The Future of Influencer Marketing is Honest, Organic and Authentic By Design

Tokens could provide a new model of honesty online in a word-of-mouth Renaissance.

In 2020 we are going to see a more honest influencer marketing and word-of-mouth push in digital transformation on social media. If indeed consumer culture and advertising are built on brand image and trust, the role of moderation, auditors and editors will become increasingly important as people must improve trust on social media.

Influencers Need Rules to Create More Honest Ecosystems

This is occurring in 2019 and 2020, especially with regards to how Influencer marketing takes place. Even as ecosystems like TikTok have grown in mobile advertising, its own profits don’t necessarily mean the necessary rules are being followed. Many have pointed out that on TikTok’s exploding and the creative panorama of memes, not all of the promoted videos on TikTok are properly labeled as ads or promoted posts, creating potential FTC violations.

So what does it take for honest recommendations to take place on line in 2020? As the internet has become proliferated by algorithms, news feeds and people ready to growth-hack an audience, word of mouth has suffered in terms of integrity, authenticity and trust.

Content Ecosystems Need Better Authentication Systems

At the Wom Protocol, we are working on new ways to improve the integrity of this influence and referral element of content systems. Think about it, influence has long been at the core of marketing — seeking it, amassing it, then effectively wielding it to achieve company and branding goals.

As influencer marketing and micro influencers continue to impact the ways brands interact with their unique audiences, influencer marketing has shifted advertising in recent times and also needs more rules and authentication in place. At the WOM we have innovated our own authentication method. Here’s how it works:

A Token Economy Solution to Honesty Online

• Within the WOM network there are WOM tokens and Reputation (RP) Tokens. RP tokens are used to reflect authentication power, where the more RP tokens you have, the more influence you can have on the network.
• RP tokens are 1:1 with WOM tokens and it’s possible to switch between the two at any time.
• Financial risk or incentive is used to motivate authenticators to judge content truthfully.
• Authenticators are able to stake more RP tokens to give themselves higher authentication power, knowingly increasing the potential risk and reward.
• Authenticators earn rewards based on user engagement on the content they successfully authenticate.

One WOM Token is currently worth around $0.08.

The Future of More Interactive Apps

As a mobile audience participates more actively in content moderation and editors (authenticators) as well, an ecosystem becomes more honest, authentic and trustworthy with crowdsourced standards of content and micro video quality. This is one of the huge advantages of a token economy interacting with apps and content ecosystems.

While traditional influencers may have been able to deliver the initial eyeballs brands have sought, impressions don’t equal purchases and for this to take place the way we moderate, authenticate and audit content ecosystems and content curation needs to adapt to truly create more authentic brand impressions.

Consensus Building and Proof of Utility

At the WOM Protocol we are rolling out our first app partner. The YEAY app will be the first to integrate the WOM Protocol consensus and authenticator participation of users.

Decisions are made through the consensus process called proof-of-utility which has several dimensions, each of which is weighted:

1) The authentication power (50%)

2) The accumulated staking time since account creation (20%)

3) The accumulated number of RP Tokens staked since account creation (15%)

4) The last staking time (10%)

5) The age of the authenticator account (5%)

Enhanced Word-Of-Mouth Architectures

This creates a more honest and a level playing field where users aren’t just passive participants but hold an active stake in the content ecosystem.

Taken as a whole, the future of influencer marketing is more honest by design. Think about it, the influencer industry is undergoing a major shift towards not just micro-influencers and organic reach, but intentional designs where content moderation is built in to the ecosystem’s trust , safety and authentication mechanism.

While still in its early stages, we are hopefully building one that can have a lasting and positive impact on the internet at the WOM Protocol.

Our consensus process means that trustworthy, genuine authenticators that have proven their worth have a larger impact on the authentication process, which helps to build trust within the ecosystem and adds a new user-generated editorial aspect of how content distribution, authentication and quality takes place. This is very exciting for the future of influencer marketing and self-sovereign marketing networks.