Top 5 Awesome Influencer Marketing Stories This Week

Spring has officially sprung and as smart marketers look to close out the first quarter of 2016, ION is here with a curated list of the top Influencer Marketing stories this week. In our roundup, you’ll find updates about key social media platforms, details on new developments and some news about influential content creators.

Influencer Marketing Trumps Paid Media: What the Beauty Industry Can Learn from the Trump Campaign

ION’s Take: Provocative title, huh? Conor Begley’s quick look at what Influencer Marketing practitioners can learn from Donald Trump is mostly about finding ways to gain Earned Media Value. While not even fashionistas on YouTube will want to make explosive statements like the GOP frontrunner, a focus on gaining EMV and calculating ROI is something too many marketers miss. For help reporting on those values, be sure to check out the free Ayzenberg Earned Media Value Index.

I stumbled across an article the other day in the New York Times about the current presidential election that I think has some surprising similarities to what is currently happening within the beauty industry. I know this sounds far-fetched, but walk with me for a minute here. Read More at Cosmoprof North America

More Influencers, Fewer Posts: How Instagram’s Algorithm Will Affect Fashion Brands

ION’s Take: Digiday takes a look at the change from chronological to algorithmic viewing coming to Instagram, which represents both an opportunity and additional cost for brands. While the days of organic traffic from the photo-sharing platform look to be over, brands get more chance to pay for a prominent placement on user newsfeeds. The downside is that Instagram lacks the close targeting available on Facebook because of the relatively sparse user data available by comparison. Users rushed to declare #ripinstagram but the truth is that the low-effort creativity and compellingly simple interface will likely keep most users on the app (and more coming) even if they see more ads and ‘relevant’ content as a result of the change.

The heyday of organic reach for brands on Instagram is over. Instagram is switching to an algorithm-based model for its photo stream, putting more pressure on brands to create quality content if they want it to rise to the top of followers’ news feeds. Read More at Digiday

Global Success Eludes Pinterest

ION’s Take: Despite deep interest from women in the US, Pinterest has struggled to grow its user base internationally. L2‘s assessment is astute but points more to the inherent problems with the platform than opportunities for Pinterest to get to the next level. While Pinterest does some key things very well, it may be the poster child for niche social platforms that aren’t ever going to be ready for global domination. The challenge there? The ease with which the bigger players co-op what you’re doing right.

As Pinterest expands its advertising program to catch up with competitors in social media, the platform is struggling to attract users outside the U.S. Less than half of Pinterest users are international, suggesting that the app might be of little use to advertisers not focused on American consumers. Read More on L2

Social Media Creators Dominate Most Influential People On The Internet List

ION’s Take: Two years in, Time magazine’s Most Influential People on the Internet list represents what you might have expected from the beginning – it’s full of social media creators. While only PewDiePie represented the world of YouTubers, Instagrammers, Viners and more last year, Time is now acknowledging what people in the Influencer Marketing industry already know: social media creators forge stronger relationships with their audiences than movie and TV stars ever will.

While Kanye West, J.K. Rowling and Donald Trump occupy spaces on Time Magazine’s second annual list of the 30 Most Influential People on the Internet, social media creators from YouTube, Snapchat and Instagram fill most of the slots. The presence of PewDiePie, Pinterest Queen Joy Cho and DJ Khaled should come as no surprise since we’re talking about influence in the online world. Read More at ION.co

3 Ways to Integrate Influencer Marketing Into Today’s Campaigns

ION’s Take: Need a quick article to explain Influencer Marketing’s value to a colleague beyond the basics of authenticity and built-in, targeted audiences? This Business 2 Community article illustrates some of the additional advantages to be had by implementing a smart strategy that includes social media creators being ambassadors for your brand.

For years, word-of-mouth marketing has been the most trusted form of advertising. In a Nielsen study across 58 countries, 84 percent of recipients said they put the greatest trust in recommendations from friends and family. Social media hasn’t changed that. But what the proliferation of blogs and social platforms has done is create a megaphone of sorts for word-of-mouth advertising.