#the algorithm..the sellout of it all….it’s done | Explore Tumblr posts and blogs

chuckling-chemist · 6 years ago

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Subscriber Desperation

((I make one “Youtube’s not a real job” joke on skaian-heretic’s post and suddenly I’m making Jacksfilms jokes and writing a goddamn crackfic featuring Ardata. I’ll be fair...I’m not sure exactly how IC this is for Ardata, and more importantly I’m not sure I care. This was just for some hopefully dumb humor.))

“I cannot believe Grubtube changed their algorithm! And to attempt to introduce user feedback. The nerve…” the blueblood typing furiously on her keyboard scowled deeply. “No wonder I’ve lost so many subscribers.”

Naturally, due to Ardata’s high status and sinister persona, the number of people commenting on her work in comparison to her views was low. But for sweeps, such hadn’t been a problem. She always managed to keep on top of Grubtube’s changing formulas to keep her on the top of trending tags for weeks. Obtain subscribers by occasionally making a video unrelated to your regular content, then push them to watch your other videos? Early on, of course, but she did. Get trolls to click on a video they’d hold no interest in through thumbclaws and titles promising sexual content that only appeared for seconds? Easy. Falsely inflate her video lengths through elongated intros and outros? Simple. But getting people to interact with her videos aside from a like? Impossible. Lowblood trolls wouldn’t comment on her videos to keep their olfactories safe from her, and higherbloods had better things to do with her time than leave a comment on a video involving brutal murder when they wouldn’t have to comment much in an online redblock. She had better things to do with her time.

With a frustrated groan, she clicked over to her imitators’ profiles. She needed some sort of method to make her look - Ardata shuddered at the mere thought of it - approachable. Enough so they might comment on her videos. Unfortunately for her, almost every profile she scanned did something different. Many relied on sponsorships from small, Internet companies. Some engaged in online feuds. And if those acts weren’t reprehensible on her own, others were worse. She held far too much pride to tell her subscribers to “smash the flush/pitched buttons” if they felt any strong feelings or run videos ran wholly on content produced by commenters. Her videos were art. The gutterbloods in her basement, her muse. Commenters weren’t allowed to dictate the type of art she produced, even if they drove her numbers up.

However, the longer she scrolled through her competition, she realized they all did something she hadn’t ever quite done. Many of these trolls seemed eager to talk about themselves in front of the camera with questions supplied by subscribers. Ardata did enjoy talking about herself. And, while she preferred working behind the camera as the director with complicated shots and angles to truly capture the spirit of the poor troll, an easy night of sitting at a camera and talking sounded just that: easy. She made the announcement on both Chittr and her most recent Grubtube video, informing them of an upcoming Q&A so please send your questions now.

The results were instantaneous. Her most recent video’s view count hit record highs within hours, placing it firmly in Grubtube’s top trending videos. Questions flooded her video, her Chittir, her inbox, anywhere they felt they could send them. For the first time in perigees - the first time since meeting that odd little alien - she was a big Grubtuber again. Famous. Esteemed. She set an established date for a full livestream set to be hours long (again, good for the algorithm), and pulled all the questions to be used from a random generator. So close to re-achieving the fame she once had on Grubtube she’d never have to try again if she wanted to. She set everything up the night before, from her husktop littered with questions to the camera itself.

Her preparations made the filming easy. She only had to start up the livestream on Grubtube, waiting for the red light to indicate she started filming and grimace menacingly at the camera. Of course, she made herself look equally enticing and imposing on her black couch, but that was just her regular aesthetic. To do anything else was disingenuous. “Hello. I’m sure you’re all here to watch Alternia’s best up-and-coming filmmaker on Grubtube answer your questions.” She smirked. “I’m so flattered you could make it. Unsurprised, judging by your ridiculous interest in my personal life, but flattered. So, let’s get this started before I lose interest.”

The first set of questions her husktop pulled up were straightforward. Trolls asked her about simple questions about her personal life: everything from her lusus to her quadrants, on top of numerous questions about all sorts of favorites. One even asked her about dayglow, and if she preferred it to other poisons. Ardata gave the viewers of the stream cryptic answers. After all, she didn’t really want to talk about her private life. She didn’t even want to answer questions at all. This was all just to please the Grubtube algorithm and gain her viewership back.

About halfway through the questions, after a slog of political minefields seemingly only there to upset some subjuggalator watching her videos, the questions started to get...well...weird. “‘Ardata,’” she read, “‘I’m a huge fan of your videos, but I gotta ask, I keep dabbing on my haters like other grubtubers told me to, but sometimes they dab back. I haven’t gotten an answer from them yet. Please help, I’m scared.”

Ardata’s smirk twisted into a dark frown. “If you’re scared, don’t dab at them. Shouldn’t that be simple?”

She flipped over to the next one, reading “Ardata? What’s your opinion on the film ‘The Funny Faces on Your Palm Husk Develop Personalities of Their Own Separate of the Ones They Are Supposed to Emote in a Sellout Family Comedy Featuring An Overabundance of Propaganda and Product Placement, The Plot Relying Wholly On Overused Concepts Done Better in Other Films? I heard it’s a visual masterpiece.” She scowled. “What kind of question is this? Did anyone even go see that refuse incinerator heap of a film?” She scoffed. “Please. Next question.”

She flipped down through the comments, reading many of them outloud as she skipped them. Ardata, when will you start giving us sponsorships at the end of your videos? Can’t wait to skip all of them!

Ardata, has anyone told you your lusus is half as cute as JuhannFlicks’ barkbeast?

Ardata, when will you do a collaboration with a screaming Grubtuber?

Have you considered what it feels like to be like us, an asshole talking to a camera?

Ardata, I need more challenge vids!

What’s your opinion on the Eastern Alternian flag made entirely of triangles? Do you agree it’s the absolute worst?

Over and over. The whole middle portion of Q&A seemed like...shitposts. Pure and idiotic shitposts. Her scowl deepend. “Understand, viewers, these questions are so inane I’m not even giving them a thought. Now, this one, since I ignored so many…” she flitted her gaze over to the next post, not even bothering to check to see what it said, “this one I’ll answer.”

Hey Ardata, how does it feel to know that you have no skills for the Ordeals because we all know Grubtube’s not a real job?

She paused, blinking slowly. Anger swelled in the pit of her stomach. How dare some troll insist what she did wasn’t a job! She profited, didn’t she? “I assure you, viewer, what I do is very real. Otherwise, I wouldn’t be here right now,” she said tightly. “Now, let’s move on to the--”

She gasped. A whole slew of comments, none of them from the same troll, all asked the same question. Worded differently, but functionally the same. Grubtube’s not a real job.

“Q&A’s over early. I won’t be doing another one,” she snarled. With a quick snap of her wrist, the husktop clicked shut, ending the stream immediately.

It wasn’t until she sat there for several minutes, fuming silently, that she realized what she did. But it was too late now. She’d have to find another way to bring in new viewers through other means, and hope her outburst only drove minimal numbers away.

Hopefully.

***

Meanwhile, Juhann Scanan, popular oliveblooded comedic Grubtuber, watched the whole stream with anticipation. His lusus, a tiny little fluffy barkbeast he affectionately called Klondike, nipped at his arm. Normally he wasn’t interested in the drama of Grubtube, but the fall of Ardata Carmia was equal parts funny and necessary. Grubtube held enough bloodshed without yet another redblock wannabe hogging all the attention.

The video ended with a loud click, and Grubtube shoved him off the video onto her regular profile. The same question his followers asked over and over, she couldn’t even handle once.

Juhann laughed. Maybe it wasn’t the kindest idea to let his followers know he sent in one bizarre question about dabbing after making a song that happened to reference this Grubtube redblock trend.. But the bubbly satisfied feeling watching another villain of the website crumble under their own infamy felt justified, in a way. If you can’t adjust to the changing tides of a constantly evolving website, you’d fall behind. Ardata, and any other troll who mistakes ultraviolence for art and content, relying wholly on a supervillain status for popularity, would fall victim for that.

“Okay Klondike, get off me,” he said. “I gotta finish editing for tomorrow. Gotta finish that song.”

Klondike yipped happily in his face, making no attempt to move. Moving seemed out of the question. Juhann stretched, smiling sleepily at his lusus and yawning. “Fine,” he said with a light pat of the barkbeast’s head. Editing could wait for a day. “You win. I’ll sleep.”

((I’ll just say it here, yeah his matesprit’s just troll!Erin/2ToesUp and she has a similar lusus named Sundae))

#homestuck #hiveswap #friendsim #fanfiction #crackfic #my writing

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starrykitchen · 3 years ago

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It's been too long...

(You know, we KNOW we haven’t made an actual tumblr specific POST that wasn’t a IG repost in a LONG time. We actually have documented most of our history starting on tumblr since May 2009. Hit the archive HERE if you ever want to go down the deep rabbit hole ;D)

Hi.

It’s a been a while, and we're... ummmm... doing that THING above!

We're sorry we haven’t seen so many of you (6-7 years for some???) Honestly, we mentally checked-out since we surprisingly raised $114k with y’all during our FAILED Kickstarter campaign, and focused on just being… new parents. Some sporadic events+things here and there have happened since, but admittedly we’ve chilled out for a while and we’ve been surprisingly good.

But all this time we haven’t forgotten about y’all at all. Growing up with so many of you, all the food we made that you devoured (chili crab anyone???) and the sometimes crazy, illegal or just plain absurd happenings we’ve committed with many of you over the last… DECADE?!? What a f*cking (ach, these algorithms+filters for curse words) wild, haphazard and tasty ride of cascading dominos it’s been.

We hope you haven’t forgotten us and all that silly history together after all this time. And I know from all the texts, emails, DMs, reddit posts we’ve received from many of you that we’re making it harder for you to remember us by since you can’t find our food...ummm... anywhere in LA right now. So…

We’ve decided it’s time to make some fresh, new and potentially MORE absurd memories together, AND throw you a Balls+Noods New Years party. If you want?? ^_^

(old school SK handwritten order on post-its cabinet "system." Each column represented a time slot in 15 min increments)

For this, we’re going back to OUR basics:

secret underground location

limited staff: just me + @skkitcheninja

limited food: because also, just me + @skkitchenninja

limited spots: because… you get it

How does a good person like ME get some balls+noods?

Ticket / pre-orders open up (here on Eventbrite): 12.21 @ 12:21... pm... PT ;)

Ticket / preorders CLOSE: 12.25 @ 11.59p

Date: 1.1.22

Time: 3p - 6p

Menu:

Only Balls. Only Noods.

(aka Tofu Balls+Garlic Noodles ^_^)

"Register" your email on eventbrite to get a reminder (if you're seeing this before the tickets opened up, or if they close/sellout [???] add the same for a waitlist), reserve your spot when sales open up, buy+reserve your grub that we’ll (me+Thi, you and me… Cillian and Thi lol) be prepping and making for you.

We hope to catch up with y’all. To catch you up with us, and… tell ya about what we hope Starry Kitchen’s next chapter is going to be like. We might even have a plan this time… an unpredictably foolish and flavorful plan- just like how we’ve always done it. We haven’t disappeared, and hope y’all haven’t either.

Xoxo,

Team SHIN SK

https://beacons.ai/starrykitchen <- for a SINGULAR way to find all the social media you prefer to follow us on (other than tumblr ;D), contact us or get e-mail/txt updates too. (it's kind of in beta stages so let us know what you think we should change)

PS- this event is meant to be… low-key. No weed dishes. (I know, sad!) No press. No…t many double-entendres, and potentially karaoke. ;) We’re doing this to see as many of YOU that have graciously become part of our history and lives… Before the megaphone armed banana suit rains back down on the city. :)

PPS - IMPORTANT: this is gonna be outside. We want you vaxxed and masked when in proximity to others that ain’t with you. AND covid sucks (other) balls. Thems OUR rules.

PPPS - you've read this far, part of me wants to share more of my anime+videogame nerdiness that I've regressed back into, BUT I feel like this feels more right. SO chill out to this tune I've been SO addicted to for months. I love this song. Please enjoy "Killer Tune Kills Me" by the musical stylings of... Kirinji ;)

youtube

#kirinji #killer tune kills me #crispy tofu balls #tofu balls #garlic noodles #starry kitchen

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pattersondonaldblk5 · 6 years ago

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How Technology Can Help Artists Make a Living Through Their Online Audiences

It’s been no secret that the music industry has been struggling over the past couple decades. After years of spiraling album sales, the industry hit a new low in 2016, with just over 100 million units sold — a nearly 14 percent decrease from the previous year, reflecting declines in both physical and digital album sales.

That’s not the whole story, of course. The music industry’s sluggish sales gave way to music streaming, which overtook physical music in terms of revenue last year. With streaming music’s revenues skyrocketing to $6.6 billion — representing growth of 41 percent — the music industry has championed streaming as its new golden goose.

This is a good change — the music industry lost billions by fighting the shift to streaming. By focusing on CDs and digital downloads, never mind the fact that CDs saw an 84 percent decline in sales over a decade, the industry found itself “fighting over pennies while waving goodbye to dollars,” as The New York Times pointed out.

Musicians Take the Hit

This sea change of embracing the technology the music industry once feared hasn’t necessarily paid off for musicians, however. Music manager Troy Carter told TechCrunch that labels are hoarding the royalties earned through streaming, keeping more than 70 percent of the fees. The contracts musicians sign with labels are intended to drive revenue for the record labels, not the artists themselves. The common refrain is that for every 20 artists signed to a label, only one is successful — with that math, it makes sense that labels hedge their bets to fund all 20.

Carter believes, however, that streaming payouts could approach CDs’ revenue heyday as more users sign up. Platforms like Repost are making the same bet. The platform, designed to help musicians make a living through their online audiences, works with artists and their teams to monetize their music distribution and promote their work.

Despite the democratization of many platforms and technologies, it’s been incredibly difficult for musicians to monetize their content, and fragmentation is a big part of the problem. “The music industry is way more complicated than it needs to be,” says Repost’s CTO Joey Mason. “Despite all of the advancement in tech, the structures in place on the revenue collection side are incredibly inefficient. To make matters worse, the copyright rules and regulations differ for each territory, so often, it’s not cost-effective to try to collect revenues in certain territories.”

Mason says that for artists, this problem is compounded by the fact that there’s no seamless way to collect all of their earnings. They’d have to work with multiple entities — performing rights organizations, publishers, labels, distributors — to collect every cent they’ve entitled to. This forces artists to spend more time developing business skills than creating new music.

Consolidating an Entire Industry

When Mason and his co-founder, CEO Jeff Ponchick, built Repost, they aimed to eliminate as many of the distractions for artists as they could. They recognized that most of the artists they spoke to struggled primarily in terms of exposure — they hit a wall as independent musicians and needed help getting to the next step. These independent musicians then faced a laundry list of tasks: optimize music on every platform; earn press write-ups; find promotional outlets; collect checks from SoundCloud, YouTube, etc.

Seeing how confusing and draining this was for artists, Repost built itself as a one-stop shop for doing everything. By eliminating multiple distribution and payment touchpoints, the platform also removed the burden of dealing with a variety of infrastructures, accounting practices, and more.

“A lot of people don’t know the difference between a music distributor and a record label,” Ponchick says. “For a distributor, we’d be seen as insanely expensive, taking 30 percent of artists’ money while others take 5 percent. But we offer label services and marketing the way a record label does, without taking any ownership of the music itself. It’s a way to make it OK to remain independent, for musicians to avoid signing with a label. They can make $20,000 to $30,000 per month and retain ownership.”

Chance the Rapper is one well-known indie artist who’s avoided the dreaded “sellout” label and made a successful go of it. While his success is considered a “fairytale” within the industry, Repost’s team aims to make independent success attainable. It started its quest with an algorithm. Artists apply to join Repost’s platform with their SoundCloud IDs; the platform’s algorithm combs the artist’s channel, assessing her average play count per upload, follower count, and biggest and smallest track to determine her likelihood of making money through the platform.

This data-driven approach has resulted in 100,000 rejected applications and 5,000 acceptances. But it enables Repost to put its focus and efforts behind the artists who are best positioned to benefit from its hands-on bevy of services, ensuring it doesn’t spread itself too thin or do what many in the music industry have done: sold a bill of goods to artists.

Making Tech Music’s Best Friend

Repost has recognized one thing many — other than artists — have failed to see: It’s inherently difficult to manage the varied tech infrastructures presented by SoundCloud, Spotify, YouTube, and others. And that remains true whether an artist is independent or well-established, selling out arenas.

“Every music platform is unique in how its content is delivered, monetized, and consumed. In order to maximize revenue, artists need to have a solid understanding of best practices and a monetization strategy for each store,” Mason says. “They need to work with a distributor that provides them a high level of insight and control of their content on a per-platform basis.”

Unfortunately, Mason says, most distributors take the one-size-fits-all approach, meaning artists’ revenue generation can’t be maximized. Repost has sidestepped that issue by building deep technical integrations with the platforms artists value most, with an emphasis on marketing, monetization, and content protection. And it’s worked: Repost’s client base has been driven through word of mouth, and it’s currently paying tens of millions of dollars to artists annually.

For example, Repost does fingerprinting through YouTube to drive revenue back to artists. Repost aggregates, packages, and delivers sound recording rights information to YouTube at scale for thousands of artists; using this data, YouTube utilizes audio fingerprinting to find videos on its platform that match the provided sound recording. When a match has been found, the YouTube video is “claimed” on behalf of the artist. Any advertisement or subscription revenues generated by the video are then sent back to the artist through Repost.

Technology is making what was once impossible possible for the music industry, and it’s democratizing music creation. “Music production is cheaper and more accessible than ever before — anyone with a laptop and Ableton can produce a hit track,” Mason explains. “Because of this, a ‘middle class’ of musicians has emerged, and more and more money is shifting into the mid- and long tail. Record labels aren’t equipped to handle this scale. They’re not tech companies, and their business models are built around breaking a smaller roster of artists and, ultimately, taking ownership of their clients’ music.”

Repost sees itself as a tech company in music, not a music company in tech. Because its business model is built around working with thousands, not hundreds, of artists, it’s invested heavily in automation. That’s enabled it to operate on a revenue-share model, not an ownership model. “This is better for creators, which is why so many artists are choosing to go independent rather than work with labels,” Mason says.

While the music industry has been struggling for years, technology is on track to put an end to that. With companies like Repost applying automation and technology to the many hoops the industry has erected over the years, they’re putting music on a path to become as streamlined as businesses in other industries. And that’s exactly what music needs.

https://ift.tt/2K8PYaS

#How Technology Can Help Artists Make a Living Through Their Online Audiences

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dustinwootenne · 6 years ago

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How Technology Can Help Artists Make a Living Through Their Online Audiences

Musicians Take the Hit

Consolidating an Entire Industry

Making Tech Music’s Best Friend

https://ift.tt/2K8PYaS

#How Technology Can Help Artists Make a Living Through Their Online Audiences

0 notes

mariaaklnthony · 6 years ago

Text

How Technology Can Help Artists Make a Living Through Their Online Audiences

Musicians Take the Hit

Consolidating an Entire Industry

Making Tech Music’s Best Friend

https://ift.tt/2K8PYaS

#How Technology Can Help Artists Make a Living Through Their Online Audiences

0 notes

joannlyfgnch · 6 years ago

Text

How Technology Can Help Artists Make a Living Through Their Online Audiences

Musicians Take the Hit

Consolidating an Entire Industry

Making Tech Music’s Best Friend

https://ift.tt/2K8PYaS

#How Technology Can Help Artists Make a Living Through Their Online Audiences

0 notes

trendingnewsb · 8 years ago

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Millennial influencers who are the new stars of web advertising

Beauty vloggers and cult celebrities are being courted by luxury brands

Seven years ago, Chiara Ferragni was a fledgling 23-year-old fashion blogger, studying law at university in Milan. She never finished her degree, but now lives in a $3.5m Los Angeles mansion packed with antiques, and spends her days travelling the world in midriff-revealing tops, Gucci sweatshirts, cut-off jeans and a collection of Louis Vuitton. How do we know this?

Every day, the Blonde Salad shares images of her gilded lifestyle with her 9.6 million followers on Instagram, making her one of the cult celebrities of the social media world. Unlike Taylor Swift, Beyonc et al, who have all made their names elsewhere and maintain fanbases on the photo-sharing platform, Ferragni has found fame and fortune solely by publishing photographs of herself wearing a variety of designer ensembles in a range of glamorous locations. Now worth a reputed $12m, with a line of branded shoes selling at up to $500 a pair, and a contract with Pantene as a global ambassador, Ferragni is a role model to a generation of digital natives who have established a viable career as social media influencers.

On her 30th birthday earlier this month, her boyfriend, Italian rapper Fedez, proposed on stage in Verona, singing a song dedicated to her at a concert broadcast live to their home nation. Almost one million fans liked the Instagram video of the moment. That same day, almost half a million clicked the heart symbol below an image of her in a black mini dress, featuring the hashtag #ysl, while 700,000 followers liked another image Ferragni shared, showing her next to a vast 30th birthday cake emblazoned with the Leading Hotels of the World logo, with the hashtags #leadinghotelsoftheworld, #LHWtraveler and #kempinskivenice.

To those unfamiliar with the machinations of social media, it is highly likely Ferragni had a commercial arrangement with these luxury brands, keen to tap into an audience that wants to emulate her lifestyle. She is not alone in utilising her position as a social media star with a loyal and highly engaged following.

Earlier this month, 17-year-old Amanda Steele shared images of herself on the red carpet at the Cannes film festival, hanging out with Hollywood A-listers Jake Gyllenhaal and Tilda Swinton. The YouTube beauty vlogger, who shares make-up tips under the MakeupbyMandy24 handle, was flown out to the French Riviera, dressed and made up, and given tickets to the premiere of Okja courtesy of Christian Dior all in return for a caption shared with her 2.8 million followers that read: Thank you sooooo much @diormakeup for treating me like a princess!!

In just a few years, the power of blogs and platforms such as Instagram has created a new marketing genre that has seen brands investing heavily in collaborations with the big names in the online space. Beca Alexander, founder and president of the social media casting and management agency Socialyte Collective, represents about 100 influencers, each with between 30,000 and 2 million followers.

One of our top influencers did about $1m last year and the average for those on our books is around $200,000 a year, says the digital entrepreneur from her New York office.

Chiara Ferragni on Instagram. Photograph: Chiara Ferragni/Instagram

There are a variety of ways they earn that revenue and we work on strategies that best suit the individual style and audience of each one. Some might focus on promoting as many brands and products as possible but always being aware of the natural synergy with their own brand, so it feels authentic while others have contracts with a curated range of brands to work on exclusive long-term campaigns.

Alexander, a former fashion news blogger who takes 10% commission from her portfolio of clients, founded her business seven years ago and has seen double-digit annual growth and a predicted 2.5 times rise in turnover this year. While women dominate the influencer space, she has also established a reputation for nurturing a number of male stars, such as her most successful client, Adam Gallagher, whose elegant, well-travelled lifestyle has won him a lucrative long-term contract with Armani fragrance.

When you get to the top tier of influencers, they go to great lengths to portray the perfect image online, often recruiting a retinue of still-life and style photographers, make-up artists, stylists, assistants and editors to support the burgeoning business of being a brand in their own right. Many have a signature style to their posts, using specific filters or a trademark pose, but the key, says Alexander, is to remember who your audience is and retain an authenticity that means they remain engaged with your output.

And you dont have to have a mega-following to earn money from social media: companies are spending up to $1.5bn on Instagram marketing, says Thomas Rankin of Dash Hudson, who matches influencers with brands. Even users with 5,000 followers can attract $250 for a product post or endorsement if they have the right audience.

Alexander developed a programme two years ago known as product bombing, whereby a co-ordinated campaign saw numerous, carefully selected micro-influencers paid to talk about a new product at a specified time, thus saturating the social media space within the target demographic. That worked really well, and created huge awareness and demand, seeing stock sellout rapidly, she says.

However, the speed of change within the tech world and the evolution of algorithms to change the user experience means this approach isnt as effective today. Instagram has recently changed the way consumers see posts, from a simple chronological feed, guaranteeing a user would see all posts in the order they appear, to a more nebulous feed based on the users individual engagement with those they follow.

Currently worth around $1.5m, Julia Engels pastel-tinted Gal meets glam feed is brimming with high fashion and has 1.1 million subscribers. She generates revenue using the popular app LIKEtoKNOW.it, which sends followers direct to websites selling the clothes: if they buy, she gets a commission. She has also collaborated with #AmExPlatinum in highly stylised posts that convey the perceived luxury lifestyle promoted by the financial services brand. Each one carries a carefully worded caption and the #ad tag, defining the post as a piece of paid-for advertising. This boundary between independent editorial posts and those that have been paid for in some way is one that is blurred in this new era of social media marketing.

We have no issue with social influencers working with brands, as long as consumers arent misled, says Guy Parker, chief executive of the Advertising Standards Authority, which is working with the Federal Trade Commission in the US and the newly formed International Council of Advertising Self-Regulation to develop some kind of oversight of influencer marketing. We define advertising as a tweet, vlog, blog or Instagram post where the influencer has been paid and there has been some control over the content. We therefore expect the post to have #ad on it in a prominent position, not buried in 30 other hashtags, but in the first three lines of the caption, so it isnt hidden to followers. Its not fair to consumers to expect them to play detective and deduce whether something is an ad or not.

Many millennials believe this isnt necessary as they claim to be able to see whether content is sponsored, but we believe it is imperative to protect consumers who arent that savvy, and ensure they know.

Callum McCahon, strategy director at the social media agency Born Social, says the industry needs to be self-regulating, and that Instagram must take some responsibility for protecting consumers using their platform. Users scroll through feeds fast and are trained to skip past hashtags. I believe Instagram needs to have its own mandatory labelling system for a paid-for post, which Facebook which owns Instagram – has launched recently as branded content.

There is no doubt that a generation of style-conscious entrepreneurs are making a good living in some cases a fortune by building their own personal brands online with fan bases to rival many established global businesses. The challenge will be for newcomers to join a crowded market, and for those with a substantial following to keep them loyal.

The reason a brand is using an influencer is the trusting relationship they have with their followers, says McCahon. When its done properly it is a very effective method of building a brand and selling product.

Read more: http://ift.tt/2s8Hkk5

from Viral News HQ http://ift.tt/2rKFf1l via Viral News HQ

#IFTTT #Viral News HQ

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vdbstore-blog · 8 years ago

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New Post has been published on Vintage Designer Handbags Online | Vintage Preowned Chanel Luxury Designer Brands Bags & Accessories

New Post has been published on http://vintagedesignerhandbagsonline.com/millennial-influencers-who-are-the-new-stars-of-web-advertising/

Millennial ‘influencers’ who are the new stars of web advertising

Every day, the “Blonde Salad” shares images of her gilded lifestyle with her 9.6 million followers on Instagram, making her one of the cult celebrities of the social media world. Unlike Taylor Swift, Beyoncé et al, who have all made their names elsewhere and maintain fanbases on the photo-sharing platform, Ferragni has found fame and fortune solely by publishing photographs of herself wearing a variety of designer ensembles in a range of glamorous locations. Now worth a reputed $12m, with a line of branded shoes selling at up to $500 a pair, and a contract with Pantene as a global ambassador, Ferragni is a role model to a generation of digital natives who have established a viable career as social media “influencers”.

On her 30th birthday earlier this month, her boyfriend, Italian rapper Fedez, proposed on stage in Verona, singing a song dedicated to her at a concert broadcast live to their home nation. Almost one million fans “liked” the Instagram video of the moment. That same day, almost half a million clicked the heart symbol below an image of her in a black mini dress, featuring the hashtag #ysl, while 700,000 followers “liked” another image Ferragni shared, showing her next to a vast 30th birthday cake emblazoned with the Leading Hotels of the World logo, with the hashtags #leadinghotelsoftheworld, #LHWtraveler and #kempinskivenice.

Earlier this month, 17-year-old Amanda Steele shared images of herself on the red carpet at the Cannes film festival, hanging out with Hollywood A-listers Jake Gyllenhaal and Tilda Swinton. The YouTube beauty vlogger, who shares make-up tips under the “MakeupbyMandy24” handle, was flown out to the French Riviera, dressed and made up, and given tickets to the premiere of Okja courtesy of Christian Dior – all in return for a caption shared with her 2.8 million followers that read: “Thank you sooooo much @diormakeup for treating me like a princess!!”

“One of our top influencers did about $1m last year and the average for those on our books is around $200,000 a year,” says the digital entrepreneur from her New York office.

Chiara Ferragni on Instagram. Photograph: Chiara Ferragni/Instagram

“There are a variety of ways they earn that revenue and we work on strategies that best suit the individual style and audience of each one. Some might focus on promoting as many brands and products as possible – but always being aware of the natural synergy with their own ‘brand’, so it feels authentic – while others have contracts with a curated range of brands to work on exclusive long-term campaigns.”

We have no issue with social influencers working with brands, as long as consumers aren’t misled

Guy Parker, ASA

And you don’t have to have a mega-following to earn money from social media: companies are spending up to $1.5bn on Instagram marketing, says Thomas Rankin of Dash Hudson, who matches influencers with brands. Even users with 5,000 followers can attract $250 for a product post or endorsement if they have the right audience.

Alexander developed a programme two years ago known as “product bombing”, whereby a co-ordinated campaign saw numerous, carefully selected micro-influencers paid to talk about a new product at a specified time, thus saturating the social media space within the target demographic. “That worked really well, and created huge awareness and demand, seeing stock sellout rapidly,” she says.

However, the speed of change within the tech world and the evolution of algorithms to change the user experience means this approach isn’t as effective today. Instagram has recently changed the way consumers see posts, from a simple chronological feed, guaranteeing a user would see all posts in the order they appear, to a more nebulous feed based on the user’s individual engagement with those they follow.

Currently worth around $1.5m, Julia Engel’s pastel-tinted “Gal meets glam” feed is brimming with high fashion and has 1.1 million subscribers. She generates revenue using the popular app LIKEtoKNOW.it, which sends followers direct to websites selling the clothes: if they buy, she gets a commission. She has also collaborated with #AmExPlatinum in highly stylised posts that convey the perceived luxury lifestyle promoted by the financial services brand. Each one carries a carefully worded caption and the #ad tag, defining the post as a piece of paid-for advertising. This boundary between independent editorial posts and those that have been paid for in some way is one that is blurred in this new era of social media marketing.

“We have no issue with social influencers working with brands, as long as consumers aren’t misled,” says Guy Parker, chief executive of the Advertising Standards Authority, which is working with the Federal Trade Commission in the US and the newly formed International Council of Advertising Self-Regulation to develop some kind of oversight of influencer marketing. “We define advertising as a tweet, vlog, blog or Instagram post where the influencer has been paid and there has been some control over the content. We therefore expect the post to have #ad on it in a prominent position, not buried in 30 other hashtags, but in the first three lines of the caption, so it isn’t hidden to followers. It’s not fair to consumers to expect them to play detective and deduce whether something is an ad or not.

“Many millennials believe this isn’t necessary as they claim to be able to see whether content is ‘sponsored’, but we believe it is imperative to protect consumers who aren’t that savvy, and ensure they know.”

Callum McCahon, strategy director at the social media agency Born Social, says the industry needs to be self-regulating, and that Instagram must take some responsibility for protecting consumers using their platform. “Users scroll through feeds fast and are trained to skip past hashtags. I believe Instagram needs to have its own mandatory labelling system for a ‘paid-for’ post, which Facebook – which owns Instagram – has launched recently as branded content.”

There is no doubt that a generation of style-conscious entrepreneurs are making a good living – in some cases a fortune – by building their own personal brands online with fan bases to rival many established global businesses. The challenge will be for newcomers to join a crowded market, and for those with a substantial following to keep them loyal.

“The reason a brand is using an influencer is the trusting relationship they have with their followers,” says McCahon. “When it’s done properly it is a very effective method of building a brand and selling product.”

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beforeichangemymind · 8 years ago

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“The Jesus Christ Superstar Movie Watching LSD Trip” or “The Judges of the Fate of Andrew Lloyd Webber” (2/2)

The movie fades away to the cross in front of the sun, because Norman Jewison always captures the skies in such a form that always matches the mood, the feeling. Then Zack says “Okay, let’s watch the 2014 UK Arena Tour.” (For some reason we kept calling it 2014, even though it’s 2012.) And I was not excited. Because it’s so bad...

If you’re reading this, you’re probably pissed at me for saying that. My high school drama teacher gave it to me for Christmas, and I thought it was cool af when I first saw it. Saw... Not listened to... Now, don’t get me wrong. There were things I thought were really cool about it, but after I tripped and watched it, I became disgusted with it.

We put it in, even though we all think it’s cringe af. It opens with the news reporters on the big ass TV over the stairs/stage, then the overture starts playing. They start showing Anonymous and stuff and we were already “Ewwwww!” And then Simon comes in and throws a Molotov cocktail, and Zack, Ethan, and I bust out laughing. Simon with his stupid trendy Pidgeot hair.

It’s modernize, but I can’t relate to it, because Jesus, the disciples, and the multitude were all supposed to be dressed up like how people my age dress, but nobody does, except for rich ass pussy kids that live in Brooklyn.

Then Tim Minchin starts singing... Dear God. Talk about autotune. Now, I know he was against the autotune, and I know that Minchin is talented. I’ve heard his own music. But come on, he didn’t have the voice for such a part in a rock opera. Don’t tell me “Oh well it sounds like today” because it doesn’t. It’s all overproduced and overamplified with some shitty electronic beats that go over it sometimes.

And this entire time, everything looks so robotic, like the entire show was all done with codes and math algorithms, because, even if you don’t wanna hear it, LSD makes you see the truth and speak the truth of everything. The blocking looked like it was done by a computer. We know for a fact that the singing was done by computers.

The Temple was awful, gross. I don’t say that from a religious perspective, cause I don’t believe in any of that. What was so great about the ‘73 film was that it suggested sexuality without going overboard. It gave us a little hint of lust in the Temple, which was controversial for its time, but it was done with taste. In the 2012 Mariah Carey Fuck-Up Watered-Down “Rock” Arena Sellout Tour, you’ve got the entire ensemble dry-humping each other like it’s a mass orgy while such an amazing rock/metalish guitar riff is being deluded by these terrible electro dance beats.

There were a couple of parts that seemed really off. Like, the actors didn’t know who their characters are (Not talking about Minchin. He had a great character.). In The Argument during the Last Supper, Jesus FUCKING SHOVES Judas onto his back. I can’t believe that they did some stupid ass reality TV show to cast Ben Forster, who can’t sing it right, who can’t act it for shit. Instead of hitting a high ass rock note, he just squeals in falsetto autotune. Now being a theatre major, I shouldn’t have to say I have no problem with gay people, and I don’t know if Forster is gay or not, but you know how in high school, there are a lot of gay guys who will do theatre but can’t act like any other character except for their flamboyant selves? That’s what I got from Ben Forster.

Another part that was off to us was in Peter’s Denial when the first lady accuses him of being with Jesus. He grabs her by the throat like he was never taught shit by Christ. “YA GOT THE WRONG MAN LADY!”

We roasted that shit the whole time. And at the end when Jesus dies Zack was like “Good.” Then we get to the bows. There’s no music, just clapping. They all bow, and then Andrew Lloyd Webber steps up there and says some shit like “Thanks to out live rock band. We are live!” I didn’t know Andrew Lloyd Webber has never actually had a live band play his music. Hm. Then, he says some shit that, as Zack said, “just tops it all off.” Webber awkwardly, (paraphrasing) “I’d like to dedicate this performance to someone who was with me during the creation of Superstar. If you’re here tonight, Sara... thank you.”

During the Arena Tour we felt as though we were judging Andrew Lloyd Webber’s eternal fate. We hated the live performance, but we loved the film more than we hated the live performance. I remember accidentally calling him Android Lloyd Webber, and then I went “Holy shit, that’s like a statement. So, even though Webber is a sellout hack now with his reality shows and his halfassed School of Rock, he still created the greatest album ever: Jesus Christ Superstar

While tripping, I created a theory of Tim Minchin, but I’ll touch on that another time.

#jcs #jesus #jesus christ superstar #webber #andrew lloyd webber #lsd #carl anderson #judas iscariot #ted neeley #norman jewison #barry dennen #yvonne elliman #tim minchin #ben forster #1973 #2012 #rock arena

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trendingnewsb · 8 years ago

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Millennial influencers who are the new stars of web advertising

Beauty vloggers and cult celebrities are being courted by luxury brands

One of our top influencers did about $1m last year and the average for those on our books is around $200,000 a year, says the digital entrepreneur from her New York office.

Chiara Ferragni on Instagram. Photograph: Chiara Ferragni/Instagram