Joe Sinkwitz discusses the groundbreaking launch of Herd Worth, a pioneering influencer measurement tool. This innovative platform aims to provide brands and influencers with a comprehensive and accurate assessment of an influencer’s online influence and value, streamlining the decision-making process in the influencer marketing landscape. Learn how Herd Worth is poised to reshape the industry and facilitate ethical and data-driven influencer collaborations.

Who is Joe Sinkwitz?

Joe Sinkwitz is the co-founder and CEO of Intellifluence, which leads the largest warm contact influencer marketing network. Intellifluence connects influencers who have personally signed up to collaborate with the platform, a challenging endeavor akin to building a marketplace of this scale.

The Genesis of Herd Worth

The inception of Herd Worth was driven by several factors in the influencer marketing landscape. Initially, the concept was inspired by the idea of creating a single score, similar to “clout” in the early days of social media, to assess an individual’s social media prowess.

Additionally, the team conducted extensive compensation studies to understand influencer pricing, acceptance rates, and future predictions. These diverse data sources posed a significant challenge due to their volume and complexity. 

However, after consolidating and analyzing the data, they were able to distill it into a singular Herd Worth score, representing a forward-looking measure of online influence. Despite taking longer than anticipated, the team is pleased with the successful launch of this initiative.

Influencer Compensation Studies

In his discussions about Intellifluence’s influencer compensation studies, Joe highlighted a couple of notable findings that influenced the development of Herd Worth.

In their initial study, they discovered a significant difference in compensation trends between Instagram and TikTok influencers. They observed that many prominent TikTokers began their social media journey on the platform, while Instagrammers often transitioned from other platforms. This variance in starting points influenced their willingness to accept payment, with TikTok influencers displaying less drastic changes in their pricing over time.

In a more recent compensation survey conducted post-pandemic, they noted a substantial gap between influencers’ self-perceived worth and the actual rates they were willing to accept. This disconnect between expectations and reality served as valuable data for the Herd Worth calculation, as it shed light on the discrepancy between what influencers claim and what they ultimately agree to.

Technical Aspects

Joe explained how Herd Worth operates across diverse social networks, highlighting the importance of treating each platform individually. They assessed engagement, comments, shares, and compensation expectations for various content types, ensuring a balanced approach to produce an understandable output for influencers and brands. In Joe’s words, “We had to balance it better to make sense.”

Comparison with Existing Methods

Herd Worth distinguishes itself from existing influencer evaluation methods in several ways. Firstly, it assigns a single dollar figure to an influencer’s overall audience size across various social platforms, a novel approach that hasn’t been tried before. While other methods have used scores or metrics, none have directly associated a dollar value with an influencer’s reach.

Additionally, Herd Worth’s uniqueness stems from its access to both what influencers believe they should be paid and what they actually accept for collaborations. This data, along with insights into how different posts perform based on pricing, enriches the algorithm and sets it apart.

In terms of accuracy, Herd Worth offers a more precise means to compare and evaluate different influencers. It assists in decision-making when choosing between influencers with varying platform sizes, helping brands determine where to allocate their time and resources effectively, especially if they plan to engage across multiple channels. While it may not provide an exact apples-to-apples comparison, it offers a valuable dollar figure for reference.

Influence on Decision-Making

Joe envisions Herd Worth as a valuable tool for brands when comparing influencers across different platforms like Instagram and TikTok. He offered a practical example to illustrate its impact:

“For instance, let’s take Ghost Bed, a client of ours. If they’re planning a mattress giveaway, they consider various factors such as geographic focus, alignment with previous content, and their desire for content on YouTube, Instagram, TikTok, and even blogs. We gather all these data points and simplify the process for brands,” Joe explained.

He continued, “Instead of making brands jump through hoops to figure it all out, we provide a straightforward Herd Worth score. Brands can easily see that CC is worth a certain amount while Joe is worth less. They can then make an informed decision, based on their budget and desired value, whether to go with CC or Joe.”

In this way, Herd Worth streamlines the influencer selection process, allowing brands to allocate their resources more effectively and make data-driven decisions.

Aligning with Influencer

Herd Worth encourages influencers to improve their post quality, community relations, and outreach by aligning with specific niches. Joe drew a parallel to the advice from search engineers: “Just make great content, and everything will fall into place.”

He emphasized that by focusing on niches that influencers are already a part of, they are more likely to achieve the right metrics associated with their accounts, ultimately leading to a higher Herd Worth score over time. For example, a cosmetic influencer who dedicates themselves to their cosmetic work can expect to see a positive community response, higher-paying collaborations, and an improved Herd Worth.

In essence, Herd Worth motivates influencers to excel in their chosen niches, knowing that this dedication will lead to greater opportunities and a more favorable Herd Worth score.

Integration with Intellifluence

The immediate next steps for integrating Herd Worth throughout Intellifluence involve making it easily accessible within influencer profiles. Brands and influencers can already view their scores, and the platform provides knowledge materials, including explanations and FAQs, to help users understand the significance of Herd Worth.

Looking ahead, Joe mentioned plans to incorporate Herd Worth into their compensation guidance. This integration will further enhance the platform’s capabilities. In the future, they intend to expand its usage, indicating that Herd Worth will play an increasingly integral role in their influencer marketing ecosystem.

Challenges and Influencers’ Reaction

Joe’s main challenge in creating Herd Worth was the fear of a negative response from influencers who might feel undervalued. He observed, “No one wants to be judged; they might say, ‘Oh, I’m worth more.'” To address this, the team balanced the information by emphasizing score flexibility and encouraging improvement.

Fortunately, the influencer community has generally responded well to Herd Worth, especially active users who are sharing their scores, aligning with the platform’s goals. However, some influencers seek clearer details about the composite score, leading to requests for greater clarity. While specifics can be challenging, Intellifluence’s support team is dedicated to assisting users, planning to create informative multilingual videos to enhance understanding.

Future of Influencer Marketing

Herd Worth serves as a stepping stone in the evolution of influencer marketing. Joe envisions a future where anyone can easily hire influencers with the necessary information at their fingertips. To get there, value approximations like Herd Worth are essential early in the process. This concept represents a progression toward a more accessible and efficient influencer marketing landscape.

Competitive Edge

Joe believes that Herd Worth will benefit not only Intellifluence but also the influencer marketing industry as a whole. He points out that it will simplify the evaluation process for brands and help them make decisions more easily. He emphasized, “Making that decision easier helps us, and it helps us keep brands happy, helping them stay engaged in the marketing landscape longer.”

Joe envisions the potential for Herd Worth to extend beyond Intellifluence and be utilized by other networks, indicating that ongoing conversations in this direction are taking place. This broader application could further enhance the competitive edge of both Intellifluence and the influencer marketing industry.

Legal and Ethical Considerations

Intellifluence has taken legal and ethical considerations into account when developing Herd Worth. According to Joe, there are no inherent legal or ethical problems associated with the quantification of an influencer’s worth through Herd Worth since they use data provided to them by influencers themselves.

One important aspect that Intellifluence has addressed is the need for transparency. Joe emphasized that they provide a disclaimer to ensure that influencers understand that Herd Worth is not an offer but rather an approximation based on available data. This disclaimer helps influencers make informed decisions about their worth.

Adoption by Other Platforms

Joe envisions Herd Worth being used by brands without much difficulty, saying, “The brands can sign up and use it.” However, integration with other influencer marketing platforms may pose trust and data-sharing challenges. He suggests that to collaborate with other platforms, they would need to find a way to warehouse the algorithm externally, allowing data exchange without revealing sensitive information to Intellifluence.

He also believes that as the influencer economy evolves, there may be industry consolidation. Joe thinks that adoption by other platforms might occur as they become part of Intellifluence or through similar collaborations. In his words, “That’s probably how that happens.”

Influence on Smaller Influencers

Herd Worth offers significant benefits to smaller or emerging influencers by taking their audience engagement into account. As Joe explains, micro-influencers often have better engagement rates compared to mega-influencers. This approach supports smaller individuals as they grow since Herd Worth considers what their audience is doing with the content they produce.

For smaller influencers, Herd Worth provides a clear goal and roadmap for growth. They can set targets and work on expanding their presence across platforms, producing quality content, and growing their audience to increase their Herd Worth score. It incentivizes them to focus on their growth journey with tangible rewards as their influence expands.

State of the Creator Economy

The creator economy, as described by Joe, resembles the “Wild West,” with various companies pursuing different approaches. The lack of standardization and the presence of numerous players have created confusion for brands and agencies trying to navigate the influencer marketing landscape.

Joe believes that as the industry matures, there will be more consolidation and a natural filtering out of less effective players. This will pave the way for collaboration and the development of industry standards, including ethical guidelines for influencer outreach.

Intellifluence plans to align with these trends by adapting to industry changes, focusing on best practices, and contributing to the development of ethical and effective influencer marketing strategies. As the industry evolves, Intellifluence aims to play a pivotal role in shaping its future.

Changes in the Creator Economy Space

Joe envisions several changes and improvements that could enhance the influencer marketing space. He emphasizes the need for more authentic and warm contact between brands and influencers. He also believes that too many campaigns rely on puffery, where brands claim to have vast audiences without genuine relationships, leading to confusion and disappointment for brands.

Regarding e-commerce integration, Joe acknowledges the challenge, saying, “There needs to be a better tie into e-commerce systems.” He points out that the influencer marketing industry lacks a robust method to connect with various e-commerce platforms, hindering the accurate measurement of campaign impact.

He further suggests that these issues are not exclusive to his platform, as they pose “open problems for the whole industry.” Joe believes that resolving these challenges will require collaboration among multiple industry players to ensure a more efficient and transparent influencer marketing ecosystem.

Long-term Vision

The long-term vision for Herd Worth aligns with Intellifluence’s broader mission and strategy. Joe envisions an ongoing process of refinement and enhancement, stating, “I think it’s the start of that.” He emphasizes that the platform will continually evaluate the quality of the data and explore additional variables and features to improve the accuracy of influencer scoring. This iterative approach reflects Intellifluence’s commitment to providing valuable insights to both influencers and brands.

Looking ahead to Intellifluence’s future, Joe anticipates a point where the platform can accurately assess individual influencers and provide fair and effective pitches that yield positive responses. However, he acknowledges the complexity of achieving this goal due to the vast amount of data involved.

In summary, the future of Herd Worth and Intellifluence involves an ongoing commitment to data-driven innovation and providing increasingly valuable services to influencers and brands within the influencer marketing ecosystem.