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Instagram influencers: Have we stopped believing?

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Re: Instagram influencers: Have we stopped believing?

#61

Post by dumbfoundded »

goblin89 wrote: post #56
memset wrote: post #38

I have experimented with influencers for a notebook that I sell. It has been a mixed bag, but mostly unprofitable. My target audience is musicians - not lifestyle bloggers - so the people I've tried to work with don't quite have the following as the person in this article. Also, I have never experienced an "entitled influencer", though I have come close. Here was my process: 1. Email 20 people with > n followers aski…

I would almost completely ignore follower count, it’s more of a red flag than anything. Blue checkmarks are similarly useless. If you are enticed by the supposed reach, perhaps the quickest first pass at validation would be to review the nature of interactions in comments and cross-check other networks they participate in. It may help to pick someone popular in your field whose reputation you would not question, and…

^ 100% this.

I bootstrapped my business through Instagram influencers. You have to be extremely targetted around the audience. When judging if an influencer is worth working with, figure out who their audience is and the nature of that interaction.

For example, Imagine I sell an awesome new cat toy for helping shy cats be more social. I don't want to find the cat pages with millions of followers. I want to find the cat expert person who helps their small group of followers deal with their shy cats.

Micro-influencers also work really well. If you can get a person to talk about a product to their group of friends, the ROI is usually much higher than these giant pages. You just have to have a lot of them.

Re: Instagram influencers: Have we stopped believing?

#62

Post by dumbfoundded »

yumaikas wrote: post #50
vageli wrote: post #48

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Sounds like genuine interest is worth more than number of followers. The question is, how do you discover users who would have genuine interest and would share with like-minded friends? hashtag searches? Analyze follower of followers once you've identified a few users who seem like potential fits for your space. I've seen this strategy work well in other social channels as well like twitter.

Would you be willing to explain this a little bit more?

Step 1: Read the comments of their post. Get an idea of the nature of the interaction.

Step 2: Look at who actually follows them. Are they real people? Are they bots?

Step 3: Look at how many products they promote through all their products. The more the worse.

Re: Instagram influencers: Have we stopped believing?

#63

Post by criddell »

dubliner2077 wrote: post #35
hiven wrote: post #5

There was a shop that said to influencers they could get a discount only after 30 people used their specific influencer promo code. None of them did (or could do) it. It’s highly ineffective and for the most part it’s just some entitled person with an inflated ego demanding freebies. Madness to think businesses can really believe they are of any real substance or significance. Instagram more and more has become a ces…

I dont have Facebook as I found it stupid as fuck when it started. I dont have Instagram cause why the fuck I would? I don't even have a LinkedIn since I like privacy on my carreer and because I wanted to do it before it existed lol I have a "read only" Twitter to follow some friends and technical people which I barely use. You know what the problem is? Dota2, Hearthstone, Overwatch... Too much time "wasted".

> I dont have [social network] cause why the fuck I would?

Because you have friends, family, and former coworkers in far away places that you enjoy keeping in touch with. It's one thing to write them an email or letter regularly, but it's also nice to open the app and see a random picture of your nephew at the zoo or see a pic from an office birthday gathering or maybe a short clip of a former coworker playing their new guitar. It's a low friction, low effort way to stay connected and it generates happiness.

Re: Instagram influencers: Have we stopped believing?

#64

Post by smnplk »

Reedx wrote: post #18
hiven wrote: post #5

There was a shop that said to influencers they could get a discount only after 30 people used their specific influencer promo code. None of them did (or could do) it. It’s highly ineffective and for the most part it’s just some entitled person with an inflated ego demanding freebies. Madness to think businesses can really believe they are of any real substance or significance. Instagram more and more has become a ces…

Even worse are the kid influencers on YouTube. Kids advertising to other kids. And parents trying to turn their own kids into influencers. The whole thing is just gross.

Yep, some parents are really making narcissistic douchebags

Re: Instagram influencers: Have we stopped believing?

#65

Post by michaelmrose »

HNLurker2 wrote: post #22
Reedx wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Even worse are the kid influencers on YouTube. Kids advertising to other kids. And parents trying to turn their own kids into influencers. The whole thing is just gross.

you mean parents forcefully making their children prodigies in teenis, chess etc. is bad? same goes with youtubers

You don't see the difference between Chess and trying to be famous for being famous?

Re: Instagram influencers: Have we stopped believing?

#66

Post by jacobolus »

hiven wrote: post #5

There was a shop that said to influencers they could get a discount only after 30 people used their specific influencer promo code. None of them did (or could do) it. It’s highly ineffective and for the most part it’s just some entitled person with an inflated ego demanding freebies. Madness to think businesses can really believe they are of any real substance or significance. Instagram more and more has become a ces…

> it is the antithesis of the issue

Friendly nitpick: antithesis means the opposite of something. You probably want epitome, archetype, exemplar, quintessence, apotheosis, or similar.

Re: Instagram influencers: Have we stopped believing?

#67

Post by jcurbo »

wcunning wrote: post #10
hiven wrote: post #5

There was a shop that said to influencers they could get a discount only after 30 people used their specific influencer promo code. None of them did (or could do) it. It’s highly ineffective and for the most part it’s just some entitled person with an inflated ego demanding freebies. Madness to think businesses can really believe they are of any real substance or significance. Instagram more and more has become a ces…

I hesitate to defend a Facebook property, but here goes anyway... My Instagram feed is 100% welding, machining and a small smattering of woodworking. Literally any project I post gets universally positive feedback, with the occasional constructive suggestion. If I ask for help on a project, I get advice in at most a few hours from someone with 40 years more experience than I have. Contrast this to the forum community…

Same here, except with astronomy/astrophotography and outdoors stuff. I like Instagram in that way and don't follow any big celebrities or big influencers, so never see any #ad sort of stuff.

Re: Instagram influencers: Have we stopped believing?

#68

Post by sushid »

HNLurker2 wrote: post #22
Reedx wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Even worse are the kid influencers on YouTube. Kids advertising to other kids. And parents trying to turn their own kids into influencers. The whole thing is just gross.

you mean parents forcefully making their children prodigies in teenis, chess etc. is bad? same goes with youtubers

I think there's huge amount of difference between chess or tennis prodigies promoting their activity by teaching kids the proper techniques vs. Timmy unboxing a new box of Legos and dunking them in Jello #sponsored.

Re: Instagram influencers: Have we stopped believing?

#69

Post by cgriswald »

criddell wrote: post #63
dubliner2077 wrote: post #35

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I dont have Facebook as I found it stupid as fuck when it started. I dont have Instagram cause why the fuck I would? I don't even have a LinkedIn since I like privacy on my carreer and because I wanted to do it before it existed lol I have a "read only" Twitter to follow some friends and technical people which I barely use. You know what the problem is? Dota2, Hearthstone, Overwatch... Too much time "wasted".

> I dont have [social network] cause why the fuck I would? Because you have friends, family, and former coworkers in far away places that you enjoy keeping in touch with. It's one thing to write them an email or letter regularly, but it's also nice to open the app and see a random picture of your nephew at the zoo or see a pic from an office birthday gathering or maybe a short clip of a former coworker playing their…

> it's also nice to open the app and see a random picture of your nephew at the zoo or see a pic from an office birthday gathering or maybe a short clip of a former coworker playing their new guitar.

Serious question: Is there a social network that allows me to do any of those things anymore? The first 10 things on my Facebook feed are:

1. My own un-republished 'memory'. 2. A 'humorous' re-post. 3. Someone else's re-published memory of a humorous re-post. 4. A scammy ad. 5. A photo from someone I know posted to someone I know that I have no interest in. 6. A real person status (in large text with obnoxious background that I thought was a re-post of some meme). 7. A humorous re-post. 8. "People You May Know" 9. A real, honest to god, set of pictures of family and friends. 10. Someone else's memory of a humorous re-post.

If I'm honest, I care about (6) but I'd like it to be actual text, and (9). (5) is acceptable because depending on the photo I'm sometimes interested. So at best we're looking at 30% of content I want, 10% ads, 10% FB trying to sink its claws a little deeper, and 50% other noise. I know I can make my experience better by doing certain things. But those things move around, change, and feel like switches that don't do anything plugged into a black box that just does whatever it wants. So, I'm kind of at a place of 'why bother'.

Instagram mostly works for me, but its photo-oriented and most of the people I know on it are my younger friends. Twitter is a mess. Anything else I've heard of none of my friends or family use.

Re: Instagram influencers: Have we stopped believing?

#70

Post by Nextgrid »

cgriswald wrote: post #69
criddell wrote: post #63

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I dont have [social network] cause why the fuck I would? Because you have friends, family, and former coworkers in far away places that you enjoy keeping in touch with. It's one thing to write them an email or letter regularly, but it's also nice to open the app and see a random picture of your nephew at the zoo or see a pic from an office birthday gathering or maybe a short clip of a former coworker playing their…

> it's also nice to open the app and see a random picture of your nephew at the zoo or see a pic from an office birthday gathering or maybe a short clip of a former coworker playing their new guitar. Serious question: Is there a social network that allows me to do any of those things anymore? The first 10 things on my Facebook feed are: 1. My own un-republished 'memory'. 2. A 'humorous' re-post. 3. Someone else's re-…

I’m in the same boat. I want an actual social network to keep in touch with people. No memes, no ads (give me the ability to opt out of ads by paying), no creepy “people you may know”, etc.

Is that so hard? I feel like there’s opportunity for a honest business with non-intrusive ads that you can opt out of by paying.

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