What's The Difference Between a Content Creator vs. Influencer?

As social media evolves, the roles of influencers and creators have become essential to social media marketing strategies. Amelia Liana, a prominent UK-based influencer in fashion and lifestyle with a following of 600K on Instagram and TikTok, provides a succinct framework:

• Influencers engage their own audience, leveraging their platforms to inspire action.
• Creators, on the other hand, craft content designed to influence someone else’s audience — often brands’ audiences.

Can someone be both? Absolutely. An influencer can also create for brands and a creator can grow their own following. At the same time, you can exclusively be one or the other. Both roles bring unique value to brands, but understanding their distinctions is critical to optimize their impact. 

Determining whether you want to work with an influencer or a creator should completely depend on what your marketing goals are. Are you looking to reach a new audience? Then identify the right influencer. Are you trying to generate more storytelling or ad content on your channel? Then work with the best creator who can do this — this might be an incredibly loyal customer (see Miu Miu tapping top customer, Dr. Qin Huilan to walk in its Fall/Winter 2024 show). The answer is always in the room. Once you have the right goals, the right partner and technology will get you there. 

Today, brands recognize the critical role their social media channels play in driving awareness and conversions. Yet, the operational complexity of consistently creating high-quality, engaging content can be overwhelming — especially when internal resources are focused on product development and business growth.

This is where creators come in. Creators bridge the content gap, delivering authentic, relatable material that aligns with the brand’s identity while enabling teams to focus on their strengths.

Influencers bring a unique expertise: the ability to tell stories that captivate and resonate with their community. They dedicate significant time and energy to understanding their audience demographics, honing their messaging and collaborating with brands that align with their ethos.

Influencers might have authority in a specific area — for example, a financial influencer will likely have more knowledge about banking or investing, perhaps from past job experience or their connection with the industry at large. Influencers can also make different impacts — aka, be better for different parts of your marketing strategy — based on their following size. Here are the different types of influencers based on followers:

• Nano influencers: 1-10K followers 
• Micro influencers: 10-100K followers ‍
• Macro influencers: 100K+ followers

While influencers and creators share similarities, there are some key differences. All influencers are creators, however, not all creators are necessarily influencers. What exactly does this mean? 

Well, anyone that creates content for social media is technically a creator, no matter their following size. However, they might not reach enough people to command influence or even make content with the aim of influencing others to make a purchase. Sometimes, this type of content and creator can evolve to become influencers — some influencers even resist the ‘influencer’ label, but for the purpose of planning your social strategy, it’s an important distinction to make.

Simply put, influencers influence other to take action — whether it’s to make a purchase, explore a new country or teaching a new skill. Creators, however, are anyone who create content on social media without the direct aim of influencing others to take action.

The choice between leveraging an influencer or content creator in your social strategy depends on a few factors: your business goals, social media marketing budget, target demographics and more. For example, are you looking to build awareness of your brand — and have a big budget? Working with a macro influencer with lots of reach might be best to achieve this goal. If you want to increase sales, you might consider working with a micro or even a nano influencer — according to eMarketer analyst Jasmine Enberg, these influencers often target niche communities and have a stronger ability to drive sales. If a nano influencer has a strong relationship and engagement with their followers, this might be more impactful than an influencer everyone knows. 

Let’s take a closer look at some of the pros and cons of content creators and influencers.

Content Creators: Pros

Here are some of the pros to consider when thinking about how to use content creators in your social strategy:

• High-quality content: Content creators are typically highly-skilled when it comes to photographic, videography and editing. While many influencers edit their own content, sometimes, editing is outsourced — it’s highly likely that creators edit their own content, which could also ease collaboration between your brand and them.‍
• Eliminate risk of over-exposure: Unlike influencers, content creators are less likely to oversaturate their work with partnerships, keeping your collaboration distinct and professional. This is also a great way to build trust between your brand and your audience.
• More engagement: Creators are particularly effective at driving engagement on TikTok, with engagement growing 46% from 2023-2024 and 13% on Instagram. What's more, TikTok creators have 61% more followers compared to Instagram, which can drive slightly more reach on TikTok.

Content Creators: Cons

If you’re considering future work with content creators, here are some things to consider: 

• Limited reach: Creators audiences are often smaller or not the main focus, meaning they might not drive traffic or conversions, particulary on Instagram.
• Less influence on buying decisions: They may lack the personal connection with followers that makes influencer recommendations impactful.‍
• Higher production costs: High-quality content creation can come with a higher price tag, especially if you’re commissioning unique assets.

Influencers: Pros

Are influencers right for your campaign goals? Here are some pros of working with influencers: 

• Audience trust: Influencers have built credibility with their followers, which can make their endorsements more persuasive.‍
• Built-in reach: They bring an established audience, helping to amplify your brand message quickly.‍
• Real-time engagement: Influencers can generate immediate engagement, like likes, comments and shares, which can boost your brand’s visibility and awareness.‍
• Cultural relevance: Partnering with influencers who align with your target audience can help your brand stay relevant.

Influencers: Cons

Influencers aren’t a one-size-fits-all win for your marketing strategy — it can be easy to think an influencer with mass appeal and millions of followers will drive huge sales for your brand, but this isn’t always the case. Here are some potential cons to consider when thinking about using influencers in your marketing strategy:
Inconsistent Quality: Not all influencers are skilled at content creation, so the output may vary.

• Less control: Their personal style and tone might not always align perfectly with your brand’s message.
• Risk of inauthenticity: Over-saturated influencer partnerships can feel transactional, diminishing trust with their audience.‍
• Short-term focus: While they drive buzz, influencers may not deliver the evergreen value that reusable content from creators can provide.

From my experience as a CMO, I’ve witnessed the unmatched performance of creator-driven ads. Their ability to capture audience attention, while maintaining the brand's voice, often outperforms traditional campaigns.

From language-learning software to trending clothing brands, some of the most popular content creators on social media are brands. Here are some examples of how brands utilize content creation to make a splash:

1. Duolingo

Duolingo’s eponymous green owl mascot aligns perfectly with the app’s playful and sometimes chaotic personality online. The account’s meteoric rise in popularity on TikTok is a shining example of creator marketing, driven by Zaria Parvez, the creative force behind the brand’s quirky, trend-savvy content.

By tapping into viral TikTok trends, meme culture and using humor to both connect with audiences and promote their language-learning software, Parvez transformed the Duolingo account into a unique, fun and distinct brand identity.

2. Djerf Avenue

Djerf Avenue is a seamless blend of creator-driven marketing through Matilda Djerf’s unique approach to branding. A style icon even before launching her own brand, Matilda leveraged her personal influence and aesthetic to build her own fashion brand. She organically integrated her personal style into her product line to create a brand identity that simultaneously feels aspirational and accessible. Matilda rarely flooded her own feed with sponsored content and tags before launching her own line, making her online presence and brand a great example of creator-led marketing. 

3. Kylie Cosmetics 

Kylie Jenner’s success with Kylie Cosmetics is another prime example of an influencer taking a creator-led approach. While she undoubtedly leverages her massive influence for her beauty brand, her role goes beyond promotion — Kylie focuses heavily on creating content specifically for her brand, not other brands. From product reveals to behind-the-scenes glimpses of her cosmetic empire, her content engages followers by reinforcing the brand’s identity — and her own as a creator.

Influencers bring a unique expertise: the ability to tell stories that captivate and resonate with their community. They dedicate significant time and energy to understanding their audience, honing their messaging and forming partnerships with brands that align with their ethos.

Dash Social's Social Media Trends Report found that influencer content receives 12X more engagement compared to content posted by brands. This remarkable engagement rate underscores why influencers are indispensable for driving brand awareness, relevance and loyalty.

1. Airbnb

Airbnb creatively uses influencer partnerships to build on its existing awareness, challenge competitors and enhance appeal. By sponsoring influencers to document their travel and stays, Airbnb inspires these influencers’ followers to book their own trips.

These collaborations often show influencers sharing experiences in different Airbnb properties, providing followers insights and tips into their rental offerings. Airbnb also incorporates influencers into its advertising campaigns, blending user-generated content with professional social media marketing strategies for relatable promotions. This approach helps boost Airbnb's reach and fosters trust.

2. Merit Beauty 

Merit Beauty strategically uses influencer marketing to promote its minimalist makeup line. The brand frequently features influencers on its social media platforms, showcasing how real people use their products in their real life. By gifting products to influencers, Merit encourages authentic reviews and demonstrations, which are shared with the influencers' followers and often by the brand as UGC. This amplifies product visibility and builds credibility through genuine endorsements.

3. Nara Smith and Marc Jacobs

Nara Smith has mastered the art of combining her personal brand with creative partnerships. Known for preparing meals from scratch in fashionable attire while narrating softly, Nara seamlessly integrates brand collaborations into her content.

One standout example is her partnership with Marc Jacobs, where she pretended to “bake” a handbag from dough. This innovative content format didn’t disrupt her established style but instead amplified it, generating over 2.5 million views on Marc Jacobs’ TikTok account.

Influencers and creators are not competing forces, instead, they are complementary assets in your marketing strategy. By leveraging the unique strengths of each, brands can achieve unparalleled engagement, relevance and growth.

As marketers, our role is to understand their potential, foster strategic partnerships and empower these storytellers to deliver value — whether through influencing audiences, creating content or a dynamic blend of both.

Dash Social’s Creator Management feature lets brands effortlessly source, connect and manage their creator relationships across TikTok and Instagram. Beyond this, social teams can source and track their most impactful UGC, keep track of deliverables and access verified, API-backed data to ensure metrics are measured accurately and consistently — spend less time pulling data, and more time making strategic decisions.

Are all content creators influencers?

Not necessarily. Some creators prefer to focus on crafting content for brands while maintaining an authentic social media presence without #ad. 

Who is considered a content creator?

Anyone producing public content online can be considered a creator. This could range from professional videographers to everyday users sharing content on social platforms.

What is the difference between a content creator and a digital creator?

There is no different between content creator and digital creator — the terms are interchangeable. Someone who doesn’t produce digital content might use the term ‘content creator’, however, this is largely known to only  apply to digital content.  ‘Content creator’ has simply become the preferred, modern descriptor.