Real followers, fake followers, and real influence: fallout from the Devumi exposé

Influencers with millions of followers can command a lot of attention, and with that attention they can bring in a lot of media dollars. So when an article appears like the New York Times’ exposé article on the fake follower economy, it’s bound to shake things up. So is influencer marketing doomed? What’s really going on […]

Checkmate – Facebook’s influencer marketing gambit

Mark Zuckerberg made big news last week when he announced that Facebook is changing the way its algorithm works. Zuckerberg positioned this as a move aimed at maximizing user well-being. There may be research to back that up. But it’s also a canny move that will give Facebook a way to capture an ever-bigger slice of the […]

Influencer Marketing: Facebook is Staking its Claim

For a long time I’ve been wondering when Facebook would reach out and claim a slice of the huge and juicy influencer marketing money pie. With influencer marketing budgets growing at an astonishing rate year-on-year, it seemed like it was only a matter of time before the biggest social media platform in the world tried to take a cut. […]

Pushing Product, Hurting the Brand? Influencer Marketing’s Surprising Side-Effects

The evidence shows that influencer marketing campaigns can increase discussion around a specific product. But the social web is a complex place, and in complex systems effects propagate in complex ways. Some fascinating research from Inyoung Chae, Andrew Stephen et al. shows that a brand executing product-focused influencer marketing campaigns might expect some side-effects – […]

Letter to my MP: Stand Up for Democracy and the Rule of Law

This is the text of a letter I sent this morning to my Member of Parliament in London: UPDATE: Victoria Borwick, my MP, answered my letter within a week. I’ll append her response after my text. Victoria Borwick MP House of Commons London SW1A 0AA Dear Ms Borwick, I am one of your constituents, […]

Individual influence and the collapse of trust

This year we’ve seen a huge decline in trust across the globe. Trust in government, in business, in NGOs and in the media has dropped to some of the lowest levels seen in 17 years, as reported in the Edelman Trust Barometer survey of 33,000 respondents across the globe. What lessons can communicators draw from […]

A Manifesto of Openness

For a moment, all has been quiet on the beach of history. The last wave has receded, and with it the blood has almost drained, hissing, into the dark foaming sea; the blood of Ypres and of Gallipoli, the blood of Moscow and Stalingrad, the blood of Normandy and Berlin, the blood of Iwo […]

Philip Trippenbach

Communications strategy in the age of intelligent machines

Author: trippenbach