“When you see that Kendall Jenner was paid $200,000 to post an orange square, that just wouldn’t happen now. Brands are asking more questions around influencers they work with, what brands they worked with and the content they’re creating.”— Mae Karkowski, digiday.com
“The reality is that the old school, Mad Men style approach to advertising doesn’t work anymore.”— James Cole, thoughtcatalog.com
“The one in eight Instagrammers CampaignDeus said showed signs of buying audiences were given away by a number of factors including: demographic makeup; unexplained leaps in follower count; and unusually low engagement rates given account size.”— Rebecca Stewart, thedrum.com
“Either you really overpay for a Kardashian or insert top-tier talent, which is a bespoke transaction with lots of representation and tends to be less muddy. Or it’s anyone under 500,000 [followers]; just stick them on a list, and they don’t really matter at the end of the day. It’s content by the to…”— Unknown, digiday.com
“When I tell people I started a SaaS platform for micro influencers their eyes glaze over. So let me try this instead: I am starting a beekeeping co-op.”— James Cole, thehhub.com
“Use your talent and following for good – create things that are meaningful to you and only work with brands that align to yours.”— James Cole, thehhub.com
“All my work up to November of 2016 had been social media jobs, like promo posts, ads on my Instagram. Then out of nowhere, I get this huge job that had nothing to do with Instagram and I was valued off my work, versus my number [of followers]. And I was like holy crap, it really put into perspective…”— Andrew Kearns, fieldmag.com
“Amanda Smith, known on Instagram as @wanderingggirl, has 31,000 followers. She’s posted a little over 40 times, sharing photos of her travels to beautiful locations around the world — kayaking in clear blue waters, peering out over the city of Paris, gazing onto the Golden Gate Bridge in San Francis…”— Madison Malone Kircher, nymag.com
“The future of marketing isn't in engaging influencers for over-staged, over-styled, made-to-look-authentic branded content. It's an incredibly deceptive tactic, sure to follow a downward spiral from initial excitement to the ultimate letdown. The future of marketing must be one where brands look to…”— David Hunegnaw, adage.com
“There’s always an expectation from brands that you will have an Instagram presence, but I don’t personally care because I’ve yet to see that it translates into anything real for me or the company.”— Kristiina Wilson, glossy.co
“Right now, ‘Influencer Marketing’ is the single most effective advertising method in existence. Campaigns run through influencers see an 11x ROI as compared to other ‘traditional’ digital campaigns and customers acquired through influencer marketing are 37% more loyal. The reason it works is simple:…”— James Cole, hinfluencers.com