The Miner: Issue 4

Hello beautiful people! It's time for your weekly dose of OMG, LOL, and WTF in influencer marketing.

I hope you all had a lovely Thanksgiving. I am deep into plans for my first course that launches in less than a month on January 1st. If you want 2020 to be your year, you NEED to sign up for the Influencer Business Plan. It's going to be amazing plus you'll get a complimentary 30-minute personal coaching session with yours truly.

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

💎 If you ever need statistics to back up your claims on influencer marketing, Andrew Kamphey of Influence Weekly put together the best guide I've ever seen.

💎 You all know you need to post more video on Instagram but it's SUPER time consuming. You could stress or you could use these apps to make animated posts. I use Kapwing for my memes which isn't listed here, but it's great!

💎 Many brands, especially those targeting Gen Z, are jumping on the meme bandwagon and passing on traditional influencers. Meme content is less polished, funnier, and tends to have a better engagement rate. I know this to be 100% true even if creating the perfect meme takes a ton of time. So if you're more of a comedian and "typical" influencer photos aren't your thing, you could make serious cash creating memes for brands.

💎 As an influencer you are able to shed light on causes that are important to you. Whether it's sustainable fashion, body positivity, cruelty-free beauty, diversity & inclusion, or another topic close to your heart, brands are listening. When you pitch partnerships shared values are even more important than metrics so make sure to research the brands you love and find that common ground.

💎 If there was a username you wanted on Twitter you might be able to grab it this month. Man I love Twitter, but I do not like when people at are peak people so I tend to stay logged out.

[I'm about to head back on the road for my brand building workshop. LA in January, Atlanta in February, Dallas in March, and Chicago in May. Will I see you there? Attendees have said the workshop is life changing so you should definitely check it out.]

GOLD MINE

💰 I love reading stories about people who use social media to become millionaires. This article has an orthodontist who sells tooth-whitening kits, a wedding photographer whose podcast you've probably downloaded, and a SAHM who created a jewelry line.

💰 Brands are reaching out earlier than ever to make sure they have enough content for the holiday season. The smart ones are establishing long-term partnerships so they don't have to deal with rush fees and price hikes. So that means you probably should start pitching back-to-school this week. Not really, but you know what I mean.

💰 The TikTok gold rush is coming. It only takes a few articles highlighting the power of a platform for its creators to start asking for dolla dolla bills ya'll. TikTok is a totally different beast than other platforms since a single video can spawn a challenge that gets tens of millions of views. If you can kill it in short form video I would definitely recommend joining. You're not too old. I promise.

💰 If you're a home cook listen up. Airbnb is sending 100 home cooks to study in Italy with Momofuku's David Chang. This is an amazing opportunity and I'm sure we'll see more like these in the future.

[If you're looking for more personalized direction or contract help you can sign up for a one-on-one coaching call. I also offer group coaching sessions and they're one giant party.]

BLACK LUNG

⚫ Remember how StyleHaul just disappeared? Well apparently one of the executives embezzled $22M and spent half of it on Crypto Gambling. WHAAAAAAT?

⚫ With great following comes great responsibility. Or something like that. We're at peak cancel culture (I hope) and nothing can deflate the dreams of a business owner faster than bad press from an influencer. Except maybe bad press from an influencer that goes viral. While it's fine to call out a person or brand, we MUST make sure we have all the fact before doing so. And since Influencers are people, and so many people are trash, this doesn't always happen and lives get ruined in the process.

⚫ Election season is heating up and a Super PAC posted a campaign to raise money for Cory Booker. It's since been cancelled but it poses an interesting question: Should Influencers receive compensation for publicly supporting a candidate? In general, the answer should be yes. It's similar to running a political ad, celebrities endorse candidates all the time, and you can be paid to work on a campaign. BUT crappy influencers mess things up all the time by 1) not disclosing relationships, 2) promoting candidates they know nothing about for a paycheck, and 3) just being the worst. So I guess for now the answer is no. Between fake news and bots the 2020 election is already shaping up to be a hot mess. Let's not add influencer fuel to the fire. P.S. Did you know Cory was dating Rosario Dawson? I mean not that it has ANYTHING to do with his platform, but I just wanted to share some information you didn't need.

[You don't have to live this influencer life alone. Come join the Carbon August facebook group and get your community on.]

That's it for this week's edition of The Miner. Don't forget to tell me your thoughts. If you loved this issue and want to buy me a coffee you can do that here.