Brands pay style blogger Jordan Reid to blog and tweet about using their products.
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For enterprising bloggers, the lure is simple: income that can range from $100,000 a year to hundreds of thousands more. For marketers, the calculus is more complicated. Yes, they can target audiences, and the price is relatively low compared with already cheap online advertisements. And bloggers can offer a more authentic connection to brands for consumers who are weary of varnished sales pitches from Madison Avenue. But companies are also putting their brands in the hands of untested spokespeople and, in some cases, running into controversy about the blogger-sponsor relationship. Leery consumers prefer that bloggers' opinions be independent. Just last month, the Federal Trade Commission introduced tighter regulations for social-media advertising. Though there are clear successes, it's far too early to tell if the approach drives more sales than traditional marketing.
Regardless, the concept is already fueling the growth of a virtual ecosystem of digital microcelebrities. There are talent scouts, like Karen Robinovitz of Digital Brand Architects and Andy McNicol of William Morris Entertainment, who help bloggers connect with marketers. There are p.r. agencies with staffers dedicated to scouring the depths of social media to find bloggers with profiles that fit the demographics and sensibilities of the brands that hire them. "It's amazing when you can tell a brand's story organically through the eyes of somebody who believes passionately in it and has a trusted following," says Robinovitz, who calls this "the future of marketing."
Olivia Howell is exactly the kind of consumer that microcelebrities--and the marketers who pay them--want to reach. The 28-year-old middle-school teacher from Huntington, N.Y., is an avid reader of lifestyle blogs like Reid's Ramshackle Glam, What I Wore by Jessica Quirk, and Mary Rambin's fashion and fitness blog More than Mary. Powell discovered Reid five years ago through another lifestyle site. She latched onto Reid's posts because they were "so friendly and real" and personal, she says. After following the launch of Ramshackle Glam, Powell was heartened when she started tweeting to Reid and she "actually tweeted back," Powell says.
Reid's posts keep Powell up to speed on niche designers and the trials of married life. Powell says she learned about the dress-rental site Rent the Runway from Reid and has used it religiously ever since. When Reid posted last fall about an Old Navy contest to win the brand's Rockstar Denim jeans, Powell recruited her eighth-grade students to enter the contest and ran out to buy a pair herself.
Brands navigate the microcelebrity ecosystem in a number of ways. Many go to traditional public-relations agencies and talent managers who recruit social-media directors, former bloggers and lifestyle journalists to mine their Twitter accounts, Facebook connections and Instagram feeds to find the next wave of microtalent. Some brands go to agents who have carved out a niche in managing digital talent. Others go directly to known bloggers who have networks of less established peers that can be sorted and filtered by the demographic characteristics and level of influence with people the brand is looking to work with--be it age, regional following, Twitter fans or unique visitors per month.