4 ms·

I think a lot of people find the word "influencer" to be, for the most part, aspirational puffery, especially if preceded by "self-described." But the actual p

by jawns 8y ago

I think a lot of people find the word "influencer" to be, for the most part, aspirational puffery, especially if preceded by "self-described." But the actual phenomenon is really very interesting. Brands used to primarily rely on in-house marketing teams or external marketing agencies, who might try to get their products in the hands of people with strong platforms, aka the ability to market to lots of people by virtue of their fame, reach, etc. Now you have a lot of what might be called freelance lifestyle marketers. They're like a copy of InStyle magazine, where the editorial content is themselves and the lux life they (purportedly) lead, and the advertising content is the products they market. I think a lot of the consternation about social media influencers is because it's a new marketing avenue with fairly little gatekeeping. Someone with 4,000 Instagram followers and someone with 4 million Instagram followers might both present themselves as influencers, and it's hard to tell who's legit. It's especially hard for smaller businesses, such as an independent hotel or bar, because who has the time to research all of these claims? What I think we're already starting to see is that some of the people with the largest followings, who legitimately can be called influencers, are being approached by agencies who represent them, because then the agencies are doing the gatekeeping.

travisjungroth 8y ago
> Someone with 4,000 Instagram followers and someone with 4 million Instagram followers might both present themselves as influencers, and it's hard to tell who's legit. One of these is roughly a thousand times more valuable than the other, but we often talk about them as if they're the same. You can keep your sanity by realizing that anyone that is trying to barter for your services with exposure is not a buyer, they're a seller. You can estimate the dollar value of the exposure they're offering, compare it to the asking price of what they want, and either do the deal or not. I think where feelings get hurt is the price/value of the exposure they're selling is so horrible that feelings get hurt or it feels like a scam. What's a post to a thousand followers worth? A few cents, a few dollars? Nothing close to the $300 of food and accommodation they might ask for it.
- chrisseaton 8y ago
  > One of these is roughly a thousand times more valuable than the other Is 4 million people who aren't your target market really a thousand times more valuable than 4 thousand who are exactly your target market? > What's a post to a thousand followers worth? A few cents, a few dollars? Nothing close to the $300 of food and accommodation they might ask for it. Again, a post to a thousand followers who are exactly your target market, already looking to spend a significant sum of money, and who will take the influencer's recommendation extremely seriously, could be worth far more than $300.
  - Beldin 8y ago
    Any situation like that is one where the influencer will not be trying to get free stuff, but will be selling his/her audience. (At least, given an understanding of the situation.) I.e. they are offering their services as an ad-hoc ad agency. That's a far cry from folks asking for freebies for instagram photos. Those are hoping to be mistaken for the first category.
    - chrisseaton 8y ago
      > the influencer will not be trying to get free stuff, but will be selling his/her audience Yes selling their audience... for free hotel rooms and stays in resorts. It's not cash but they're still selling it.
- deleted 8y ago
  [deleted]
DoreenMichele 8y ago
It's also inherently problematic. Getting "sponsors" to pay you to talk about their product is in direct conflict with becoming/remaining an influencer. Your audience needs to trust you. If your audience knows you are shilling for someone, they fundamentally can't trust you. They can no longer trust that you are saying "This is an awesome product!" because you genuinely believe that. Maybe you actually think it's shite, but, hey, you needed to make rent this month. So, whatevs. I've even seen people on the internet say "I used to read such and such ...until they began getting free samples and the like to support the blog. Then it went to shit and I quit reading." It's a problem space I've thought about a lot because I blog. I am trying to get my writing supported primarily via tips and Patreon. If my audience wants quality content it can trust, my audience needs to pay me. If they aren't paying me, "they are the product, not the customer" to borrow a popular phrase. But selling out my audience so I can eat is not a thing I am interested in doing. It's flies in the face of the very reasons I blog. Over the years, a lot of quality free content has either gone to shit or gone away. The expectation that good content should exist, but be free, is simply unsustainable. Quality content takes time, effort and expertise to produce. It needs to pay, or most of the people who are any good will eventually go do something that does pay. That's just reality. And then we are left bitching about how there's nothing any good on the internet anymore and where is all the good stuff I remember from the good old days? (A fairly common refrain currently, actually.)
- Konnstann 8y ago
  You can get sponsors and remain trustworthy, you just need to disclose sponsorships, and curate the people who you actually take money from. This can be a problem because genuinely good product sponsorships are probably not the first ones you get offered as a content creator, but I've seen plenty of examples of this working and it pays more than ad revenue for most people.
  - DoreenMichele 8y ago
    I heard once of a small business that was in a remote and scenic location. It added a live webcam to their website. It showed the weather for their scenic locale. It eventually ended up with a crazy high amount of regular traffic. They eventually sold ads for big money to a couple of big name companies. IIRC, Disney was one of them. People were visiting the site for the live view from the webcam. The value they found in checking the live view from the webcam was not inherently harmed by having Disney ads on the site. (Those ads probably paid the business owners more than they made all year at their mom-and-pop shop in the middle of nowhere.) There's also Everyday Carry. They interview people and do photos of the things they carry every day, then have links to where you can buy whatever these people carry -- their brand of cell phone or pen or whatever. I think it's brilliant. I also know of content producers who make t-shirts and mugs and the like with their content on it. The ones that are successful tend to be entertainers doing something humorous. Effin' Birds and Questionable Content both do some of this. Some problem spaces are easier to monetize than others. The above examples of success in no way changes anything I said in my previous comment. Maybe I shall someday figure out how to be funny and make a mint selling t-shirts with my witticisms on them. But, so far, that doesn't seem to be my schtick.

by jawns 8y ago

travisjungroth 8y ago

> Someone with 4,000 Instagram followers and someone with 4 million Instagram followers might both present themselves as influencers, and it's hard to tell who's legit. One of these is roughly a thousand times more valuable than the other, but we often talk about them as if they're the same. You can keep your sanity by realizing that anyone that is trying to barter for your services with exposure is not a buyer, they're a seller. You can estimate the dollar value of the exposure they're offering, compare it to the asking price of what they want, and either do the deal or not. I think where feelings get hurt is the price/value of the exposure they're selling is so horrible that feelings get hurt or it feels like a scam. What's a post to a thousand followers worth? A few cents, a few dollars? Nothing close to the $300 of food and accommodation they might ask for it.

chrisseaton 8y ago
> One of these is roughly a thousand times more valuable than the other Is 4 million people who aren't your target market really a thousand times more valuable than 4 thousand who are exactly your target market? > What's a post to a thousand followers worth? A few cents, a few dollars? Nothing close to the $300 of food and accommodation they might ask for it. Again, a post to a thousand followers who are exactly your target market, already looking to spend a significant sum of money, and who will take the influencer's recommendation extremely seriously, could be worth far more than $300.
- Beldin 8y ago
  Any situation like that is one where the influencer will not be trying to get free stuff, but will be selling his/her audience. (At least, given an understanding of the situation.) I.e. they are offering their services as an ad-hoc ad agency. That's a far cry from folks asking for freebies for instagram photos. Those are hoping to be mistaken for the first category.
  - chrisseaton 8y ago
    > the influencer will not be trying to get free stuff, but will be selling his/her audience Yes selling their audience... for free hotel rooms and stays in resorts. It's not cash but they're still selling it.
deleted 8y ago
[deleted]

DoreenMichele 8y ago

It's also inherently problematic. Getting "sponsors" to pay you to talk about their product is in direct conflict with becoming/remaining an influencer. Your audience needs to trust you. If your audience knows you are shilling for someone, they fundamentally can't trust you. They can no longer trust that you are saying "This is an awesome product!" because you genuinely believe that. Maybe you actually think it's shite, but, hey, you needed to make rent this month. So, whatevs. I've even seen people on the internet say "I used to read such and such ...until they began getting free samples and the like to support the blog. Then it went to shit and I quit reading." It's a problem space I've thought about a lot because I blog. I am trying to get my writing supported primarily via tips and Patreon. If my audience wants quality content it can trust, my audience needs to pay me. If they aren't paying me, "they are the product, not the customer" to borrow a popular phrase. But selling out my audience so I can eat is not a thing I am interested in doing. It's flies in the face of the very reasons I blog. Over the years, a lot of quality free content has either gone to shit or gone away. The expectation that good content should exist, but be free, is simply unsustainable. Quality content takes time, effort and expertise to produce. It needs to pay, or most of the people who are any good will eventually go do something that does pay. That's just reality. And then we are left bitching about how there's nothing any good on the internet anymore and where is all the good stuff I remember from the good old days? (A fairly common refrain currently, actually.)

Konnstann 8y ago
You can get sponsors and remain trustworthy, you just need to disclose sponsorships, and curate the people who you actually take money from. This can be a problem because genuinely good product sponsorships are probably not the first ones you get offered as a content creator, but I've seen plenty of examples of this working and it pays more than ad revenue for most people.
- DoreenMichele 8y ago
  I heard once of a small business that was in a remote and scenic location. It added a live webcam to their website. It showed the weather for their scenic locale. It eventually ended up with a crazy high amount of regular traffic. They eventually sold ads for big money to a couple of big name companies. IIRC, Disney was one of them. People were visiting the site for the live view from the webcam. The value they found in checking the live view from the webcam was not inherently harmed by having Disney ads on the site. (Those ads probably paid the business owners more than they made all year at their mom-and-pop shop in the middle of nowhere.) There's also Everyday Carry. They interview people and do photos of the things they carry every day, then have links to where you can buy whatever these people carry -- their brand of cell phone or pen or whatever. I think it's brilliant. I also know of content producers who make t-shirts and mugs and the like with their content on it. The ones that are successful tend to be entertainers doing something humorous. Effin' Birds and Questionable Content both do some of this. Some problem spaces are easier to monetize than others. The above examples of success in no way changes anything I said in my previous comment. Maybe I shall someday figure out how to be funny and make a mint selling t-shirts with my witticisms on them. But, so far, that doesn't seem to be my schtick.