
Ice cream truck makes Instagram 'stars' pay double - nprateem
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2019/jul/03/ice-cream-los-angeles-instagram-influencers
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johnnycab
The article makes it quite clear that the seller chose the direct approach
rather than wasting his time negotiating with someone, who did not have any
leverage or provide any added value for his business. There is a variation of
a proverb that was used as a sign and was ubiquitous in bars, pubs, tradesmen,
shops et al., which stated: 'Don't ask for credit, as a smack in the mouth
often hurts[offends]'. This worked like a charm to ward off any would-be
chancers and freeloaders; the ice cream man's version is more modern and less
vague.

It also comes across, that he rather enjoyed his meta role of becoming an
'anti-influencer' and then using that influence to get the traditional media
involved, thus influencing the silent majority to get behind his message, with
bonus points for boosting his business without compromising on his ideals.

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doitLP
A couple weeks ago I stood in line right behind a group of “influencers”
trying to get their meal for free at a new restaurant. They succeeded after a
20 minute delay for the entire line (that went out the door) while the manager
was fetched and tried to decide what to do. It was quite rude of the
influencers but I wondered that the business would make the whole line wait
for the sake of these people of questionable value. Btw this was a new
location of a very popular chain; they weren’t struggling for promotion.

I walk by the CVT ice cream truck in the article about once a week. Maybe my
same influencers tried him as well. I hope so.

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officemonkey
TBH, if you're a real influencer, you're not going to trade a mention for a
free $4 ice cream cone.

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UweSchmidt
Social media and 'influencers' are not going away. Instead of being critical
and dismissive I would rather try and accept this fundamental change in human
interaction. It is another step from collectivism where everyone is paying for
their own icecream to the next level of individualism.

Humanity will have a lot more 'influencers' or 'stars' who stand out and have
incredible influence. This can be entertainers who have a billion followers,
or software developers who make a living as speakers and 'evangelists', but
can also mean political influence: The last elections in Germany were
massively impacted by a polarizing video from a blue haired Youtuber - why
shouldn't that guy run for office himself next time? There are still many
institutions and gatekeepers due for disruption.

This is economically fueled by advertising. Firstly, using influencers to
present a product is fundamentally stronger than classic advertising.
Secondly, it's cheaper for the advertiser, while the influencer just needs a
few thousands/month to quit their job.

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t0astbread
Not every "influencer" is the same. Some have actual skills and adequate reach
to justify advertising via them (I believe this is what you labeled
"influencer" in your comment) while others are just trying to get freebies
without contributing any value back to the client.

Additionally, regarding politics: While I do believe that empowering people
who are actually concerned with the well-being of their community is important
and an area in which our political systems could improve, I also think that
"disrupting" politics by giving power to influencers would ultimately lead to
more bad than good (in the form of indoctrination, corruption and populism).

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UweSchmidt
Influencers trying to get freebies and Youtubers disrupting the political
landscape may just be the growing pains during a massive overhaul of society.
It's no longer about "empowering" a grassroots initiative with a website, it's
changing how humans interact on a fundamental level. Expect lots of
indoctrination populism from mega-influencers during their 24/7 livestreams,
but maybe less corruption too....

~~~
austinshea
Yeah, maybe.

It’s just more complicated than YouTube and free distribution.

The way in which people use free distribution provided the internet has
changed, and will change a lot.

The problem with your ideas is that they are just concepts extrapolated from
very current trends. You should get a wider scope, and make fewer lazy
predictions.

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Cthulhu_
Another solution I've read in another related post was to just make them a
counter-offer - they'll get the cost of the ice cream back if their
"influencing" sells him ten more ice creams.

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wolco
And waste 20 minutes.

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mothsonasloth
These Instagram influencers remind me of the South Park episode about Yelp
reviewers.

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miyuru
reddit post that went viral:
[https://old.reddit.com/r/pics/comments/c7tzig/los_angeles_ic...](https://old.reddit.com/r/pics/comments/c7tzig/los_angeles_ice_cream_truck_owner_is_tired_of/?sort=top)

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jl2718
Seems to me that an Instagram influencer post is now a negative indicator of
quality.

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mcv
I just realised that these 'influencers' sound a lot like professional
beggars. They're successful at something, right? There's no need for them to
beg like that, and they're presenting it as if they're doing you a favour
while they do it.

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ptah
kind of like "come and play guitar at my bar without pay for the exposure"

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hjk05
Actually it’s the other way around. “If you let me, I’ll play at your bar for
free beer”. The influencers are selling advertisement for cheap. And it’s the
same deal as with musicians, it’s a good deal which is mutually beneficiary if
the talent is there, if not, we’ll then you laugh at the offer and try to
publicly humiliate the person trying to establish a place for themselves. “Can
you believe this guy wanted to play at my bar, AND expected free beer? What a
joke”.

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robjan
Are the advertisements cheap though? Half of the influencers who have
approached my businesses have obviously paid for most of their followers and
their "advert" would be unlikely to result in any conversions.

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traderjane
That’s on the business to judge of course, as are all deals. Isn’t it on the
business to model marketing effectiveness?

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Theodores
It is quite easy to bash the influencers. They are a popular target. There is
another story in the news today about influencers wanting to get free wedding
pictures.

I am waiting for a 'before they were famous' expose from someone who does make
it to get the millions of subscribers. At that level of the game it works
differently, everything comes for free and stuff has to be turned down. But
these people were struggling once, they once had zero subscribers/followers
and nothing they could say would be received well by anyone. They must have
'couldn't even get an ice cream' stories.

Fun that it is to deride the influencer, there are options for more
constructive approaches.

The ice cream truck could offer just the one ice cream to an influencer a
week, with an online application form and many other administrative hoops and
hurdles. Then the free ice cream could go to whomever has the most followers.
Then, when awkwardly asked at the van, he could just politely show them the
form. If they win the competition (of who has the most followers) and can come
back a week later then sure they can have their free ice cream. That is fair
enough, surely?

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libertine
> It is quite easy to bash the influencers.

Though this is true, I think there's also a lack of perception on the
influencers part on the current definition of "influencer".

It's a term loosely used by people with a large following, and right there the
definition crumbles - what's a large following?

I think we can agree that it depends - to some niches 200.000 followers it's
not that big of a deal, while on others 50.000 followers could be a rare
sight.

Then it comes the "value" of that following - the potential reach might be
terrible in terms of value: they might have the wrong motivation, might be
bloated with bots, or simply may not see the influencers as a value adding
individual but as a good distraction while browsing the feed.

Finally the scarcity of recommendations - what used to be a monthly product
placement/mention/promo, or weekly, or daily, with the current state of social
media (with stories) it's almost like a big reality show, with real time shit
happening all the time, and they pump so much stuff that the value as diluted
- that ice cream truck was a small stop in their day of pumping content: they
had breakfast somewhere, lunch, brunch, and will have dinner and party in some
place.

Imo influencers from a lot of niches will increasingly become less valuable,
to the point where they might have to make the decision of dropping it, after
a slow vanishing due to the lack of constant content production, then it will
correct itself.

> The ice cream truck could offer just the one ice cream to an influencer a
> week

If no one came from that influencer, it would be a wasted ice cream, plus he
had no control on the content (could be damaging), plus it's a ice cream truck
- doubt he has time to be fiddling with that. If one location isn't cutting
it, he just moves.

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M2Ys4U
>It's a term loosely used by people with a large following, and right there
the definition crumbles - what's a large following?

30,000 followers, according to the UK's Advertising Standards Authority.[0]
People who have more than that will be classed as "celebrities" and fall under
a tighter set of regulations.[1]

[0] [https://arstechnica.com/tech-
policy/2019/07/30000-followers-...](https://arstechnica.com/tech-
policy/2019/07/30000-followers-makes-you-an-internet-celebrity-says-uk-ad-
regulator/)

[1] The ASA is an industry self-regulatory body, rather than a government-run
regulator, so they can't make anything illegal per se.

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mavsman
A little ironic that they use the end of this article to plug an author who is
supposedly an expert on influencers and claims, "no real influencer would ask
for a four-dollar ice cream."

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WalterBright
In open source land, we give it away free to everyone!

