Insights

Twitter Tackles Fake Followers

Twitter Tackles the Bots: Celebrities Lose Millions of Fake Followers

The aftershock of the New York Times’ Follower Factory exposé on influencer marketing fraud continues to inspire change in the fight against fake followers. Just yesterday, Twitter announced it will remove tens of millions of fake or suspicious…

It’s Time to End Influencer Marketing Fraud

The battle lines have been drawn: major brands are calling on the influencer marketing industry to choose a side when it comes to fraud. Earlier this week, Unilever CMO, Keith Weed announced that the company “is pushing for greater transparency…

30 Influencer Marketing Stats to Inform Your Marketing Strategy

This post was originally published in Business 2 Community. Consumers are increasingly wary of advertisements, leaving marketers scrambling to find new ways to capture, and hold, their attention. As a result, influencer marketing is on the…

5 Influencer Marketing Trends to Prepare For in 2017

This post was originally published in Social Media Today. In 2016, 86% of marketers used influencer marketing in some capacity, 94% of whom found it effective, according to a recent Linqia survey of 170 marketers. As a result, marketers are…

The Cost of Influencer Marketing: Choosing the Right Pricing Model

A version of this article originally appeared on The Huffington Post.  Consumers today don’t trust traditional advertising; they trust people. According to Nielsen’s Global Trust in Advertising Report 2015, consumers trust personal…

Influencer Marketing: Your Always-On Content Lab

A version of this article originally appeared in SocialTimes. Consumers today have unprecedented access to an endless supply of information and opinions, resulting in dynamic shifts in their purchasing behaviors. We live in the age of…

Are Top-Tier Celebrity Influencers Worth It For Brands?

A version of this article originally appeared in PRWeek. Linqia cofounder and president Maria Sipka  and Dom Smales of Gleam Futures take sides on whether linking up with top-tier influencers is always a good look for brands. No by Maria…

Marketing to Millennials? Make Social Ads More Effective

Move out of the way Baby Boomers. Millennials are now the largest living generation in the United States, according to Pew Research. And marketers today share the same concern as their counterparts from a few generations ago: How do brands reach…

3 Ways Influencer-Generated Content Tops Branded Content

People are weary of branded content. 92% of consumers trust recommendations from others, even from those they don’t personally know, over branded content. On top of that, 70-80% of online users completely ignore paid ads in search of organic…

5 Ways Influencer Marketing Trumps Traditional Advertising

Influencer marketing, deemed “the next big thing” by AdWeek, is hitting full stride in 2016. 75% of marketers currently use influencer marketing and 59% of marketing professionals plan to increase influencer budgets in the next 12 months,…

Why “Power-Middle” Influencers are Crushing Celebrities

This article originally appeared on Business2Community as "Why 'Power-Middle' Influencers are Crushing Kim Kardashian." Celebrity endorsements have been around forever, but are they being usurped by a new type of authority? The internet has…

Facebook’s New Branded Content Policy: What it Means for Brands and Influencers

Facebook recently announced an update to its branded content policy that allows organizations with verified Pages to publish brand-sponsored content without asking for Facebook’s permission first, as long as the content is tagged to the brand. This…