Your Weekly Influencer Marketing Update 🚀

11.10.2021

☀️ Welcome to your weekly #influencermarketingupdate ☀️

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😠// F*** YOU PAY ME LETS INFLUENCERS SECRETLY SHARE HOW MUCH BRANDS PAY, BUT DOES IT HAVE ENOUGH DATA TO REALLY WORK?

What’s it about?

This website is set up to provide influencers and content creators with a way to share how pleasant / unpleasant working with a brand has been.

Headline Quote

“At the end of the day, this is about helping people evaluate the opportunity cost of partnering with different brands. Our business is just helping people make better decisions about brand partnerships”

Our Take

This one has sparked quite the dialogue this week - with a few different opinions. I’ve tried to sign up as a creator and the first thing that caught my eye was the amount of data they’re trying to collect. The “what did you get paid” element is fairly limited, and this website actually goes much, much deeper; ethnicity, gender, email addresses of those that have reached out to you (from brand side), exact deliverables, etc. And while this level of data collection can prove to be useful for the industry (if used correctly, and ethically). I still stand by the fact that it is extremely one-sided, and I’m still confused by what they’re ultimately trying to achieve, if not using the data for their own good. Call me a sceptic.

We’ve been discussing what I like to call the the “us versus them” topic for quite a while, now. Provocative websites like this - in my opinion - are actively leaning into, and worsening the gap of understanding that currently exists between creators and those that pay them. I’d like to see more people actively try to engage in meaningful conversation to bring both parties together and find solutions, rather than pick sides.

📱// ‘NOW WE WORK WITH THOUSANDS’ HOW GETTING ON TIKTOK TRANSFORMED THIS BRAND’S INFLUENCER STRATEGY

What’s it about?

Blk has amassed + 400,000 followers on TikTok by putting their product into the hands of TikTokers, delivering an awareness play for the brand.

Headline Quote

“We went from working with 20 influencers a week to 50 to 100, and now we work with thousands a month,” Ratiner said. “The reason why we’re so popular on TikTok is because we tell the influencer, ‘You are the creator. It’s up to you to incorporate this water into your video.’”

Our Take

There are a myriad of succes stories of brands finding their niche with TikTok, and this brand seems to be one of them. The article notes that the company has been around for a decade and barely invested in influencers prior, now they’ve scaled up to to “thousands” a month (I’m very curious how they’re managing such a large scale operation!), and while the KPI isn’t a sales-oriented one, the article highlights that the awareness generated on TikTok has led to (more) talks with retailers, which for a brand like this is the ultimate ROI. Contributors (from paid media agencies) in the article do note that a balanced approach is key, and balancing influencer-led content with brand-led content is important. We could not agree more.

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🏭  This week’s must-reads

// Can Social Media Influencers Survive Another Instagram Outage?

"Over the last 12 months, there have been a number of events – threat of TikTok's removal in U.S. and OnlyFans removing sexual content are two examples – that have had the majority of creators already thinking about and acting on diversifying their audience," Zuvella explained via an email to this reporter.”

// Foraging, gardening, joy — how two Black plant influencers use their platforms

We spoke with two celebrated plant influencers — Alexis Nikole Nelson, known on TikTok as the Black forager, and Instagram gardener Kamili Bell Hill, who runs Plant Blerd and Black People with Plants — and asked them to share how they are using their platforms to celebrate the connection between Black joy and plants while also providing some joyful plant picks that all plant lovers can appreciate

// 1 Billion TikTok Users Understand What Congress Doesn’t

TikTok is not a passing fad or a tiny start-up in the social-media space. It’s a cultural powerhouse, creating superstars out of unknown artists overnight. It’s a career plan for young influencers and a portable shopping mall full of products and brands. It’s where many young people get their news and discuss politics.

// Instagram ditches the IGTV brand, combines everything but Reels into an ‘Instagram Video’ format

Today, Instagram is taking another step toward its larger goal of making video a more central part of the Instagram experience with news that it will now combine IGTV’s long-form video and Instagram Feed videos into a new format called simply “Instagram Video.”

// The Twitch hack revealed much more than streamer salaries. Here are 4 new takeaways

This leak contained Twitch source code, an unreleased Amazon gaming client and streamer payouts from subscriptions and other Twitch features dating back to 2019, among many other things. Odds are, avid observers will be sifting through the rubble for months.