July 18, 2016 2:30 pm
Published by Kirsty Sharman
Just how authentic is sponsored content? With influencer marketing now a regular part of many brands’ digital spend, the question of authenticity still pops up.
Some marketing experts argue that the very act of paying an influencer means the content they create for a campaign is compromised. And by compromised, they mean it’s lost its authenticity and the influencer’s audience knows it.
The problem with this argument about the transaction between brand and influencer is focused on the wrong end-product. When you pay an influencer, you’re not paying them for their opinion. You are paying them for their content.
Webfluential’s Business Relationship Manager, Samantha Wright, wrote an insightful piece on this topic last year for BizCommunity.com. If you’re still on the fence about the authenticity of influencer marketing you should read the article.
In the great authenticity debate in influencer marketing, remember these factors:
- When money changes hands a contract comes into play. You can hold the influencer to certain deliverables and require that they produce results; they’ve entered into a formal business agreement, after all.
- Once an influencer aligns with your brand, they’re unable to work with the competition as their audience already associates them with car brand A or beauty brand B.
- Creating content costs money. Influencers, no matter how much they love your brand, do have to eat.
That’s the heart of this argument. Influencers create unique, one-of-a-kind content and then share it with an audience they’ve painstakingly won over. They invest time, money and creative into this process. It makes sense that they charge for their work, helping you deliver the perfect custom-made message to your target market.
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July 15, 2016 8:36 am
Published by Webfluential
Twitter – @Stum_ZA
We’re a technology company that has some talented individuals who each play a huge role in bringing our tech, service, brand and vision to life. Our regular monthly feature aims to showcase and introduce you to some of these incredible people at Webfluential.
Our next feature is on our ‘influencer whisperer’ here at #TeamWebfluential, please meet one of our Campaign Managers, Tumelo!
1) Hi Tumelo! Please tell us a little about yourself in two sentences
Tumelo is obviously a tech/digital enthusiast, I’m a hip hop nerd – super fan of the music. I’m a good freestyler too actually! In short – I’m a student of life, always learning new things.
Yeah that’s me in two sentences haha!
2) What inspired you to come work with #TeamWebfluential?
I was doing a Digital Marketing internship at Livity Africa called Digify Pro, and Webfluential was looking for some young blood to come and join the A-team! They called a few of us in for an interview and it so happened that I was a blogger at the time, I guess that was one of the advantages I had.
I’ve always had a passion for the blogging industry but I had no idea how Influencer Marketing worked or how this platform was able to connect brands with influencers, so yes there was an element of blurriness and curiosity at the same time, but I knew that I always wanted this more than anything in the world.
3) What is the one thing you hope to accomplish in the next five years?
To make the #MGYoung200 list haha! Nah man, more than anything I just want to add value to both the global tech and digital industries.
4) If you could have dinner with any three people in the world, who would they be and what would you order?
That’s easy! Michael Jordan, Will Smith and Tasneem Mia (one of my colleagues) actually.
We’d have pizza!
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July 8, 2016 2:35 pm
Published by Kirsty Sharman
On Saturday (July 2nd) the 120th annual Vodacom Durban July took place at Greyville Racecourse. Though the event is known for being the most famous South African horse racing event of the year, over time it has also become renowned for being quite a fashion focused and social affair. Each year top celebrities gather, dressed to the nines, in an attempt to outshine each other. While we cannot be sure who outperformed who on the red carpet we can determine whose tweets were the most influential. Here are 4 of the most influential tweets from #VDJ2016
All in all the hashtag was used in tweets more than 15 000 times leading up to and during the race. While the Conglomerate won the actual race @Bonang_m definitely won the race to having the most retweeted tweet about
#VDJ2016, which could easily have been seen close on 60 million times!
For data around the #VDJ2016 hashtag, you can view the Webfluential Track Only Report we created. The Track Only Reports show you the reach of hashtags, handles and conversation around particular people, brands and events. The reports are also able to indicate the most influential people in the conversation.
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