The Miner: Issue 1
Hello beautiful people! It's time for your weekly dose of OMG, LOL, and WTF in influencer marketing. I've decided to call this newsletter THE MINER because I'm bringing you gems! 😂
Each week I'll share what I've been reading through three categories: Diamond In The Rough (all about work), Gold Mine (all about money), and Black Lung (all about shaking your head.)
I hope you enjoy this week's edition and don't forget to tell your friends. Hit "reply" with any and all feedback and if you read a good link send it to info@carbonaugust.com. Here we go!
DIAMOND IN THE ROUGH
💎 Fashion Weekly Daily named 50 influencers to watch and Krystal Bick (who was featured in INFLUENCER) made the list! I've booked about 30 of these people and I think this is one of the best roundups I've seen. Study the people named and see what you can learn from them.
💎 Emma Chamberlain and Angela Kinsey are in a new YouTube series created by Target. If you didn't know, I go to Target every Friday with my son so this spoke to me. If you don't follow Karyn Spencer on Linkedin you're missing out. She's the Director of Talent Partnerships and Influence Marketing and that's probably the ONLY job I'd go back to corporate America for.
💎 Squarespace bought Unfold so if you're not using it already you should. They also bought Acuity Scheduling earlier in the year (which I use for personal coaching) and are just a great company to do business with.
💎 If you're looking for a list of great agents here's a short list of power players. I've worked a lot of people named but there are a bunch that are worth adding to your radar for when you're ready for representation.
💎 There's a university in Italy offering a new, three-year program where you can get an influencer degree. You'll be able to take classes like fashion psychology, semiotics and the philosophy of language, TV history, intercultural communication, information technology, etc. and it will cost you about $13,000. While it's nice we're finally going mainstream, ain't nobody got time or money for that. You can take my course, in 100 days, and it's only $799 (or six installments of $150.)
GOLD MINE
💰 I don't think there's a marketer left that doesn't use Canva, but if you don't you 100% need to get on it. It's fabulous, it's free and its founder just scored a $3.2 Billion evaluation. Her name is Melanie Perkins, she's a 32-year-old Australian, and I want to be like her when I grow up.
💰 Everyone's always telling you to diversify your revenue stream, but rarely do people show you how they do it. Tom Kuegler made $10K in one month from five different places and breaks it down by category with some great tips.
💰 This email is sent to you through ConvertKit* which I absolutely love. The Founder, Nathan Barry has a blog and he talks about how he really got it off the ground. This tactic won't work for everyone, but I can't see it failing those who really stick to it.
💰 A bunch of influencers told HuffPo how much they make per post. While I think pricing transparency is greatly needed in our industry, I don't like that two of the people featured seem to have purchased 50% of their followers according to a major analytics platform and two of them should probably charge more and now their rates are out in the open. But it's always good to see what other people are getting paid so there's that.
💰 Squarespace is giving $30,000 to four local NYC entrepreneurs (shout out to Elizabeth Mateo for the link) and Patreon is giving away a $50,000 annual grant for Creators. Good luck ya'll and go get that money!
BLACK LUNG
âš« The Wall Street Journal wrote a trash article on influencer marketing the other day. I could talk about it here, but I already did an entire rant on Instagram. I'll probably never get featured in the WSJ again, but like I told you guys from day 1, I volunteer as tribute.
âš« Sunday Riley is out here writing fake reviews on Sephora.com. I mean, talk about undermining an entire industry. Ugh. Le Sigh. And Wompity womp.
âš« When doing it for the gram goes wrong. Some rando influencer has been banned from Royal Caribbean for life because she was hanging off the side of the boat. You know what, I bet that photo wouldn't even have had high engagement because that's how the algorithm messes with our minds.
That's it for this week's edition of The Miner. Don't forget to tell me your thoughts. And if you're close to Miami, I'll be there next week for my brand building workshop and would love to see you!
*This are affiliate links so if you spend money I make money. But they're all things I actually use and love so feel free to purchase knowing you have my 100% stamp of approval.