Teri Turner is an innovator in the world of social media, an influencer who has built an incredibly passionate and engaged following over the past five years. She’s a hard-working, network building, life embracing and affirming force of nature.

Happily, she’s also a friend. Last night, I had the incredible good fortune to interview her in front of 300 followers during the final scheduled appearance of her 23 stop national book tour. It’s not often you get to interview someone whose career trajectory serves as a primer in new media marketing.

In recent years, it has become cliché how every brand seeks “authenticity,” but Teri’s “No Crumbs Left” brand personifies the power of exactly that. She did not start with a plan, she simply started, living and sharing her interests and expertise with others. A Facebook page led to Instagram posts, which in turn led to brand promotions and a podcast and a book tour; Teri produces an incredible amount of media content, learning and expanding to new platforms by simply “following the thread where it leads.”

Social media influencers matter in today’s marketing for one simple reason: recommendation marketing drives sales like nothing else. In Nielsen research, 92% of consumers cite recommendations from friends and family as the leading driver of purchase behavior.

A natural networker, Teri built a truly engaged following through DM’s and other direct online interactions. Early on, she collaborated with fellow social media personalities whose work interested her, an intuitive move that grew her audience. One collaboration was with Whole 30, when No Crumbs Left took over their feed for a week. That proved so successful, Whole 30 commissioned a No Crumbs Left cookbook. And that cookbook finally and firmly entrenched Teri as an Authority (currently available for fifteen dollars on Amazon, you will not find a better gift at a better price). As an authority, her website feels more like a media channel than a sales pitch as she relentlessly shares recipes, ideas, and inspiration.

As a social media Authority and Influencer, Teri’s in the unique position of choosing which brand partnerships she accepts. They must fit her sensibility and values. And her terms, like payment upfront. As she tells it, some large companies balk at why she won’t wait 90 days for payment. But as a small business person, that doesn’t work for her, and neither does having corporations set the terms. In the world of social influence, brands that want to leverage the incredible selling power of personal recommendation must embrace some new realities:

1. Mass marketing approaches do not apply. Brands do not set the terms or dictate the message. But if they accept that and engage the right influencer, they will benefit tremendously.
2. Brands can buy celebrity endorsements, but partnering with authoritative social media influencers and their audience relationships requires alignment more along the lines of a friendship than a standard business contract. It must be one-to-one.
3. Participation is everything. Mass marketing broadcasts to large, passive audiences; influencer partnerships engage with smaller, far more engaged audiences. Any way brands can leverage that engagement builds affinity. And sales.

Social media influencer rules are being written and rewritten every day. And while it is woefully inefficient from a scalability perspective, for clients savvy enough to find the right relationships, this is a pathway to new, and far more engaged audiences for their brands.

Is it worth it? I think so. Spindrift, Pre beef, and Gotham Greens are now on our grocery lists, and we met all those brands through Teri.

You know, our friend, who recommended them.

The #MeToo movement and its immediate, widespread adoption raised awareness of the blatant sexism and privilege in Chicago advertising. It was nauseating to learn the firsthand accounts of people forced to deal with everything from institutionalized boorishness to outright criminal behavior. So when Ron D’Innocenzo, a colleague from Element 79 and current ECD at Golin, asked me to sit on a panel to discuss the issue, I agreed. But Ron insisted I first talk to Caroline Dettman, Golin’s CCO and the creator behind this initial #HaveHerBack event.

Caroline quickly let me know I’d be the only white male on the panel and that, while no one was looking to attack me specifically, I would inevitably represent the kind of dirtbags that forced this corrective initiative. Fair enough.

I went, I learned, and I walked away inspired by so many people working to evolve actionable steps to create a better, more inclusive way forward for the industry.

My heartfelt thanks to Caroline Dettmann, Liz Traines, Jewell Donaldson, Kat Gordon, Mary Pryor, and Megan Colleen McGlynn. You make this industry, and all of the people in it, far far better.