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Tag: influencers

  • Instagram Prohibits Influencers From Promoting Tobacco, Vaping & Weapons

    Instagram Prohibits Influencers From Promoting Tobacco, Vaping & Weapons

    Instagram has long had rules restricting advertisers from promoting tobacco, vaping and weapons, but influencers have been exempt from those restrictions—until now.

    As the L.A. Times reports, “Instagram, owned by Facebook Inc., has long allowed people with thousands or even millions of followers to operate their own sponsored-content operations, outside the Facebook ad-buying system, without the level of oversight applied to the rest of the company’s advertising. For years, the company felt that if an influencer had cultivated an audience willing to hear their messages, Facebook shouldn’t get in the way.

    “However, there’s been a surge of sponsored content promoted by influencers, so Instagram wants to “establish clear rules to help protect our community,” at least when it comes to vaping, weapons and tobacco, according to a spokeswoman. Facebook already has rules against such products in its official advertising programs.”

    In addition, Instagram’s blog post detailing the changes says there will be special restrictions on the promotion of alcohol and diet supplements. The company is building tools to help influencers comply with the new rules, which will go into effect next year.

  • Facebook’s New Creator App Will Help Social Influencers Create More Video Content

    Facebook’s New Creator App Will Help Social Influencers Create More Video Content

    Facebook is doing everything it can to woo influencers away from YouTube. The rollout of its Creator app might be just what the social media giant needs to get more video creators on its side.

    The app is touted to make it simpler for users to create video and live streams using mobile devices. Facebook is also confident of two things that will draw users to the app – Facebook Live’s new features and unified communication.

    The Creator app now includes a feature that allows for the addition of custom created intros and outros to be used during live broadcasts. Specially designed video frames, interactive stickers, and various camera effects are also being introduced. The app also allows the user to shoot and edit photos and upload them to Facebook Stories and various platforms.

    The app’s enhanced communication features are also expected to draw in more influencers. The Creator app boasts of an incorporated inbox for all messages and comments posted on Facebook, Messenger, and Instagram. Having a unified inbox means that the user doesn’t have to move through different apps just to reply. Unfortunately, the app only covers messaging within Facebook’s services but who knows if this will change in the future.

    Data and analytics about the video will also be made accessible to users, allowing them to regularly check any algorithm changes to their output. Knowing key details about their follower demographics can help influencers focus on the type of video content they should post and the brands that might be willing to work with them.

    Facebook is also launching a website where video bloggers and creators can get more information on how to develop videos for the site, as well as receiving answers to key questions. Site members will also be given early access to any upcoming features.

    The Facebook Creator app is now available on iOS. However, Android users will have to wait a few more months for the app to be launched on the system. It should be pointed out that the Creator app is not technically new. It’s a rebranding of the Facebook Mentions app that was launched in 2014 and which was initially available only to verified Pages and public figures. However, the app is now open to all users.

    With the Creator app, Facebook is showing just how much it wants to work with influencers and independent vloggers. And with the errors and strange changes currently happening on YouTube, the social media giant might just be able to win this influential and potentially lucrative community to its side. 

    [Featured image via Pixabay]

  • As LinkedIn’s Influencer Program Grows, Richard Branson Hits 1 Million Followers

    As LinkedIn’s Influencer Program Grows, Richard Branson Hits 1 Million Followers

    At the beginning of October, LinkedIn debuted their new “Influencer” initiative, which allowed users to follow specific “thought leaders” across the network. At the outset, about 150 thought leaders from various industries were included in the program, which allowed them to publish long-form articles and presentations for their follower base.

    At the one-month mark, we told you that Virgin’s Richard Branson had emerged as the star of the LinkedIn Influencers, garnering over 750,000 followers four weeks. At that time, LinkedIn also added a couple of new features like a thought leader scoreboard and new sorting mechanisms.

    And today, LinkedIn is announcing that Sir Richard Branson is officially the first person to reach the 1 million follower milestone. That’s nearly double the follower count of the next closest thought leader – President Obama.

    “Like many of our Influencers, Branson has been posting about entrepreneurship, paths to success, and the keys to balancing good work and a good life. His five tips for starting a successful business has nearly 500,000 pageviews; his 197-word article suggesting that happiness is the best measure of success drew close to 3,500 comments. Our data shows that he’s popular with everyone from entrepreneurs to HR workers and in industries ranging from tech to construction (Dig deeper into the data in the related SlideShare below). The only continent where he doesn’t have a single follower is Antarctica,” says LinkedIn’s Daniel Roth.

    Alongside the announcement of Branson’s success on the platform, LinkedIn is providing some new statistics about the Influencers initiative in general. They now have 170 thought leaders for users to follow, and over 6 million users have chosen to follow one of them. There have been over 1,000 original posts by the thought leaders, which have generated more than 11 million views and 80,000 comments.

  • Content More Memorable When Shared By Close Friends

    Data suggests that content and ideas online spread most effectively through large numbers of people sharing with small groups. There is little supporting data to prove that influencers are the best way to go viral and share information online. The future of media and online advertising is social and social media users are engaged visiting sites like StumbleUpon and Buzzfeed to find out what content friends, families and colleagues are sharing with each other. The proof is in the more than 4 billion page views each month, according to AdAge, the two platforms experience.

    There is a sharing behavior that is similar to what happens in the real physical world that disproves the past marketing practice of using influencers to reach audiences. The behavior can be witnessed on both BuzzFeed and StumbleUpon. Online sharing, even viral, takes place most effectively through many small groups not by an influencer or even a few influencers making single posts or tweets. Influencers can reach a wide audience but their effect is actually only for a short time. Content really goes viral when it is shared beyond particular spheres of influence and spreads out across the social web by regular people sharing the content with their friends.

    The largest stories on Facebook come from the intimate sharing of people, not from one person sharing in hopes of getting thousands to follow. Sharing is often compared to “word-of-mouth,” but when something is recommended in a casual conversation it’s far more memorable than if a bullhorn is used to spread the message. Intimate sharing is remarkably more effective than broadcasting. Sharing directly with friends is the most common outlet for content. To get content shared, marketers and publishers should focus on content that will resonate and get people talking to their colleagues, friends and families. Social media is about engaging people in conversations, like the real offline world.

    @PingTweets
    Yuping Liu-Thompkins    Good insight on how consumers actually share content online: http://t.co/CXmEVBqJ. Confirms our finding that reach by number means little. 1 hour ago via Twitter for Mac ·  Reply ·  Retweet ·  Favorite · powered by @socialditto

    @sumakashi
    Suma Kashi    Best way to go viral is by engaging millions who share in small networks, not “influencers” who blast to millions http://t.co/mBdW36sR 23 hours ago via HootSuite ·  Reply ·  Retweet ·  Favorite · powered by @socialditto

  • Businesses Harness Social With SocialChorus

    SocialChorus is a company that matches brands with social influencers who can help them sell what they have to offer.

    “Social media has democratized the power of influence, and accelerated the growth of social influencers,” said Gregory Shove, SocialChorus Founder and CEO. “Brands are unable to effectively keep up, and need a better solution to collaborate with these influencers. The days of marketers managing influencers with spreadsheets and phone calls are over; technology is required to deliver the engagement, scale, and efficiency brands need to succeed.”

    The company has a five-year history of Influencer Relationship Marketing. The experience of managing over 200 global influencer activation campaigns empowered them to develop the technology to automate the IRM process and rebrand as SocialChorus. Over twenty-five fortune 500 clients have already signed on to build their own branded influencer networks using the SocialChorus platform.

    Joe Burton was brought on board to drive the launch of the new platform and build the client services organization. “I’m excited. As social activity explodes, brands and agencies have learned that manually managing influencer-marketing programs is time consuming, costly and not scalable. In automating the IRM process, our platform frees marketers to focus on strategy, driving social actions, and creating mutually beneficial relationships with influencers. The IRM possibilities are now only limited by their creativity,” said Burton.

    SocialChorus allows influencers to team up with brands and create something powerful. Influencers use the SocialChorus IRM platform to gain access to branded social currency and content to share with their followers. Brands receive real-time metrics with the ability to track everything from social actions, to earned media value and brand influence.

    “We believe that the relationship between the influencer/superfan and the brand is one that should be developed and nurtured. Our software provides a white-labeled solution where 100% of the relationship and marketing value accrues to the brand and their influencers directly. We think that several marketing disciplines, from Public Relations to Social Marketing and Word-of-Mouth will see immediate ROI from deploying our software,” said Shove.