Short version: getting someone else to tell your story for you; incentivized word of mouth. Here's a few of the companies in the space directly and indirectly.
As someone in the influencer marketing space (100 players when I started, over 400 now), I view crowded spaces a bit differently. It implies, to me, a validation of consumer demand -- thus, those that can properly segment their offering to satisfy specific demands and execute more efficiently can pick up the available dollars.
Keep in mind that this is more of a monopolistic move than a quality move; Amazon was already scrubbing for a while.
1. Amazon Vine reviews are still live and will still go live -- there's no more editorial quality to them than some of the other services.
2. This policy doesn't impact book reviews, where fake reviews, incentivized reviews, and review trading is most rampant.
3. The easiest way around the policy will be for vendors to get shadier and not offer upfront discounting. Instead, you'll see non-disclosed reviews where the reviewer is compensated for the product costs afterwards. If done properly, that'd be hard to catch.
As disclosure, I'm CEO of Intellifluence, which is essentially a marketplace for reviews (one supported platform of which is Amazon). We emphasize honest reviews and have been trying to fight some of the shadier players, but this policy move isn't going to fix things...it just is a move to push Amazon's own program.
This is good, but it would still be better if Bloomberg broke out top 1%, top 0.1% and then top 0.01% -- the graphing then makes it that much more obvious.
Recruiters and sales people (guilty!) tend to network exceptionally well, which means by connecting with them, you'd just significantly expanded your 2nd level connections within your own industry.
The thing I am most excited about as a 38 year old is the prospect that I won't lose my independence in my golden years like I am now watching my parents generation undergo.
Self-driving cars and more efficient public transportation will surely add life to backend of gen Xers lives.
Accounting for the above, it is my hope that someone in Elon's camp is reaching out and explaining the benefits to AARP -- they'd be a powerful ally to ensure the progress isn't snuffed out.
I love you for saying price is too low. I agree that it is too low for our final form, but for a MVP?
Currently we have ~3800 influencers, which are a mix of Instagrammers, Youtubers, LinkedIn users, Facebookers, Twitter-heads and good old fashioned bloggers.
The reason I decided to do this startup is because I was getting paid $250k/yr as a stealth CMO and we were going heavy into influencer marketing -- but the game was somewhat rigged. Agencies only seemed to care about celebrity influence and ignored the power of peer influence, so my business partner and I delved in and determined that by focusing on building out a potential peer influence database we could actually create something that small businesses could easily use.
In terms of "right" influencers, that's a huge discussion that I could chat with you about for days; we do have the ability to filter on KW and network, but we want to do so much more, like use a bit of machine learning over time to determine the influencer's ability to drive traffic/conversions, etc.
Ping me when you launch; I'm eager to see. Getting a few million Instagram users and a few million Twitter users (and their emails) is not nontrivial I realize, so you've clearly put some time into it.
intellifluence.com -- mine 6ixagency.com acorninfluence.com adly.com adretweet.com amazingdealsgroup.com amazingdealsnreviewsclub.com amazingreviewsclub.com amazonreviewernetwork.com ambassadher.com amzrc.com amzreviewtrader.com apexdrop.com audigent.com bazaarvoice.com beafreelanceblogger.com beatly.com behance.net bestsocialpr.com bigfra.me blanket.media blogacious.com blogdash.com bloggerbridge.com bloglovin.com blogmint.com blogprwire.com boostinsider.com brandbacker.com brandnew.io brandsnob.co buzzandgo.com buzzerati.com buzzmg.com buzzoole.com buzzstream.com bzzagent.com cartcam.com channelfactory.com channelpages.com cision.com/us/communication-cloud/ clearvoice.com/marketplace/ clevergirlscollective.com contentblvd.com contently.com contentmarketer.io contentmarketingstack.co contidio.com cooperatize.com copromote.com crowdcontent.com crowdly.com crowdtap.com cycle.media dealgogogo.com DealsForReviews.com delmondo.co distroscale.com dollardealreviews.com dollarreviewclub.com dotwriter.com dynamicsignal.com eleve.co elitedealclub.com evolvesinc.com exomatch.com exonia.net experticity.com exposely.com extrahyperactivenetwork.com famebit.com fanbytes.co.uk fango.me fanwise.com fashionprgirl.com fbamarkets.com fieldnation.com findyourinfluence.com flippersmack.com fluvip.com fromote.com fullbottle.co fullscreenmedia.co/creators galoremag.com getader.com getambassador.com getevangelized.com getlittlebird.com getreviewed.org getshout.io getswayd.com getwordperks.com giveawayservice.com gnackapp.com go.kred (empire.kred is the trading platform) go.nuvi.com grapevinelogic.com grinapps.com grouphigh.com gushcloud.com hashtagpaid.com helium.com hellosociety.com hirefluence.com hivency.com honestfew.com Hypetap.com hyprbrands.com ifluenz.com imagency.com Insense.pro influence.co influenceandco.com influencepeople.com influencer50.com influencerdb.net influencerconnect.com influencers.club influencersatwork.com influencersg.com influencive.com influenster.com influential.co influgram.com influicity.com inhouse.team innetwork.net insightpool.com instabrand.com iplus.co itrudeals.com izea.com jamballa.com juliusworks.com klear.com klout.com kontentcart.com kudobuzz.com lightningpages.com linkfromblog.com linqia.com littlesway.com loot-app.com markerly.com market.nmrkt.com marketplace.matadoru.com mavensocial.com mavrck.co media-part.com mediakix.com misfits.social musefind.com naritiv.com neoreach.com newlinenoosh.com newscred.com ngage.social Niche.co Nichify.com octoly.com onalytica.com onmogul.com outreachify.com paidpertweet.com patreon.com paypercontent.net peg.co phlanx.com pinchme.com pixability.com pond5.com popularpays.com powerreviews.com Preen.Me pro.iconosquare.com promoto.co productpilots.com producttestinggroup.com publicfast.com rainmakercollective.com reach-labs.com reachbird.io readypulse.com reelio.com revfluence.com reviewclub.io reviewkick.com reviews4success.com rewardstyle.com rightrelevance.com sampler.io scripted.com scrunch.com seedingup.com select.co shespeaksinc.com sideqik.com smallgirlspr.com smartviral.com snagshout.com Snapfluence.com Social-Friendzy.com sociabuzz.com socialix.com socialoholic.com smiley.socialmedialink.com socialrank.com socialyte.co sparkinfluence.net speakr.com splashscore.com sponsokit.com sponsoredmentions.com sponsoredsocial.com sponsoredtweets.com sprinklr.com stargazer.co studio71.com stylecoalition.com swarmcontent.com swayyem.com swaygroup.com swayops.com tailify.com takumi.com tapinfluence.com terakeet.com terareach.com theamplify.com thecirqle.com theexposure.co themidgame.com themobilemedialab.com thepivotpeople.com theshelf.com thinkrenegade.com thuzio.com tid.al tlistinc.com tomoson.com toprankmarketing.com topreviewzone.com totems.co tourn.co traackr.com trendrz.com Tribegroup.co triberr.com triond.com tru-signal.com tubularlabs.com tvinkle.com tweetangels.com uberzonclub.com unitedbloggers.no unityinfluence.com upfluence.com uptweet.com vaynermedia.com vazoola.com velocenetwork.com vidfall.com vidrocket.com vipon.com viralking.co viralnation.com vity.co vizified.com voltu.com webfluential.com webrand.com weconnectsocial.com weinfluence.co whalar.com whatsblog.com wibber.io withfluence.com workew.com writeraccess.com xberts.com yotpo.com youtube.com/yt/creators/ zerys.com zoomph.com zuberance.com