Influencer Marketing

Heard about that TikToker who destroyed a local yoga studio? Not physically, silly! Legally. She posted this whole series about their “life-changing” hot yoga classes, racked up 40,000 views, and forgot one tiny detail: mentioning they gave her a free six-month membership to post that stuff. Someone reported it. The FTC showed up. Now the […]

Look, I get why business owners skip the vetting step. You’re running a business, not a detective agency. But here’s what I’ve learned from watching dozens of local campaigns: the businesses that take time to properly evaluate their influencer partners consistently see better results and avoid costly mistakes. Influencer vetting is basically your quality control

The owner of the coffee shop I frequent showed me her phone like it held the secrets of the universe. Some lifestyle influencer with 250K followers wanted $5,000 for one Instagram post. One post. About coffee. I told her to keep her money. She looked at me like I’d suggested she stop serving caffeine altogether.

87% of local businesses tracking influencer ROI are measuring the wrong things entirely. I know because I’ve audited their spreadsheets. Follower counts, likes, impressions, reach… might as well track how many clouds are in the sky for all the good it does your bottom line. What you may not be aware of is that a

I was sitting in this coffee shop last week, eavesdropping like I always do. Bad habit, I know. The owner was wiping down tables, clearly frustrated about something. Her place was half empty while some chain bakery down the street had a line out the door. “Their pastries taste like cardboard,” she muttered to nobody

I watched three coffee shops close on Main Street last year. Good coffee, nice people, zero customers. Know who’s still packed every morning? The place with mediocre coffee and a barista who can’t spell “macchiato.” Why? Because Jenny Chen keeps posting about their lavender latte. Jenny’s got 2,000 followers, all within walking distance. She’s not

Everyone thinks influencer marketing means throwing money at someone with a blue checkmark and a million followers. Total waste for local businesses. You know what actually works? That mom from your kid’s soccer team who somehow knows every decent taco place within 20 miles. She’s got maybe 800 Instagram followers, but when she posts about

Your local Instagram “foodie” with 5,000 followers just drove more customers to that new taco place than their $3,000 radio campaign did. I watched it happen. Some twenty-something who posts pictures of her lunch every day mentioned these tacos were “life-changing.” By dinner, they had a line out the door. The radio ads? Still playing

This may sound insane, but the local business owner I know has the same influencer marketing story. They paid someone with a bunch of followers, got some pretty pictures, and then… crickets. Zero clue if it worked. Zero idea what to do next. Just a credit card charge and some fire emojis to show for

The whole social media marketing thing is backwards. We’re out here bidding against Fortune 500 companies for ad space while Jennifer from the PTA Facebook group is telling 800 local moms where to get the best gluten-free cupcakes. And those moms? They’re not clicking ads. They’re screenshot-ing Jennifer’s post and sending it to their group