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Luxury hotels are being inundated with requests from self-described influencers

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Re: Luxury hotels are being inundated with requests from self-described influencers

#151

Post by Spooky23 »

staticautomatic wrote: post #104
overcast wrote: post #90

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Promoter.

Is that different from "influencer"?

I think it is more of an advocate.

Talking about things that you like is fun and from what the poster stated, they benefit from trying new things and building a following. One of my coworkers does this for beer and has a a small following more interested in the minutiae of beer stuff than commerce.

The problem is a matter of trust... when the advocate decides to cash in, the nature of what they write can change dramatically.

Re: Luxury hotels are being inundated with requests from self-described influencers

#152

Post by dwaltrip »

AndrewKemendo wrote: post #130
fredley wrote: post #73

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is straight up Black Mirror (season 3, episode 1: Nosedive ) Obviously the whole point of that episode was to imagine Instagram in its darkest future, but it's scary how much of it is becoming real, and separately with the roll-out of social credit scores in China. Scary stuff. --- Hansen: So in terms of quality, you could use a punch up right there. Ideally, that's up votes from quality people. Lacie: Quality p…

I guess I don't get creeped out about this because this is what happens already in life - but it's implicit and unacknowledged instead of explicit and acknowledged. This same calculus happens at all levels: trying to be part of certain groups (Stanford graduate, YCombinator graduate etc...) , join certain clubs (Founders who have raised a Series A, Forbes 30 under 30), impress certain people (Investors, Board Members…

Ehh, sure, it is a more explicit manifestation of common existing dynamics. But it is also much more exaggerated and empty than the examples you are giving.

There isn't much substance/ understanding/signal/meaning in buying a ride on the coattails of a superficial instagram "influencer".

Re: Luxury hotels are being inundated with requests from self-described influencers

#153

Post by Spooky23 »

Rjevski wrote: post #25
futurix wrote: post #17

I just want to know who the heck takes recommendations of 'influencers' seriously? Gullible teens with no money?

My thoughts exactly. It seems to me that the target market of these “influencers” is teens with little to no money that spend hours looking at these “influencers” exactly because these pictures are as close as they’re gonna get to that luxury lifestyle. People who can actually afford this will just go on holidays by themselves with no thoughts about the “influencers” whatsoever, also because by the time you can affor…

These guys fill voids in google searches and may close a deal when people are looking for validation.

If you cannot make a decision between the Four Seasons and the Conrad or whatever, some random guys food porn or gush about the bellman may tip you.

Travel magazines have been doing this sort of thing for decades.

Re: Luxury hotels are being inundated with requests from self-described influencers

#154

Post by intrasight »

I use Instagram and other social media. But I just don't get how this works. Perhaps someone can give me and others an overview. I only see the posts from my friends, so how would posts from these "influencers" influence me or other's like me? Why would I follow some random person I don't even know? Really, I'm looking for some enlightenment here. I assume that I'm not the only one.

Re: Luxury hotels are being inundated with requests from self-described influencers

#155

Post by fraudsyndrome »

fredley wrote: post #73
21 wrote: post #34

I've seen something which I think is even more interesting. Second tier influencers (100k followers) paying expensive hotels and private plane trips of first tier influences (1 mil followers), so that they can appear on their feeds, and gain new followers.

This is straight up Black Mirror (season 3, episode 1: Nosedive ) Obviously the whole point of that episode was to imagine Instagram in its darkest future, but it's scary how much of it is becoming real, and separately with the roll-out of social credit scores in China. Scary stuff. --- Hansen: So in terms of quality, you could use a punch up right there. Ideally, that's up votes from quality people. Lacie: Quality p…

> the roll-out of social credit scores in China

The thing is, these all aren't enforced by governments, but through social media and organizations. The popular one sesame credit in China is from the Alibaba group, not the Chinese government. In the same vein, Instagram is it's own platform, people can determine how much they think "followers" are worth and businesses can use their own discretion to decide how much to enforce their own policies based on others "social credit" or "followers"

Re: Luxury hotels are being inundated with requests from self-described influencers

#156

Post by mieseratte »

ourmandave wrote: post #8
CamTin wrote: post #5

I wonder why the strategy of these "brand personalities" has to be limited to "luxury" type branding. For example, could you build a following traveling the country by interstate in a Fiesta, staying at Motel 6 and eating at Waffle House? It wouldn't cost Motel 6 and Waffle House almost anything to comp a few waffles and otherwise-unoccupied rooms as an experiment, if they aren't doing similar things already.

Ah, the ol' reverse psychology. By showing people what it's like to vacation in a Fiesta, Motel 6, and Waffle House you'll drive traffic to luxury hotels.

I'd go to a clean Motel 6 any day of the week. Unpretentious, a good value, and frequently you're dealing with locally-run operations so you're actually dealing with folks empowered to handle an issue and even sometimes give a damn.

All of my experiences with mid-to-high end hotels seem like an exercise in bilking you at every turn so you can pretend you're wealthy, and hotel staff that are artificially polite at best, indifferent and uncaring at worst.

Re: Luxury hotels are being inundated with requests from self-described influencers

#157

Post by billdybas »

CamTin wrote: post #5

I wonder why the strategy of these "brand personalities" has to be limited to "luxury" type branding. For example, could you build a following traveling the country by interstate in a Fiesta, staying at Motel 6 and eating at Waffle House? It wouldn't cost Motel 6 and Waffle House almost anything to comp a few waffles and otherwise-unoccupied rooms as an experiment, if they aren't doing similar things already.

Have you heard of the Fiesta Movement? [1] Ford essentially did that back in 2010.

With the right brand, right audience, and right production value, anything's possible. Influencer marketing can be finicky, though. A successful campaign requires authenticity – most audiences can see right through paid promotion. I think there's a different dynamic when a brand approaches a creator vs. a creator approaching a brand.

I think a lot of these self-proclaimed "influencers" seek out "luxury" type branding in an attempt to get free stuff they otherwise probably couldn't afford or to create content around a lifestyle which seems unattainable to their audience and therefore draws more views/clicks/shares/virality ("If only I could live like that one day") – mostly Internet junk-food.

[1] https://hbr.org/2010/01/ford-recently-wrapped-the-firs

Re: Luxury hotels are being inundated with requests from self-described influencers

#158

Post by mattigames »

fraudsyndrome wrote: post #155
fredley wrote: post #73

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is straight up Black Mirror (season 3, episode 1: Nosedive ) Obviously the whole point of that episode was to imagine Instagram in its darkest future, but it's scary how much of it is becoming real, and separately with the roll-out of social credit scores in China. Scary stuff. --- Hansen: So in terms of quality, you could use a punch up right there. Ideally, that's up votes from quality people. Lacie: Quality p…

> the roll-out of social credit scores in China The thing is, these all aren't enforced by governments, but through social media and organizations. The popular one sesame credit in China is from the Alibaba group, not the Chinese government. In the same vein, Instagram is it's own platform, people can determine how much they think "followers" are worth and businesses can use their own discretion to decide how much to…

Except that if the "social "companies keep growing and merging eventually they will have more power than governments and if you are not signed up you may as well don't exist.

Re: Luxury hotels are being inundated with requests from self-described influencers

#159

Post by geodel »

ryandrake wrote: post #134
cityhomesteader wrote: post #55

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I just want to know who the heck takes recommendations of 'influencers' seriously? Their fans? > Gullible teens with no money? Probably. But gullible teens with no money have parents who have money and gullible teens with no money grow up to become adults with money. Hence why advertisers want to get to them when they are young. It's well known that earlier you can influence people, the more influence you can have.…

The difference, of course, is that lebron James and Tom Hanks have some other talent that can explain their fame, and The Atlantic journalists also are influential because of some other thing they do (besides influencing). These Instagram people are influencers because... why? What underlying talent or past event launched them into their positions?

I think influencers are similar to Linkedin type thought leaders. Every time I log in there a new one pops out in my feed. Some are collecting awards from a thought leading organization which no one had heard of, while quoting some fake Sun Tzu proverb.

I think they are doing pretty well for themselves but they never seem to have anything interesting and original to say.

Re: Luxury hotels are being inundated with requests from self-described influencers

#160

Post by speby »

In almost every field and industry, companies get requests like this go something along the same lines as mentioned in this post: "Hey, I have access to XYZ audience and we will be doing event ABC next month. It would be great to showcase/use your product and share that with the group. Your company and your product would be front and center for this group of people. All we need is your product for free."

In the end, all this is is just ad sales: I have alleged access to customers who want your product but don't know yet. I can share your company or product w/ them. They trust me. It will influence them to become your customer. Give me X."

And worse than that, many times those requests come with a price tag on top of providing the company's product or service for free.

And really it's no surprise given how social media works. Now any "idiot" can gain a following or an audience over some set of topics, or philosophy, or style, and gain a following that tunes. I say "idiot" less as a derogatory thing and more as a "every Joe or Jane" kind of thing who persists and is focused. Any following of people that tunes into something, anything, can often be cajoled into seeing or experiencing some mention or ad about an unrelated thing and that causes some %-age of that group to pay attention and some %-age of those that pay attention to potentially investigate further and possibly become paying customers of some company or product they didn't know about before. Certainly not rocket science and definitely not new.

What we're seeing here is merely a temporary fashion/trend that tends to focus heavily on luxury hotels and envious-appearing travel experiences.

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