Digital Influence

All things influencer marketing. By Nik Speller. Mailing list | Email Instagram | Twitter | LinkedIn

[digital-influence]

Influencer marketing; the fad that isn’t

There’s a couple of questions that are always asked, without fail, in every interview, article, panel talk, podcast, or whatever else on influencer marketing. Is influencer marketing a fad? And, when will the influencer marketing bubble burst?

The expected / desired answer to these questions is almost always ‘yes’ and ‘soon’ - which is funny, as many of the publications posing these questions have (and still do) run a near endless number of pieces which talk up the ‘cloudless sky of influencer marketing’ and describe a stampede of brands, tripping over each other to throw as much money as they can into this soon-to-rule-supreme industry. 

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series 2 episode 4: nik speller

In this week’s episode of Blogosphere: Serious Influence, Alice Audley (Blogosphere’s founder) speaks to Nik Speller who is Head of Campaigns at the aptly-named Influencer Agency – Influencer.

(listen...)

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Influencers, influencer marketing, and the tricky question of trust

Trust is such a big topic in the world of influencer marketing and an incredibly tricky one too. It’s not something that can be easily defined, explained, or summarised in a simple soundbite.

So, when a global study from UM appeared earlier this week, claiming that ‘only 4% of people trust what influencers say online’, it was hard for me to see this as much more than a neat attempt to produce a headline-grabbing statistic.

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[digital-influence]

Transparency, trust, and the future of influencer marketing

I wanted to write a long-winded, intensively researched piece about the future of influencer marketing, the future of digital marketing, and (to some extent) the future of the internet itself.

In summary, it was going to hypothesise that the past 5 years (and maybe more) can be defined by the astronomical growth in online fraud, misrepresentation on social networks, the dissemination of misinformation - and how the next 5 years (and maybe less) will be the antithesis, as people realise that not everything (read: almost everything) they see online is (to some extent) a lie.

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[digital-influence]

Instagram gets official about branded content

In less than a decade, Instagram has amassed more than 1 billion global users, 68 per cent of whom, the company says, use the app to interact with social influencers. It’s the epicentre of the non-Chinese influencer economy, but the Facebook-owned platform has largely refrained from getting involved.

That is starting to change. At a first-of-its-kind breakfast for journalists and social media professionals in New York earlier this month, Instagram previewed a variety of tools designed to bring greater transparency, accountability and scope to influencer marketing.

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[digital-influence]

From The Horses' Mouths: The Future of Influencer Marketing

The future of influencer marketing, as predicted by creator, brand, agency and social platform industry experts 

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The Rules for James Bond Influencers

No Matt this week so Pete is joined by Nik Speller, head of campaigns for the marketing agency; Influencer.  Through the prism of the James Bond brands Pete and Nik discuss what are the best ways to disclose the working relationships through brands on social media.  Also from a brands perspective, what should they be looking for when working alongside influencers. 

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[digital-influence]

How understanding the true value of data will help clean-up influencer marketing

I’ll be honest, I know it’s only February; but, it’s proven very hard to write an article every month this year. I’ve snuck this one in, just about; yet, it was touch and go and did involve jumping out of bed slightly earlier than usual.

The reason for my laxness isn’t just that I’m working hard at the day job (honest boss, I am!); it’s that every time I put my fingers to the keyboard, I realise that I’ve pretty much written the same words before.

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[digital-influence]

Blogosphere - Serious Influence: live

‘What makes a great influencer campaign in 2019?’

The panel was hosted by Blogosphere’s founder Alice Audley and the panellists were – Sara Tasker (Me and Orla – Influencer), Rupa Shah (HashtagAd founder and ASA regulations expert), Kat Perriam (Head of Influencer Marketing, Google Hardware), Nik Speller (Head of Campaigns, Influencer) and Danny Defreitas (Influencer).

(Listen here...)

[digital-influence]

The fundamentals of the CMAs guidelines for influencers (and why so many people seem to be struggling to grasp them)

My New Year’s resolution for 2019 was (amongst other things) to post an article a month on LinkedIn. I had two corkers lined-up (believe me!), half-written, and riddled with spelling mistakes; so, basically ready to go, from my perspective. However, the recent issue of some new guidelines on social media endorsements from the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) - and the subsequent furore they caused - have made me reconsider my first article of 2019.

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[digital-influence]

Dreamers & Doers episode 4 - with PR Unlocked 

“I’ve followed Nik on social media for a year or so and he talks and writes a lot about influencer marketing, in particular the issues around social media fraud – so people buying fake followers and using bots to artificially create engagement on their content and posts.” 

(listen here)

[digital-influence]

Instagram is clamping down on influencers with fake followers – but is it enough?

Following a call from Unilever at the start of the year to “rebuild trust in influencer marketing,” Instagram has detailed plans to clamp down on all third-party apps that help creators attain “inauthentic” followers.

There’s a host of apps and plugins on the market that lure Instagram influencers with the promise of a bigger number next to that ‘following’ indicator, as well as greater engagement on their feed — all things that make creators a more attractive buy for brands.

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[digital-influence]

Smoothing the curve; why influencer fraud is far from over

“The key to improving the situation is three-fold: cleaning up the influencer ecosystem by removing misleading engagement; making brands and influencers more aware of the use of dishonest practices; and improving transparency from social platforms to help brands measure impact. We need to take urgent action now to rebuild trust before it’s gone forever.”

No sooner had those words left Keith Weed’s mouth, back in June, than you could hear the cries of anguish in offices up and down the land as bigwig marketing chiefs, at brands and agencies alike, threw down their copy of Campaign Magazine and asked everyone and anyone just what they were doing about this new thing called influencer fraud.

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A really inconvenient truth: or why (almost) everyone wants to ignore the issue of fraud in influencer marketing

In every industry, a lot of the trends that’ll make the headlines tomorrow are already in full-swing beneath the surface today. Trends seem to have a lag affect on business; which is odd, because businesses always seem to want to correlate recent success with recent performance, rather than looking at what they did in the past to explain the present - and what they’re doing in the present to explain the future.

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[digital-influence]

Why the founders of Instagram stepped down and what this means for the future of Instagram (and for you)

The big news this week in the world of social media is, of course, that the two founders of Instagram are both leaving the business.

And, for once, this is one bandwagon I’m not running a mile or so behind, watching as its dust trail evaporates on the distant horizon. I’m actually on-board this time; not quite front-row-centre, but definitely towards the middle or - at the very least - sat in the final third, rubbing shoulders and muscling for space with a couple of hundred column inches, which all tackle the issue of what this announcement means for the future of Instagram.

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[digital-influence]

Why brands don't care for authenticity in influencer marketing - and why they really should

This year, the furore around influencer marketing has increased in both frequency and potency. Each and every week, now, there’s a growing number of column inches devoted to a new outcry, revelation, analysis or scandal within the industry; which is great, as it shows the industry is becoming something of a serious player (and gives me something to write about on a Sunday night).

The latest furore, has been around a certain influencer’s Instagram ad for Listerine - a furore so loud, it even made the national press.

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[digital-influence]

Disclosing Influencer Ads and the Professionalisation of Influencer Marketing

A couple of months back, I was invited to the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) for a chat with a group of influencers and industry professionals (thanks to Lydia).

(Possibly the least inviting intro to an article, I know; but, stick with it!)

And, for once, I stayed quiet. Very quiet. Not like me, as Kat remarked; but, for once I wanted to hear what other people had to say on the subject, rather than talk everyone else into the ground with my own viewpoint - which I’m very good (or bad) at doing. (read more...)