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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

#241
post #229

Earlier quoted context omitted.

To my knowledge influencers rarely travel to "cool" places. They travel to family friendly, safe places. And safe in multiple meanings in both "people are safe here" and "this place is safe for me as influencer since noone will be offended". My family used to travel a lot and we went to a lot of family-unsafe places at times (like in-the-wilderniss campsites in southern africa where you can't leave the RV because the…

I'm not disagreeing with what you say, because I too think the places you describe are often cool. However, they're also very much outside of the comfort zone of most people. For example, on average I would assume most women prefer a romantic getaway to the Maldives over climbing a volcano in Iceland. And most people with kids likely won't be going on a month long roadtrip through Africa or South-America.

> For example, on average I would assume most women prefer a romantic getaway to the Maldives over climbing a volcano in Iceland. And most people with kids likely won't be going on a month long roadtrip through Africa or South-America.

Because a romantic getaway is far cheaper than Iceland or Africa. It's not because it's outside their comfort zone, it's because they can't afford it. The average woman (or man) can barely take enough vacation days, let alone pay for it.

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

#242
post #63
post #17

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

I think the majority of people that get large disposable income are heavily influenced by lifestyle marketing. The tech crowd tends to be the exception with our frugal, down to earth ways despite earning lots of money.

I don't think we are immune, we just aspire for a different "lifestyle" than a teenage girl from NYC. While the teenage girl would be dreaming about partying all night on a beach with cute guys (and nursing hangovers in a beautiful spa), a tech bro might dream about taking a Wrangler through the Moab, camping under the stars for a few weeks.

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

#243
post #17

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

These people exist across verticals. And many wind up very successful b/c at the end of the day people are afraid of not being cool enough. To wit: AOL's 'digital prophet', Shingy.

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

#244
post #50
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.

There are several differences though. First, DF has a lot less sponsorship spots than your average influencer who basically posts ads 24/7. Second, the stuff which is usually advertised on tech blogs is mostly about work related products which also usually cost less than one of those fancy vacations. DF also has more readers that most of the influencers that are considered successful.

Now, I know for a fact that the feeds to influence buying decisions for smaller, cheaper stuff, such as cosmetics. It is not a long stretch to think that it also works for vacations. However, from what I heard, the brands that are most successful in selling out their stock are in the category of affordable luxury.

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

#245

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Cause now if NASA needs some extra funding they just need to convince Kim Kardashian (or whoever replaces her day after tomorrow on the top of the pyramid) of its importance. It's going to happen. Just watch.

The alarming thing is that after seeing the Kanye & Kardashian empire get more political, I can very much picture a future where we have Kanye is president in 2020 or 2024. To put it in millennial marketing pseudo-jargon: how many likes = 1 vote?

You mean like when Kanye said he would in 2015?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u9x92nwGf_M

Now that he has seen Trump get elected, I am sure he knows it is possible.

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

#246
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.

So basically Roadkill if Roadkill was sponsored by Motel 6 and Waffle House instead of Dodge?

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

#247

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Exactly. At least Instagram has a visible number (your follower count) that is a decent proxy for what "level" you've reached. With "good old boys" networks it's totally opaque.

Why is that better?

Transparency being a good thing and it being more honest and "meritocratic" (in a defined scope of merit as who can get the most eyeballs as opposed to useful to society or genuine talent). With good old boys network it is who you know not what you know. It is more dynamic as well than oligarchic networks.

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

#248
post #17

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

I think you are just used to the HN and tech bubble. A lot of us here most likely don't consume nearly as much social media as the average person does. "Instagram, owned by Facebook, says its users under 25 spend “more than 32 minutes a day on Instagram,” and users 25 and over “spend more than 24 minutes a day” on the app. [0].

In fact, my girlfriend who uses social media a lot more than I do says she knows like dozens of girls from college who are all wannabe influencers. There is a huge social media rat race currently going on which is why Facebook is making 40 billion dollars a year.

[0]: https://www.recode.net/2017/8/2/16081086/instagram-snapchat-...

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

#249

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Genuine question--what would make this not embarrassing for you? Is it the separation from the main campus? How they are segmenting orgs?

It's the sheer number of administrators. Stanford has only 1,761 instructional employees, of which 834 are tenured faculty. The Redwood City facility will have 2,700 administrative employees in the first phase alone.

Maybe I'm not surprised by this because I work in higher ed, but that ratio of administrative staff vs faculty is not really anything to write home about. I work at a top 10 business school, and our staff/teaching ratio is about 5/1, and at schools like HBS or INSEAD in France, the ratio skews quite a bit higher.

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

#250
post #238
post #62

Earlier quoted context omitted.

When I picked this one there were quite a few more 2 digit usernames available. I didn't even write a script, looked for them manually. Go grab em everyone :)

Thanks for the heads up :)

Way to go bro :)
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