Group items tagged

When I work with start-ups, I almost always consider some influencer component. The reason is simple. When you don’t have a relevant audience, you can borrow one.

Working with influencers can create a powerful feedback loop as you develop new products and features

Do these influencers have powerful social media platforms? You bet they do. Will a link from them to your website enhance your SEO, and ultimately your site authority? You bet it does.

Last month the FTC issued warnings to celebrities who plugged products on their Instagram accounts without clearly identifying their relationships with brands. The letters were meant to “educate” the celebrities on how to post without violating the organization’s disclosure guidelines.

The FTC said it sent out similar letters to each influencer to “call attention” to the post in question. Each letter reads: “The FTC’s Endorsement Guides state that if there is a ‘material connection’ between the endorser and the marketer of a product — in other words, a connection that might affect the weight or credibility that consumers give the endorsement — that connection should be clearly and conspicuously disclosed, unless the connection is already clear from the context of the communication containing the endorsement. Material connections could consist of a business or family relationship, monetary payment, or the provision of free products to the endorser.”

The FTC cited cases in which disclosures appeared in captions at the bottom of a post, and were only found if consumers clicked on the “more” button to reveal the full text. Multiple hashtags, tags and links also were frowned upon, as they obscure the disclosure.

Nicheworks with more than 6,300 social media influencers ranging from comedic personalities to photographers to foodies to fashion bloggers. Among the more than 100 brands and agencies it has worked with are Hewlett-Packard Co., Coca-Cola Co. and the National Football League. Hewlett-Packard’s HP Home & Home Office Store is No. 35 in the Internet Retailer Top 500 Guide while the National Football League is No. 151.

As a part of Twitter, Niche aims to build more tools, platforms and ways to help influencers link up with brands, write Niche co-founders Rob Fishman and Darren Lachtman in a blog post.

By acquiring Niche, Twitter will be the rare social network that stands to directly profit when an influencer works with a brand. But it won’t be alone. Tumblr last month launched Creatrs Network,

U.S. truth-in-advertising enforcers have sent letters to supermodel Naomi Campbell, actresses Lindsay Lohan and Vanessa Hudgens and other celebrities asking whether they have paid deals to endorse products on the photo-sharing app Instagram.

Instagram, which is owned by Facebook Inc, has seen a sharp increase in recent years in promotions of products and services by famous people, often without disclosures of whether there was an endorsement deal. Celebrities have talked up clothing brands, food, alcohol, spa treatments and a wide array of other items.

In May, the agency released dozens of letters it had sent to companies and stars giving them notice that they must tell fans about compensation for promotions on social media.

It’s not altogether clear whether the girls were aware of the scam, but they did appear to pose for pictures with rowing machines to be sent onto USC’s subcommittee for athletic admission. (Though the swindle seemed to work beautifully—twice!

With a popular YouTube channel and two highly trafficked Instagram accounts between them, Olivia Jade and Isabella Rose are almost as popular online as their mom

Now that the admissions scheme has been exposed, internet detectives are racing to rummage through the girls’ old social media posts and interviews, which are not in short supply, for newly incriminating or amusing material. And they are finding plenty, since the girls have been putting their lives online themselves for years—with nary a mention of an early-morning crew practice we can find.

no putting your sponsor message below the “more” button, where no one will see it. And no disguising it ambiguously as “thanks Nike,” as if Nike was just cool enough to let you use their corporate getaway beach house because you asked nicely. And! No burying the disclosure in obscure terminology, like #sp or #partner, deep in the sea of hashtags.