Followers or Sales?

Often you hear vanity metrics like “The giveaway gave us 6500 new followers”.

The most important questions are:

1. Did the giveaway increase your sales?
2. How many followers stopped following the page in 1, 3, 6 months?
3. Did you increase your page Engagement Rate in the following month?

Types of Instagram giveaways

Not all giveaways damage Brands profiles.

The bad one: Very generic

The good one: Niche-Centric

The “generic giveaway” it’s bad for your brand!

For example, a Brand with an eCommerce website that sells 400€ shoes.

Imagine before the giveaway the account had 16K followers and getting 400 likes and 20 comments.

Buf after the giveaway, the brand got 40,000 followers!

But, the likes and comments per post got worst.

And the new followers did not boost sales growth in the short, mid and long term.

What these results tell us?

Generic giveaways attract “prize hunters” that don’t care about the business.

The giveaway increased may increase followers, but the engagement dropped. This tells Instagram’s algorithm that the content is not “useful”.

In that case, the posts are seen by fewer people less often and it’s harder to generate engagement and sales.

Summary of Generic Giveaways

• They increase your total number of followers but decrease the percentage of engaged followers
• This results in lower engagement for your posts
• Posts in your account being shown to fewer followers
• Which decreases the average number of likes and comments
• Which, in turn, makes authentic growth even harder

And, worst of all: generic giveaways attract people to your business who are less likely to buy from you. Why invest money in a “sales strategy” that doesn’t generate sales?

Effective Instagram giveaways

Not all Instagram giveaways are the same.

Niche-centric giveaways can attract real customers to your business. 

• Offered to give away something specifically appealing to the audience she wants to attract
• Something that would not appeal to people who aren’t in her target audience

Instagram giveaways

Niche giveaways help grow the total followers and increase engagement at the same time. 

For example, a Kitchen Brand is offering the last entry in a culinary course. The Brand can do form submit giveaways, get emails and then announce to the new email list that they opened 5 more spots for the next 48hours.

This creates urgency and a sense of reward but also generates business.

Generating business is more important. Analyze your Instagram. It’s very rare to get Brands Organic Stories!! Don’t sacrifice your Brands engagements for Swipe Ups.

The post Do Giveaways Damage your Instagram Profile? appeared first on Primetag Blog.

Inditex. What is it? Where did it come from? And why do I need to know about it? Now, if this name doesn’t ring a bell with you, then this should jog your memory. Zara, Pull&Bear, Massimo Dutti, Bershka, Stradivarius, Oysho, Zara Home and Uterqüe. Ding ding ding. 

These brands are making their parent company, Spanish conglomerate Inditex, one of the biggest fashion retailers in the world. In just the first 9 months of 2019 last year, Inditex Group made €19.82 billion in net sales (an increase of 7.5%). And the company had big ambitions for the following year.

Although this is impressive, Inditex, like pretty much all companies on this planet, has had its fair share of hardship this year ever since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic. The global crisis has meant that the retail giant has made losses, for the first time ever in its history. According to ABC, “the textile group had, from February to April, a negative net profit of 409 million euros”. 

This was largely due to the unprecedented drop in sales, as a result of physical stores having to be temporarily closed. This meant that only 965 of their 7,412 Inditex stores were operating in Spain alone. As you can imagine, the parent company and its brands had to step up their marketing game in order to keep customers shopping, especially from their online channels. Cue the influencer marketing quest for unhampered success.

So What is Going on?

• Inditex is killing it in terms of their online presence and transparency with customers
• Stradivarius hosted a super successful live stream with the 25-million-followers- mega-influencer that is Danna Paola
• Oysho took advantage of the new stay-at-home regime and created its unique loungewear collection, accompanied by the viral hashtag #whenimathome
• Unless you have been living under a rock this past year, then you will know about how Zara is consistently one of the most mentioned brands on Instagram in 3 major European countries.

Let’s get Down to Business

In light of the pandemic fashion retailers around the world are having to rethink their plans for the year ahead. Many companies are prioritising marketing and communication over merchandising, and Inditex is no different. The company is focusing on two things right now: its connection with customers and its transparency with them.

This period of disruption and uncertainty means that customers may become disconnected with the companies they shop with. Therefore, it’s crucial now more than ever that companies stay engaged with their customers and get creative in these connections.

On the 23rd of March this year, Stradivarius kicked off their social media marketing efforts by conducting a #musictostayhome live stream. This stream featured famous singer, actress and influencer Danna Paola, from the popular Netflix TV show ELITE. Who – by the way – has a jaw-dropping 25 million Instagram followers. No big deal.

This was a winning umbrella for the company, who has been stuck in a rainstorm of losses this year. But they haven’t stopped there, following soon after, Oysho, another Inditex brand, launched it’s “when I’m at home” collection of loungewear. Accompanied by the hashtag #whenimathome, which already has almost 1000 Instagram posts.

But let’s be real, this was all child’s play. Let’s talk about one of the biggest of Inditex’s brands – Zara. This trendy clothing giant has consistently been one of the most mentioned brands by not one, not two, but three major European country’s influencers on Instagram. 

According to Primetag’s revolutionary leaderboard, Zara was the most, or one of the most, mentioned brands on Instagram in Spain, Portugal and the UK. The brand was mentioned 1256 times by 770 influencers from the UK (in a period of just a few months), 4856 times by 463 influencers from Portugal (in the span of the year 2019) and an impressive 17,305 times by 1382 influencers from Spain (also in the span of the year 2019). And who knows how many more markets they are dominating the ‘mention’ charts of.

Want to see the rest of this leaderboard and others? Check it out here.

The Influencers

Ok, so we have talked about the brands, now what about the influencers? Well, first of all, it’s important to note how big of an audience Inditex brands are capturing. Brands such as Pull & Bear and Bershka have been working with Spanish-speaking celebrities and influencers, from @rosalia.vt (11.7 million followers) to @ester_exposito (23.8 million followers!), and a number of others. 

One of the biggest Inditex influencers is Paula Echevarria (@pau_eche), who is constantly uploading pictures of her outfits in different locations. Whether at home, in a garden, a beach, a pool… she really gets around town. With all of her outfits, there is almost always at least one Inditex brand’s piece. From Bershka and Pull & Bear, to Stradivarius and Zara, she wears them all. And with her legion of 3 million followers, it’s no surprise that these brands are finding shiny diamonds of success through influencers like her.

Ok, so Inditex brands are big in Spain, we get it, but what about elsewhere? Well, we come back to that fashion giant – Zara. Zara has been a huge hit in the UK even during the COVID-19 pandemic. According to Primetag’s leaderboard which takes into account, Instagram mentions by UK influencers from the beginning of this year until now, the brand has been mentioned a huge 1256 times. The brand is particularly popular with UK reality TV stars, like this girl who was on the famous show – Love Island. 

Apparently, gen z like to see half-naked 20-something-year-olds try and find love on a beach somewhere in Spain, who knew. It’s an odd show, but it periodically churns out some of the biggest influencers in the UK.

Transparency

Finally, let’s talk about transparency. All of the Instagram posts aside, Inditex and its brand are staying afloat in this chaotic time by maintaining goodwill and expressing that they share the same concerns as customers. By illustrating that they understand customer’s struggles and demonstrating that they are working on the challenges proposed by the virus, Inditex is taking a clear and firm approach to the pandemic.

Amancio Ortega, the founder of Inditex, has been transparent about the company’s actions during the pandemic. He has announced that the conglomerate will be delivering 300,000 masks per week and will be involved in the production of health-protective equipment to help the first-line workers such as medical workers but also cashiers and police officers, who are still working outside, to help us all be safe inside.

So What’s the Bottom Line?

Well, the future of the retail and the fashion industry is still uncertain. Will the marketing actions be sufficient? And grab a bigger share of the industry? Are retailers going to start a massive discount program on their website when people begin to buy less? Well, we don’t know. But what we do know is that in this unprecedented time influencer marketing is crucial now more than ever if companies want to stay afloat.

Inditex is a prime example of a company that is taking full advantage of this situation to not only step up their online marketing efforts but also cater to new customer’s needs as they go. Listening carefully to where the market is headed and what steps for success need to be taken.

Inditex and its brands are proving that although their company has made the first losses ever in their history, they are determined to bounce back. And online marketing and e-commerce are how they are going to do it.

We’ll be keeping track of Inditex and its brands over the next months, to see what their next big marketing campaign is and what more we can learn from their successes, will you?

The post Who or What is Inditex and Why Should I Care? appeared first on Primetag Blog.

Influencer Marketing Software helps marketings campaigns to reach their target audience. Ensuring the selected influencers reach the target audience is key to success. Doing it manually is not easy, and it becomes harder as you scale!

Campaign Planning and Audience Targeting

For a marketing professional, at the end of the day, the critical success factor lies in the ability to reach the right audience.

This has to be done at the right time, with the right message, and independently from other media types or channels used to communicate – TV, radio, press, digital advertising or influencer marketing.

When using the latter, it’s critical then to have reliable information about audiences, as this impacts campaign planning and operation. It will define the number of influencers, the cost and even the type of content to be published.

Real-Life Examples

Let’s suppose that, as a brand, you are negotiating annual agreements with influencers. Or that you work for an agency that has just received a briefing from a brand. In both cases, how do you make sure that you are selecting the influencers that reach your target audience?

Accessing Audience Insights can be Challenging

If you’ve been working in influencer marketing for quite some time, then you’ll know that it is not always easy to have access to reliable information regarding an influencer’s audiences.

Even when you get access to reports, or other media, featuring this kind of insight, these may change over time and get easily outdated. 

Primetag Influencer Marketing Software has Official Access to Influencers’ Insights

With Primetag, you have access to real data straight from the influencer’s social media accounts, meaning no guesses or assumptions in the data. Primetag has been vetted and approved by all major social media networks and has official access to their APIs. Therefore, we are able to proudly say that we provide authentic information for marketers right off the bat, we ain’t horsing around over here.

How to Access the Audience Insights of an Influencer

The Hard Way

• Talk with a manager and talent agency that will have to request this from the influencer (it takes time).
• Receive a media-kit with static information about the influencer (it gets outdated).
• Request for print-screens with audience insights for one or various social media channels (the data may be manipulated).

The Easy Way

• Ask to connect with influencers using Primetag – simple.
• After the connection is granted, view their media kit and have access to the always up-to-date insights (including audiences) for all their social media channels – so sit back and relax.

How to Target the Right Audience When Using Multiple Influencers

The Hard Way

• Transcribe and compile all the information, including media kits, screenshots and spreadsheets into a single document (yawn ).
• Manually process the data, compare influencers and their audiences in order to get actionable insights (ok now I’m asleep ).

The Easy Way

• Signup into Primetag and search by content the CONTENT EXPLORER (Free Version only with Portugal & Spain) – find the right influencer that communicates what you sell or DISCOVER TikTokers and Instragrammers with smart filters.
• Calculate the Audience Overlap and measure the common audience between two or more profiles. Remember that impacting the same audience = losing money in a reach strategy
• Benchmark your Competitors and Get More Budget internally in case competition are investing more
• Measure Results in Real-Time or With Exportable Presentations

Conclusion

When you buy TV slots for your ads you know exactly who you’re targeting, the same happens with press or digital advertising when using Facebook or Google for instance. Influencer marketing should be no different. Now you have the right tools to target the right audience. So stop wasting time and money, and increase the ROI – the Return on Influence of your influencer marketing campaigns.

Start working the easy way

The post Influencer Marketing Software: are you Reaching the Right Audience? appeared first on Primetag Blog.

The digital ad spend for 2019 is estimated at a staggering 300 billion EUR. That is roughly half of all the ad spend in the World combined.

Google is the largest ad seller in the World, accounting for 93 billion EUR, close to one-third of the entire digital ad spend. Facebook is second, with almost 61 billion EUR. Which means these two internet juggernauts account for almost half of the money spent on online advertising, during 2019.

Google Ads (previously Google Adwords) and Facebook ads are the platforms behind these money-printing businesses.

Google Ads

Launched in October of 2000, it is the quintessential online advertising platform. Its success is entrenched in its premisse: the moment people are searching for something is the perfect timing to show them such products.

Nowadays, thousands of agencies and independent professionals implement Google Ads campaigns. There are tons of tutorials, online courses and other learning materials that help digital marketing practitioners learn and improve. Google did a tremendous grass-roots work developing materials and evangelising companies and decision-makers to the importance and benefits of such campaigns.

Facebook Ads

This highly successful digital advertising platform takes a completely different approach from its counterpart. Ingrained in a plethora of social knowledge of its users, Facebook developed an exceptionally effective algorithm to profile its users. This, in turn, allows Facebook to serve remarkably well targeted ads. 

Facebook mimicked Google’s strategy and developed extensive content to help spread knowledge and train a generation of skilled advertisers into their platform.

Influencer Marketing

The digital revolution that ignited with the internet and with smartphones shifted eyeballs away from traditional media, like print, cinema, radio and tv, towards new media, like the web and social networks. Hence the rise of the two behemoths aforementioned. 

During that process, another social phenomena started to rise. Content creators, also known as influencers, started to build up large audiences. People interested in their content regularly came back to their channels to see what the influencers were saying. These followers avidly devoured the content, whether video, image or text. 

And where eyeballs and attention are, brands soon join. And thus influencers started to collab with brands as channels to disseminate their messages. 

The Influencer Marketing (IM) industry is still in its infancy. Although the numbers are already impressive, industry reports foresee explosive growth ahead. 

Global spending on influencer marketing has skyrocketed in recent years, rising from an estimated $2 billion in 2017 to about $8 billion in 2019. One forecast shows that spending is expected to jump to $15 billion by 2022.

Harvard Business School

The magnitude of brands adding IM to their marketing mix is impressive. Many brands are becoming influencer-centric, some even go as far as becoming Influencer Marketing exclusive. And not just small or boutique brands. Estée Lauder is currently allocating 75% of its marketing budget to influencers.

How to implement digital campaigns?

Implementing ad campaigns in Google and Facebook is quite simple. Both companies created workflows that start with a seminal task: defining the campaign goal. 

Examples of goals are interaction, or conversion.

Each advertising platform uses its own terminology, adapted to the social network itself. You can consult Facebook and Google‘s detailed explanation.

Using goals gives the advantage of focusing the brand on the most important thing, whatever that may be. As opposed to a mindset of “everything is important, let’s create a campaign to generate awareness, consideration and increase sales”. 

Defining the goal also helps the platform to guide you through the campaign creation process, by showing the options available for that specific goal and making educated suggestions.

Google Ads: available campaign types and goals

Facebook Ads: available campaign types and goals

Influencer marketing goals and campaign types

Here is Primetag’s approach to campaign goals on its platform of Influencer Marketing:

Whether you are using Google, Facebook or Primetag, the first step is always to define the campaign goal. Now that we have established that, we should move on to the next step: choosing the right goal for your campaigns.

Influencer Marketing Strategy: Choose the Right Goal for Your Campaigns

The post Implementing Digital Marketing Campaigns: an Introduction to Campaign Goals appeared first on Primetag Blog.

16-year-old environmental activist Greta Thunberg gained international recognition through her campaigns on climate change in 2019. From school strikes to notorious speeches, her palpable influence is well on the way to generating awareness on climate change, particularly amongst the younger audience.

The inevitable question:

Would it have been possible for Greta to amplify her message on such a grand scale without the viral nature of social media? 

Social media has opened up an invaluable meeting point for dialogue on change, giving birth to icons that are currently leading societal transformation using their power of influence. 

With 2020 around the corner, here is a compilation of Instagram activist accounts you should be keeping your eye out for. From LGBTQ+ and feminism to animal rights and climate change advocates.

You may also like: “Cybersecurity: Threats and Opportunities for Businesses and the Government”

Feminist Instagram activist accounts

Under the hashtag #metoo, feminists and their allies have recently found a place on social media where they can come together to fight for equal social, political and economic rights. While the female body is still objectified and the pay gap is a sad reality, here are -some of the- women carving the way to change.

Rupi Kaur

Rupi Kaur is an Indian poet whose recognition increased when she shared her menstrual photos on Instagram. Her objective was to fight social norms which many women suffer from on a daily basis. After Instagram removed this photo Kaur stated, “I will not apologize for not feeding the ego of the misogynist society” to which Instagram restored the image and apologized.

Malala Yousafzai

Malala Yousafzai was shot by the Taliban after giving a speech about girls’ education, however, her resilience and strength shone through when she founded the Malala Fund. After helping many girls that suffer at the hands of poverty, war and discrimination today Malala holds a Nobel Peace Prize for her feminist endeavors.

Janet Mbugua

Janet Mbugua is possibly one of the most influential people of today fighting for gender equality in Kenya. She founded the Inua Dada, which was first established to provide a hygienic life for Kenyan girls. Janet’s main objectives have been to protect the rights of girls and prioritize their education.

LGBTQ+ activist Instagram accounts

Since the Stonewall uprising in 1969, LGBTQ + individuals have been fighting for equal social, political and economic rights. Today’s media assists the LGBTQ + community with its objectives to increase global awareness, especially on matters, such as same-sex marriage.

Laverne Cox

Laverne Cox was the first transgender actress to be nominated for an Emmy Award as well as appearing on the cover of Time magazine. Often known for her role as Sophia in the series Orange Is The New Black, she is always advocating equal rights for LGBTQ+ and transgender individuals. Cox has also received the Claire Skiffington Vanguard Award for her activist credentials.

Zanele Muholi

Zanele Muholi, a South African photographer and visual artist, uses black LGBTQ + individuals as the main focus of her creative work. She photographed more than 200 portraits of South Africa’s lesbian community in her series, Faces and Phases (2006-2011). In 2015, she was shortlisted for the Deutsche Börse Photography Prize. 

Shonda Rhimes

Shonda Rimes, an American TV producer has confronted Hollywood on their representation on the LGBTQ + community. After being asked by a fan on her website why she supports so many LGBTQ + individuals, she replied, ‘’because I think same-sex marriage is the civil rights fight of our era. As long as we are willing to sit by while one person is not free, none of us are free.’’

Animal Rights Instagram activist accounts

The Animal Rights movement has for many years aimed to end the classification of animals as property. From their use in research, food and makeup the increasing awareness has ensured that more and more people are beginning to sympathies with the unjust cruelty imposed on them daily. 

Dr. Jane Goodall

Jane Goodall is famous for her research in the animal kingdom. She has always defended animal rights and through her valuable research, we learned that not only humans but also animals, can make tools for hunting. In addition, she founded the Goodall Institute in 1977 and thus aims to instill a love of animals for the next generation of children.

Genesis Butler

Since 6 years old, Genesis Butler has been an animal rights activist after learning that the milk she drank came from cows. She made a name for herself in a campaign she initiated by inviting Pope Francis to be vegan. At just 11-year-old Genesis won the PETA Youth Activist of the Year award.

Joshua Entis

In 2017 Joshua Entis moved to Canada to become an animal rights activist. Since then he has traveled to 27 countries, given over 120 training workshops and participated in 400+ activism movements. Today, he wants to continue sharing his education with many people and spreading vegan awareness.

Environment advocate on Instagram

With the increasing emission of greenhouse gasses, global warming rates are reaching to their absolute pinnacle. Generally, the exhausting use of plastic, increasing CO2 levels and the imbalance in production and consumption are damaging our planet at a rate never seen before. Now, more than ever, every action counts!

Greta Thunberg

Arguably the most powerful youth activist in the world, Greta Thunberg leads today’s generation in the fight for political and social change when it comes to the climate. Greta was diagnosed with selective mutism and Asperger syndrome at the age of 11 years. The activist, who did not speak much, has now become one of the most effective speakers on climate change.

Kate Nelson

Kate is a plastic fighter who hasn’t used disposable plastic for 10 years. Using her Instagram account @plasticfreemermaid, she posts content showing people how to live a life without the use of plastic. She always keeps her followers informed on current plastic projects and the extreme pollution that continues to harm our oceans and kill our fish. 

Bea Johnson

Bea Johnson has lived a waste-free life with her family since 2008. Today she is the author of the bestseller Zero Waste Home where she inspires people to live a waste-free life. In addition, she uses her social media platforms as a means of increasing further global awareness. Her stance against unnecessary waste has impacted many people across the world who are beginning to follow suit.

Ultimately, the importance of these topics should not go unnoticed in a modern society such as ours today. Whilst we have come a long way in our fight for equality and social change, this has not yet been completely accomplished. It is our responsibility to speak out against the social norms that put detrimental pressure on our lives and freedom. Raising global awareness has never been easier with the rise of social media.

Article edited by Egita Zakaraite.

The post Instagram Activist Accounts to follow in 2020: From LGBTQ+ and Feminism, to Climate Change and Animal rights. appeared first on Primetag Blog.

Whether you’re a marketeer looking to grow your brand or just wondering how to become Instagram famous, here are the good, the bad and the ugly methods for increasing followers on Instagram. 

Influencer Marketing is here to stay. What seemed like a ‘fleeting trend’ has now evolved into a sophisticated technique with its own rules, processes and metrics for evaluation. 

However,  the market is still on a journey to reach its full potential. 

Some Instagram users keep turning to vanity metrics, such as the followers tracker, to justify the relevance of a profile.  Which, to be fair, makes sense: a large count of adherents will certainly bring an Instagram profile the benefit of social approval, a higher status, and, chances are, will lead to bigger payrolls. 

Whether you’re a marketeer looking to grow your brand or just wondering how to become Instagram famous, here are the good, the bad and the ugly methods to increase followers on Instagram. 

From the strategies that will help you attract a large audience that is genuinely interested in your content, to the ones that will transform you into (magic!) a walking ripoff.

Just bear in mind: the number of followers in the counter is the sparkling jacket that you rock at a party. It helps to get people’s attention, but then you have to master conversations that won’t scare your prospects away.

Organic Growth – You are legit!

Organic growth is derived from the influencer’s ‘own efforts’ – meaning that the growth strategy didn’t include any payment to reach a certain audience. 

Today’s social landscape has made it harder than ever to grow the follower counter without having to drip the wallet, particularly for businesses. Nevertheless, there are some key principles that, if taken into account, may guarantee a sweet and smooth boost in your fan base. 

If we were to summarize the key to organic growth in one single word, that would be ‘content’. Being content-centric doesn’t simply mean you should be creating high quality posts, but this is a good place to start from. 

Main strategies for organic growth include producing unique high quality content, paying attention to post frequency and consistency, as well as using trendy hashtags in order to attract new followers.

Other must-do’s for organic growth include engaging with your current and potential audience and producing content outside of Instagram that generates traffic to your account. Stay tuned for the 6 steps to Instagram organic growth.

Paid Growth – Tell me more…

Paid growth on Instagram refers to an account owner paying to boost its follower base – both through activities implemented inside or outside the platform. 

A legit paid growth strategy must never include fake followers.

The most recurring method for paid growth is to promote content and/or accounts using the Instagram Promotion feature. This will bring you the possibility of reaching a specific audience outside of your current follower base. Paid posts are often a technique used to amplify the reach of content that has already had proven organic success.

Hosting giveaways is another recurring paid growth activity. The term ‘paid’ is relative in such cases, since often the object of the raffle has been gifted by a brand to an influencer. In a classic giveaway, users are asked to tag friends and follow an account, leading to a peak in interaction and following. 

The key to success with this strategy is paying special attention to the prize, as this will determine the interest of the new audience. However, this kind of growth is not always easy to maintain. That is, a lot of people follow an account because of the giveaway, but after a few days they realize that the content is not interesting and, therefore, unfollow. It is important to implement a strategy of “came for the prize, stayed for the contents”. 

The key to success with this strategy is paying special attention to the prize, as this will determine the interest of the new audience.

Anderson from @196sonhos -who is currently pursuing the Guinness World Record of ‘Youngest person to travel to every country on earth’- used a giveaway inside his growth strategy. He hosted an Iphone giveaway as a growth booster, attracting 6000 new followers. Learn more about his growth strategy as a travel influencer.

Other less common techniques that involve opening the wallet to boost Instagram followers are: paying influencers with similar target audiences for shoutouts on their profiles or paid press coverage. Some influencers may seek professional consultancy by hiring a growth agency.

But wait: organic growth and paid growth are not an impossible match. They are two different strategies that – if carefully combined – can lead to an engaged follower base in a faster and more efficient manner. Paid growth is sometimes the only alternative due to the limitations for organic growth that the current Instagram algorithm has.

Social Climbing – We are all a big connected family

Social Climbing on instagram refers to creating partnerships with other influencers, or entities, to scale both your influence and audience. 

These partnerships lead to an organic follower exchange, since they are opening a window of consideration to their audiences. Social climbing on instagram can also affect the position of an influencer or brand. Reputation is contagious, and social climbing lays on this principle of relational marketing. 

This phenomenon may happen through buying shoutouts from influencers in the same industry, but it can also come naturally, by belonging to an influential circle – see Chiara’s squad – or through genuine synergies.

When choosing a climbing alley, there is a bliss point to be found:

Choose someone who has a different audience to yours -so that there is territory to be gained-, yet similar interests.

Hypothetically speaking, Tara, an american beauty guru who wants to work with UK brands, may want to collaborate with well-known UK makeup artists, Josh. This will ultimately help her gain exposure to beauty enthusiasts across Britain. 

Follow for Follow – Smells funny

Also known as ‘F4F’, the follow for follow strategy consists of following an account in hopes of being followed back.  

Although there’s a high chance of attracting legitimate accounts with this technique, there is little proof that the audience acquired through this process will be highly engaged. 

‘F4F’ is a very exploitable method since different solutions have appeared to automate this process, such as bots. These types of activities are likely to cost the user a shadow banning from Instagram.

The concept ‘Follow for Follow’ has now evolved to be ‘Follow Unfollow’, since most of the followed accounts return to their original state. The reason being that Instagram users seek to maintain a reasonable ratio between ‘Followers’ and ‘Following’.

Buying Followers – Exit the building

There are many websites where any Instagram user can pay and see their Instagram grow, both in followers or interactions. 

Common services will just unload the wanted amount of followers all at once into your account while others, more sophisticated ones, will inject followers in batches to arouse less suspicion.

Most of the fake followers are bots that try to impersonate real users through automated behavior, such as regular publications, crafted bios, and other features that make them look like real accounts. 

Instagram has tried to address the fake followers issue time and time again, yet fake accounts make up a significant amount of Instagram’s total population.

We support the fair game

In an unpredictable social media sphere that is dominated by algorithms, users are becoming increasingly more creative in their efforts to optimize their digital opportunities. As influencer marketing professionals, Primetag supports the fair game and develops technology for real influencers, helping them by backing their work with real data.

The post Increasing followers on Instagram — The Good, The Bad and The Ugly appeared first on Primetag Blog.

Primetag has officially landed in Spain! To celebrate the occasion, several representatives of the influence marketing industry joined us to discuss the steps needed towards the professionalization of the industry.

One of the protagonists during our launch event was Andre Freire de Andrade, CEO of Dentsu Aegis Network. As the Keynote Speaker, he supported our #realfollowers movement with numbers: “Over the last year, 37 million euros have been invested in influence marketing in Spain, and by 2019 this number is expected to reach 100 million”. According to the CEO of the biggest media agency in the territory, the constant growth of influence marketing has brought an urgent need for professionalization in the market.

Leading Spanish talent agencies also joined us in the charming neighborhood of Gràcia. At the event, Luis de Val, CEO & Founder of YouPlanet, presented his collaboration with Primetag and showcased his first campaign with our technology. Big names such as Auronplay, with 16.9 million Youtube subscribers, are participating in the campaigns that YouPlanet is managing with our technology. “Primetag has allowed us to optimize processes and improve in the eyes of brands,” Luis explained to the public.

The CEO and cofounder of Primetag, Manuel Albuquerque, shared his personal story and why he believes in this industry. “Influence marketing helps brands humanize their message. Audiences relate much more with familiar faces they know and follow, like influencers”.

After, Patricia Onofre, our User Success Manager, showed the importance of having access to real data.  “There are digital providers that estimate influencers insights and put this information out there”, Patricia said. This lack of transparency affects every player within the influence marketing sector, “brands are making decisions based on estimated data, not real facts, and influencers are being evaluated based on information that is not correct”. 

As the main course, we gathered five Spanish influence marketing experts. The panel was moderated by Franc Carreras, professor at ESADE and creator of the Forbes-backed podcast, Masterminds.

In the panel discussion, Sergi Olba, responsible for influence marketing and management of Social Networks at El Corte Inglés, discussed the importance of measuring the results of influence campaigns.

Inés Arroyo, influencer and creative director of fashion brand Laagam, brought to the conversation the professionalization of the influencers. She commented that many influencers are going beyond digital, taking advantage of their audiences to create their own businesses, as she did with Laagam.

Daniela Rodríguez, CEO of Soy Olivia, also joined the table. She is the business mind behind the multi-million audiences of María Pombo and Grace Villarreal. Without her, the Spanish influencer panorama wouldn’t be the way we know it today.

Regarding the selection of the right influencer, she told us that what she values the ​​most when choosing to represent an influencer is “first, their loyalty to the content they create, their authenticity, and second, their engagement, the level of interaction the audience has with them.”

Carlos Vidal has implemented hundreds of campaigns as influence marketing manager of Equipo Singular, and shared his experience with the audience.

Among the event attendees were many well-known content creators specialized in different industries and platforms. Such as, Rafa Antonín, worldwide Instagrammer and Chef (358k followers), Barcelona based and beloved Fashion Instagrammer Ariadna Tapia (190k followers), and YouPlanet’s wildly successful Alex Gilbert (275k subscribers).

When the sun was about to set, the presentations transitioned into a cocktail party with the breathtaking views of Hotel Gerard rooftop. High-end content creators, brands, agencies, and agents had the opportunity to get to know each other better. The networking followed the rhythm, of course, of DJ and influencer Alex Vives, paired with wines from Viñedos Singulares (#MomentosSingulares).

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After our successful Spain launch event in Barcelona, Primetag once again brought together leaders and experts to provide valuable insight and discuss the status of influencer marketing for Spain in 2019 and beyond. 

Primetag, along with experts from CARAT, YouPlanet and more, hosted our highly anticipated #RealFollowers event in Madrid at ESPACIO CÓMO. Brands, agencies, agents and influencers networked and engaged with the industry’s leading marketing experts. Hosted by ESADE’s professor Franc Carreras, it was a full afternoon of learning, insights and innovations. Find below a recap of the key take-aways from the event.

#RealFollowers kicked off with keynote speaker Carlos Ramalho, Managing Director of CARAT, who spoke on milestones, challenges, and key numbers for the influencer marketing business in Spain. He announced that the expected total investment in Influencer Marketing for 2019 would reach 100M € (three times more than 2018). Also, in 2018, a total of 37M € were invested in influencer marketing. The expected total investment in Influencer Marketing for 2019 would reach 100M € .

The expected total investment in Influencer Marketing for 2019 would reach 100M € ”

Carlos Ramalho, Managing Director of CARAT.

He stated: “Today, Influencers in Spain are showing a level of professionalism never seen before. They have out-grown themselves and have become far more sophisticated in their work”. Among the main challenges, Ramalho mentioned the need for a data-backed tool to better monitor, evaluate, and audit influencers as a way to avoid fraud and overpricing as well as to promote transparency. 

While Ramalho focused on the “why”, our other speakers illustrated the “how.” Our main stage presentations covered topics such as the professionalization of influencer marketing, influencer pricing, brand collaborations and activations, influencer auditing, and campaign launches with speakers from You Planet, Soy Olivia, Agatha Paris, StoryLab and MultiOpticas. 

Toni Mostazo, Business Director at YouPlanet, also provided us with several examples on the power of brand collaborations as well as the current level of professionalism shown by Spanish influencers. Take a look at @hiclavero’s collab with Volvo, @soylogang’s collab with Samsung, and of course, Spain’s famous football fanatic and influencer, @Xdelantero09X (2M+ Youtube subscribers), and his journey from Youtuber to content creator for several brands. 

We heard about the growth journey of these three influencers by the hand of YouPlanet, the leading Youtube agency in Spain. The conversation went from small collaborations to sophisticated worldwide campaigns with set deadlines, events, launches, and more. Toni also reminded us of the growing need to have a platform to monitor and evaluate these collaborations accurately based on real numbers. 

Many brands are making decisions based on estimated numbers, not real ones, and the influencers, consequently, are being wrongly evaluated“. 

Manuel Albuquerque, CEO and Co founder of Primetag

Next, Primetag’s CEO, Manuel Albuquerque, and Head of Business Development, Patricia Onofre, spoke about how to obtain and monitor the real ROI on influencer marketing. Albuquerque mentioned the lack of transparency in this growing business: “Today we have data providers who estimate influencer metrics and then publish them, to monetize them at the expense of brands. So many brands are making decisions based on estimated numbers, not real ones, and the influencers, consequently, are being wrongly evaluated“. 

Then Onofre provided us with Primetag’s solution to this problem: “What makes us unique? We are a platform that focuses on the evaluation, measurement, and optimization backed by real data. Based on real content and account insights. Unlike others which use estimation“. 

After networking over a coffee break, Jone Conde, Primetag’s PR & Media specialist, introduced the 2020 Influencer Marketing Leaderboard. This free social media marketing tool provides access to the rankings of both influencers and brands nationwide. Soon after, our guests witnessed two dynamic panels. One focused on improving influencer collaborations, scaling profitably, driving conversions, and the other on influencer and campaign evaluation and measurement. 

First, we heard from the collaboration between Daniela Rodríguez of Soy Olivia and Marta de Castro, Director of Agatha Paris. A partnership that resulted in the multi-million audiences of María Pombo and Grace Villarreal. Rodriguez gave the audience a taste on how she approaches collaborations: 

The industry has a tendency to value the work of celebrities but undervalue the work of influencers. They are professionals who work hard and have huge potential for advertising campaigns. For Influencers, it’s not just about money; it is about a long-term relationship and investment” 

Daniela Rodríguez, Co-Founder of Soy Olivia

Our second panel welcomed back Toni Moztazo and @Xdelantero09X together with José Félix Arranz, Country Manager for StoryLab and Aurora Iglesias, Influencer Coordinator for MultiOpticas. Both the influencer and the experts shared their experiences and decision-making process when choosing collaborations. Arranz highlighted the impact of Primetag on his work with influencers: “Working with Primetag, we now realize the impact of relevant and real data and how it’s taking this market to another level. i.e., the power of follower segmentation and overlap“. 

WHAT’S NEXT 

Both of our #RealFollowers events were a success, with experts, agencies, brands, and influencers all eager to learn from each other and educate one another. Of course, these two events were just a taste of what you’ll be able to expect from Primetag and the #RealFollowers movement in 2020. Get ready to bring transparency and authenticity to the hearts of brands and the fingertips of users all around the world through data-backed influencer marketing. 

Do you want to know our secret? What makes us real influencers, with real impact and genuine power? 

Real followers follow us. 

Find below our previous blog posts that provide an insight into the most trending topics within social media and influncer marketing.

#RealFollowers event in Barcelona: influence marketing leaders join Primetag in Spain 

Instagram is Hiding Likes. Don’t Panic! 

Increasing followers on Instagram — The Good, The Bad and The Ugly 

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Buying followers on Instagram isn’t exactly fresh news but this phenomena has been disregarded as something of lesser importance. The New York Times was the first major news outlet to cover it in depth in a January 2018 article: The Follower Factory

The Times reviewed business and court records showing that Devumi has more than 200,000 customers, including reality television stars, professional athletes, comedians, TED speakers, pastors and models. In most cases, the records show, they purchased their own followers. In others, their employees, agents, public relations companies, family members or friends did the buying.

The New York Times

A year later New York’s attorney general announced a settlement with Devumi, the company that sold hundreds of millions of fake followers on various social media platforms.

This was the first highly publicized case of a company prosecuted for providing this type of service. Still the amount paid in the settlement, $50,000, was relatively small when compared with the revenue generated by Devumi’s 200,000 customers over the years.

A crash course on buying followers on Instagram

It’s quite simple actually, there are dozens of fake followers, fake likes and “fake whatever” providers. You choose the service you want, you pay and later on you’ll see, for instance, your Instagram account growing in followers. Most services will just unload a truck of them all at once into your account while others, more sophisticated ones, will inject followers by batches to arouse less suspicion.

But wait! It’s also possible to buy fake followers for someone else’s account – or – you can have bots following your account (without paying for them) because that makes bot accounts seem more legit. So, not quite simple actually.

Taking it to an extreme

Buying followers on Instagram is a painful but quite common thing. There are people who buy a few to swell the account a little, you can buy twenty thousand, ten thousand, five thousand, something that doesn’t arouse much suspicion.”

Auron Play, Spanish Youtuber

In last May Auron Play, a very popular Spanish Youtuber with over 2 billion views on his channel, published a video titled La Mujer Del Infierno (“The Woman from Hell”).

In his video he slashes Zaida Ward, an aspiring singer, not just for her lack of talent, cringy music videos or inability to dance but also for her obviously inflated 3.6 million followers Instagram account.

This young lady, with three point six million followers, only one hundred are human beings. If we take a look at any photo we see that it has hundreds of thousands of likes, it’s very good, isn’t it? It fits a lot. If we start looking at who has given a “like” to these photos, if we look at the list of people who have liked it, we see that it is full of accounts from Saudi Arabia with only one follower, that is, a ton of bots.

Auron Play, Spanish Youtuber

Auron proceeds to fundament his findings about the fake following by comparing her Instagram posts performance with the number of times Zaida’s music was played on Spotify. The numbers don’t match. He also uncovers some posts where, he claims, the singer’s forgot to buy likes because they drop from an average of 100,000 likes to about 100.

If we look further at her Instagram’s feed we find a video and here it seems that, well, she had an oversight, she forgot to buy likes. One hundred and nineteen “likes”, that is, from one photo to another you have gone from having a hundred thousand to having a hundred likes. Congratulations!

Auron Play, Spanish Youtuber

Double checking Zaida Ward Instagram account

We’ve analysed Zaida’s account using Primetag proprietary machine learning algorithms with data gathered and processed between the 11th and 25th of June, 2019.

From the total only 11.7% were flagged as regular Instagram users, still, a number above than the mere “one hundred human beings” as stated by Auron Play. The remaining followers are businesses (0.6%) and influencers (0.4%).

Buying followers on Instagram and the relevance of poor quality content

There’s a direct correlation between poor quality content production and the fake followers phenomena. Likes, comments and followers act as a social proof and validate that someone has an important message to share with the world. Without them an account seems irrelevant. Social media users as well as brands and marketers should make an effort to look beyond those metrics and evaluate if the content is authentic and relevant, even if it seems to be enjoyed by a lot of people.

“Never in my life I had seen someone buying three million bots”

Auron Plays’ statement is related with an extreme case that describes how this underground industry works. It has all the ingredients – an aspiring performer, an immense drive towards recognition and social validation through big numbers on social media. In an era of fake news and alternative truths the 3.6 million followers account becomes real, it mimics not only the reality that Zaida’s want to see but also the reality that many of us believe when using social media networks.

Tips and techniques to spot accounts with fake activity

Now that we had enough moaning, whining and philosophical drifts here’s a list of things that you should pay attention to when looking at social media accounts.

Hope you find these tips useful to uncover an account that has resorted to buying followers on Instagram. If you know any other cases like Zaida Ward feel free to share them with me, you can find my contact below.

Primetag is striving to shape a sustainable industry

Primetag is striving to shape a professional and sustainable industry where influencers can build not only an authentic and honest relationship with their followers but also collaborate in a professional way with brands and other partners.

We are turning this vision into action. Last June Primetag promoted the #realfollowers event in Barcelona where several representatives of the influence marketing industry joined us to discuss the steps needed towards the professionalization of the industry.

The post Buying 3 Million Followers on Instagram: How Far is Too Far? appeared first on Primetag Blog.

Does the value of professional athletes go beyond their athletic talent? FC Barcelona sees Neymar Jr as a strategic signing.

In today’s digital era, people in the spotlight are involved in much more than just one outlet for exposure and success. For example, professional athletes are no longer known solely for their athletic talent. Athletes are becoming immensely valuable to teams, brands, and agencies due to the rapid rise of social media. Athletes, such as Neymar Jr, are now social media influencers and have created a massive following on their platforms.

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A post shared by 3n310ta neymarjr (@neymarjr) on Jun 5, 2019 at 2:06pm PDT

On July 1, 2019, MARCA, Spanish national daily sports newspaper, released an article about Neymar’s potential signing with Barça with social media data collected by Primetag.

When asked about Neymar’s dual-value to a team through social media and athleticism, CEO and Co-Founder Manuel Albuquerque said:

Neymar’s profile on instagram would be an amplifier for the Barça brand, allowing it to reach millions of people globally. Surpassing the national territory, through the player’s networks, the club manages to convey its own messages and boost its business.

Manuel Albuquerque, Primetag CEO and Co-Founder

The Brazilian has brand deals and media advertising with over 30 companies, Nike being the most prevalent across his Instagram account.  Neymar has 121 million followers and over six million people engaging with his posts. This makes him even more valuable in the influencing and athletic world because he has a variety of audiences and a large outlet for visibility. Bottom line, the Brazilian adds more than just his magical athletic skills. He takes the Barcelona brand to another level, making his signing a strategic move.

Albuquerque gave more input on this [supposedly] ‘strategic signing’. He explained, “With the potential trade of Neymar, Barça would expect not only sports value but a return from the media and economic point of view: T-shirt sales, tickets for matches, transmission rights, and sponsors’ fees. These are some of the sources of income that are affected when a popular athlete is hired, and social phenomena like him are used to catapult online sales.”

His power goes beyond his offensive performance. Neymar Jr. is a strategic signing. Other brands and professional teams should take notes from Barça and Neymar’s potential deal if they want to stay competitive in an ever-evolving social media world. The power behind Influencer Marketing continues to grow with great success and continuous transformation.

MARCA sport newspaper

If you’re interested in knowing more about the importance of social media in professional’s athletes career, you can download Primetag’s 2018 World Cup Social Influence Report. You can also read Forbes take on the subject.

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