irrespective of its size, trusts you. Conversion rates aren’t necessarily sales conversions here. For instance, if you send a freebie to your email list, how many people download it?
If you only see cheers but no conversions (whatever that means for you), you’re popular and you need to work on building your authority.
Ideal scenario: you have both → popularity + authority = prestige
In the words of the immortal Birdman:
Popularity is what you do to get attention: you post about a trending topic on social media, you write about LinkedIn on LinkedIn, you push the boundaries of social norms and social media terms of use.
This way, you know that the algorithm will bump you up.
While it’s a necessary step, no business is built on popularity alone.
There are articles galore about influencers with 1 million+ followers who can’t sell 10 shampoo bottles to those people. They’re popular but they’re not authoritative.
Behold this quote from my buddy Oscar Wilde — on an inspirational background because, how else?
Knowing Oscar, this is sarcastic and offensive. I believe mediocrity can also be strategic because you can’t build a huge business without appealing to the masses.
Starbucks is a good example here: they started out as a specialty coffee shop but soon expanded into selling what real coffee aficionados wouldn’t touch with a 10-foot pole.
How many people have the disposition, the time, and the disposable income to really dig deep into the nuances of a bitter drink?
Yeah, not that many.
Overly sweet concoctions with seasonal themes, on the other hand? Bring it on!
The same goes for creators and influencers in both B2B and B2C: the most popular of them appeal to the masses and, to do that, they have to forego much of their substance.
People look at them as sources of inspiration but how many of their followers would pay to get advised by them? This is a good litmus test to figure out if someone’s just popular or popular AND authoritative.
Authority is harder to earn because it requires substance. Yes, even if you’re a B2C influencer selling cosmetics. A bit of depth, a spine, and values that you believe in and stand by will get you authority.
Authority requires more brain power. With content commoditized by AI, entry-level stances, trite advice, and regurgitated crap don’t work. They might make you popular because it’s very easy to react to a #goodvibesonly social media post, but they won’t give you authority.
They won’t get people to convert.
By the way, I’m teaching the frameworks for both popularity and authority in my Audience Accelerator course launching in July. Join the VIP list below and be the first to learn when it drops!
What you talk about and HOW you do it is what sets you apart
Want more likes? → Post inspirational stuff
Want more authority? → Post actionable stuff or your own research.
Here’s how one topic can be either meh or authoritative, depending on how you frame it:
- 4 AI tools that will help you boost productivity — meh, there are dozens of articles on this topic online and most of them suck.
- How my client tripled productivity with the AI tools I recommended — now we’re talking! You’re an authority now. You got actual results for someone, so I’m listening and I want to know EVERYTHING.
It can be even more nuanced than this. Check out an older newsletter issue of mine, 14 non-social-media ways to promote yourself. You’ll find many similar articles online.
Mine, however, is geared at a specific audience (digital entrepreneurs — that’s you) and it tells you HOW to do it too. It’s not just a listicle I compiled with ChatGPT, it’s based on my 17+ years in marketing, enough to have tried all of them and a few others.
You can’t build authority if you don’t know what the heck you’re doing
Social proof plays a big part in building authority. So do trust and credibility.
To get them, you need to actually be good if not great at what you’re doing.
You can fake some of your expertise but that will keep you stuck at the popularity level. If you want to level up, you need authority — the real kind!
You can trick a couple of people into buying your stuff but overpromising and overdelivering won’t get you too far for too long.
Nietzsche said it best: “I’m not upset that you lied to me, I’m upset that from now on I can’t believe you.”
[Side note: you have no idea how long I’ve been waiting to quote my favorite philosopher of all time in this newsletter! My heart is full today!]
To do that, resist the urge to copy what your competitors do — you will inevitably end up peddling trite advice. Instead, talk about:
- Your clients’ results.
- How you get results for your clients — detail the process; don’t worry, no one’s going to steal it. And if they are, they won’t be able to replicate your success anyway.
- Your values — what you stand for and what you stand against.
- Original research.
- Your own processes for getting results.
- How you built what you’ve built — be honest, we’ve got enough context-less stories that paint everyone as overnight successes.
Next week, we’re going to explore what people actually pay for. Spoiler alert: it’s not outcomes or benefits, it’s something that ties in very well with today’s topic. Stay tuned!
Adriana’s Picks
- Excellent news for newsletter operators: you can now use ConvertKit 100% FREE for up to 10,000 subscribers! Check out the deets.
- Scarlet Johansson explicitly said she didn’t want her voice cloned by AI. OpenAI cloned it anyway. The argument is heating up.
- TikTok can’t catch a break. The Canadian Chief of Intelligence warns against using it.
That’s it from me today!
See you next week in your inbox.
Here to make you think,
Adriana
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