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

theatlantic.com

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

#191

Post by bigbluedots »

davidmurdoch wrote: post #184
speby wrote: post #160

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,…

I still see influencer advertising in a better light than a brand's own ads. Influencers, especially the more popular ones, help inform consumers about a product/service/experience. The only thing an influencer has is their followers and most influencers really are careful to not advertise products that they don't believe in themselves.

The influencers get the product for free, otherwise they would not post. This is not people 'believing in a product', it is people using leverage to sell advertising for which they are paid with the product.

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

#192

Post by bigbluedots »

intrasight wrote: post #154

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.

Central to all of the posts in the article is semi nudity, or at least showcasing the female body. That should give you some hints.

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

#193

Post by chris_wot »

bigbluedots wrote: post #191
davidmurdoch wrote: post #184

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I still see influencer advertising in a better light than a brand's own ads. Influencers, especially the more popular ones, help inform consumers about a product/service/experience. The only thing an influencer has is their followers and most influencers really are careful to not advertise products that they don't believe in themselves.

The influencers get the product for free, otherwise they would not post. This is not people 'believing in a product', it is people using leverage to sell advertising for which they are paid with the product.

Which leads to this sort of thing:

https://www.facebook.com/WhiteMooseCafe/posts/20484067421065...

Which is harsh, but fair.

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

#194

Post by propogandist »

davidmurdoch wrote: post #184
speby wrote: post #160

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,…

I still see influencer advertising in a better light than a brand's own ads. Influencers, especially the more popular ones, help inform consumers about a product/service/experience. The only thing an influencer has is their followers and most influencers really are careful to not advertise products that they don't believe in themselves.

influencers are very selective with their 'reviews' and may chose to leave out things like data-privacy policies, when reviewing a company that provides you DNA analysis -- which should make you question all the information you get from such sources

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U3EEmVfbKNs

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

#195

Post by dorfsmay »

CyberDildonics wrote: post #109
Hnrobert42 wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why do people trust your recommendations? I’m not saying you are untrustworthy. I don’t know you. But that is my point. Why do people trust “influencers”? I would feel like a tremendous fool even following a stranger’s account, much less going somewhere on their say-so.

It has little to do with that. The exposure is what counts. Put a picture of a nice hotel and say it's name. Now you have an ad that went out to 100k people. The person is mostly irrelevant, a hotel just wants people to know it exists.

I can't help but wonder the percentage of those 100 k people who are likely to book in an expensive hotel.

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

#196

Post by testb »

chris_wot wrote: post #193
bigbluedots wrote: post #191

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The influencers get the product for free, otherwise they would not post. This is not people 'believing in a product', it is people using leverage to sell advertising for which they are paid with the product.

Which leads to this sort of thing: https://www.facebook.com/WhiteMooseCafe/posts/20484067421065... Which is harsh, but fair.

That's some of the worst information redaction I've seen around. I might even think it's intentional

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

#197

Post by dwaltrip »

wpietri wrote: post #185
dwaltrip wrote: post #152

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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".

Is it more empty? I think it's easy to say something is empty when you're not the sort of person it's optimized to appeal to. I just finished "Bad Blood", the book on Theranos. Given that it was a fraud, it was entirely empty. But it was designed to look substantial to Stanford deans and Valley VCs. Later the target shifted to other sorts of movers and shakers, including corporate titans and political bigwigs. They a…

> E.g., I spent years developing NeXT software because I drank the Jobs kool-aid. I didn't do that for hard-headed business reasons; I did it because the NeXT hardware and software was incredibly cool to young me. At the time, I would have smugly defended my choice as more rational than getting starry-eyed over a celebrity. In retrospect, I was wrong. I just fell for for something tuned for my weaknesses, just like we all do.

This is actually a great example that I think supports my point. Sure, maybe you got caught up in some hype. But at least you were improving your software development skills, which is something useful.

What usefulness is accomplished or what meaning is found by getting starry eyed over Instagram fame? Maybe you could make an argument related to minor photography or artistic skills that they use to enhance their account. But it's not very substantial -- most Instagram influencers don't become highly skilled photographers in the process.

I understand people have different values. But they still have to defend them and the meaning the values supposedly carry.

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

#198

Post by MarkusAllen »

tomcam wrote: post #50
futurix wrote: post #17

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

Your peers. Daringfireball, A very popular blog with readers of this site, gets something like $15,000 per mention in their newsletter.

It is currently $8,500.

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

#199

Post by mattbierner »

davidmurdoch wrote: post #184
speby wrote: post #160

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,…

I still see influencer advertising in a better light than a brand's own ads. Influencers, especially the more popular ones, help inform consumers about a product/service/experience. The only thing an influencer has is their followers and most influencers really are careful to not advertise products that they don't believe in themselves.

I explicitly don’t trust influencers because all they have are their followers. They often have no credentials or real achievements or original thoughts, so why should I trust them? Especially given that their entire goal is to get people to follow and like them?

I see this pattern a lot in coder twitter. The people with big follower counts that are always tweeting about their amazing coding and love of software development are not the ones building stuff. Even if their feelings are genuine, the excessive self promotion is quite ugly and makes me doubt everything they say. They are not people I want to trust or follow or listen to

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

#200

Post by toomanybeersies »

speby wrote: post #160

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,…

I read a blog post a while ago from a camera tripod company that was talking about this.

Apparently a lot of people even sent in emails along the lines of "I don't usually use a tripod, but I totally would if you sent me one for free".

Of course, the post went on to say that they don't send them free tripods, because it would benefit nobody. The photography isn't going to magically start using a tripod because they got one for free, and the company wasn't going to get very good exposure from a photographer who has no experience shooting with a tripod.

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