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Well, today is in the books. February 23, 2021 was the official launch day for Winfluence – Reframing Influencer Marketing to Ignite Your Brand. And what a day it was. In case you missed the big celebration, I invited a roster of people involved with or related to the book in some way, to come […]

Influencer marketing analytics company HypeAuditor contacted me Friday night to offer a response to Fake Famous director Nick Bilton’s use of its software in the documentary. Bilton runs his fake follower-driven influencer Dominique Druckman through an unnamed software—clearly HypeAuditor to anyone who knows the interface—and makes fun of her 66 (out of 100) score, implying […]

The official launch date of the book, Winfluence – Reframing Influencer Marketing to Ignite Your  Brand – is Tuesday! This is technically the last episode of the podcast before the book is officially out — though Amazon has already started shipping it, so you can get it before then — but that launch date brings […]

Word of Mouth has been called the holy grail of marketing. Some of the world’s best marketing case studies center around brands with great word of mouth, or WOM programs. The Harley Davidson Owners Group, Maker’s Mark Ambassadors, Fiskars Scissors, Pabst Blue Ribbon’s hip resurgence—all classic Word of Mouth case studies.  But Word of Mouth […]

The influencer world just became significantly more legit as SAG-AFTRA unveiled a plan to allow anyone who is paid to advertise products via their individual social media platforms to be covered by the union. The qualification puts Instagrammers, YouTubers and TikTok-ers in the same union and professional qualification as screen actors and television and radio […]

It’s hard to dig deep into social media marketing or influencer marketing and not come across the name Jim Tobin. He started one of the first social media agencies at Ignite Social Media in 2007. When he saw influence marketing becoming its own thing, he launched a second firm called Carusele which helps brands and […]

It’s amazing how different my inbox changed since Monday. My first contribution to Entrepreneur in a few years goes live and suddenly PR folks everywhere want to bend my ear about this or that. It’s actually good since I’m always looking for ideas for articles here or on the podcast, too, so I don’t mind […]

Nick Bilton‘s HBO documentary Fake Famous portrays influencers as superficial, purposeless and purveyors of staging their lives, followings and engagement. The film is compelling and certainly exposes the worst practices of social media influencers trying to just create fame. But it leaves out the rest of influencers, I would argue most of them, that build […]

If your company sells beauty products, you probably have a nice list of beauty influencers you work with. If you sell a food or beverage product, your influencer list is probably full of people who write or post about food and beverage. If you sell sneakers, your influencers are shoe enthusiasts and so-on. Can you […]

One of the perspectives we haven’t touched on nearly enough on Winfluence is that of the talent manager or influencer agent, if you will. At some point in an influencer’s growth, they may look to a talent agency, manager or agent to help them manage or grow their business. The talent manager, however, presents a […]

In the early chapters of Winfluence – Reframing Influencer Marketing to Ignite Your Brand, I cite the Edelman Trust Barometer a few times. It is important in a published book to establish some factual basis for the argument you’re making, or the topic you’re covering. I pointed to a combination of studies, including Edeman’s annual […]

Winfluence – Reframing Influencer Marketing to Ignite Your Brand is set to hit shelves February 23. In the coming episodes here, I’ll interview some of the experts and practitioners that are highlighted in the book. Today’s sneak peek guest is Lisa Joy Rosner, the senior vice-president for brand and digital at Oracle. She was the […]