Influencers Are Being Paid Big Sums To Pitch Products and Thrash Rivals on Instagram and YouTube (wired.com)

"Influencers" are being paid big sums to pitch products on Instagram and YouTube. If you're trying to grow a product on social media, you either fork over cash or pay in another way. This is the murky world of influencing, reports Wired. Brands will pay influencers to position products on their desks, behind them, or anywhere else they can subtly appear on screen. Payouts increase if an influencer tags a brand in a post or includes a link, but silent endorsements are often preferred. An excerpt from the report: The suggestions started early. Months before Lashify had officially launched, one of her investors, who had ties to the cosmetics industry, pulled her aside. He told her to prepare to pay influencers to speak positively about her lashes on YouTube and Instagram. She thought he was being dramatic. He wasn't. Lotti recalls the investor saying that if she wanted Lashify to succeed, quality didn't matter, nor did customer satisfaction -- only influencers. And they didn't come cheap. She was told to expect to shell out $50,000 to $70,000 per influencer just to make her company's name known, an insane amount for a new startup. There was no way around it; that's just how things worked.

Comments

Sounds like extortion

[DaMattster]

This sounds like extortion for the digital era. What's left unsaid, but clearly implied, is that if you don't fork over big money to influences, your product will be trashed.

Re:The hell you say!

[rmdingler]

Celebrities also used to do this more subtle endorsement where they'd be paid to use products publicly without running commercials.

I think we're splitting hairs where we're willing to say a celebrity's compensated public use of a product doesn't classify as commercial; although subtlety is an important component of advertising, since we all think we're too smart to be influenced by advertising.

Influencers is an interesting tag, and speaking for myself and me only, I've also never quite understood why people who can act in movies are somehow qualified to make important contributions with their opinions that suggest preference for candidates and political positions.