Brian DiFeo still
remembers the first time he was paid to take an Instagram photo. It was
winter 2012, and he was roaming between show tents at Lincoln Center
for New York Fashion Week, snapping photos of a little-known fashion
label’s handbags.
"I
posted like, eight photos for $100, or something," DiFeo told Yahoo
Tech, chuckling at the sum. "We really didn’t know what our value was
then."
These
days, a deal like that probably wouldn’t fly. DiFeo would first have to
run through a few calculations based on the size of his Instagram account’s
following (110,000 people) and its general tendency to “heart” and
comment on his images — that vague metric called “engagement.” Then he’d
consider the number of photos required, and whether they were
conceptual or featured the actual product in question. Finally, he’d
settle on a fee that considers just how much exposure he could bring to
that handbag label — a fee that, three years later, is much more than
$100.
This is what Defio and his business partner, Anthony Danielle, do for a living at the Mobile Media Lab,
a consulting firm that connects popular Instagram photographers with
brands to coordinate and execute paid promotional campaigns on the
social networking site. It’s one of many talent agencies that have found
a lucrative business in striking brand placement deals with those
photographers who are considered “famous on Instagram.” The company
represents a new era of advertisement, where the focus doesn’t lie just
on a product or a celebrity but on the community and reach of one
specific social platform.
Nearly
three years since their company’s launch, DiFeo and Danielle have
amassed a network of about 400 independent Instagrammers, with
followings ranging from the 10,000s to the 500,000s and a combined
audience of about 60 million people.
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