068 – Frank Spadafora of D’Marie Group – In the Middle of the Conversation

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Social media values…

Frank Spadafora (CEO of D’Marie Group, a social media analytics company that determines values of social media portfolios for influencers) joins Pavan Bahl (Open Source Fashion), Rob Sanchez (Ralph and Remington [Episode 22]) and Marc Raco (The Hope Is Project and Monkey Radio). After an introduction to Spadafora and his company, the FashInvest Investment News covers the David Freschman Innovation Series, the impact Freschman made on the industry, a meaningful moment and coincidence, personalities “outed” for being paid for native advertising, how scaring people is making influencers uncomfortable, position as advertorials, following FTC rules, the Cole Haan lawsuit, how the Internet is not built for fashion, creating a standard for valuation and vocabulary, influencer credibility, the future of affiliate advertising, and the need for a more direct advertising model.

A blow-out Feed the Animals segment is followed by exploration of the social metrics of podcasts, the importance of the lack of iTunes data, custom APIs for age, sex and location, the new D’Marie IOS app, and unique link-thrus. Optimizing for click-thrus, Marc vents about (and Frank defends) Kendall Jenner, typical and maximum social media charges vs. valuations, and under/overcharging for posts. Talent agencies are being inundated, why Spadafora’s background in casting matters, discovering the best times to post from data and correlating engagement, the predictive analytics algorithm, how diligent social media analytics present negotiation opportunities, a very stupid question, and the daunting task of measuring 6.8 billion social media users vs. 8,000 influencers.

Click through to buy vs. nothing to buy, what hurts the credibility of influencers and brands, how to spot bots and inflated social media accounts, whether one purchase click thrus and how much the number of followers matters, the ethics and effectiveness of mirroring followers and why one must engage with content. The dangers of scheduling published, the discovery of “instamodels” on social media, developing engaged followers, social media for scouting talent, being hungry for authenticity, and why having a following is a commodity. Trying to get ahead of the trend, the impact of models having influence and understanding/measuring valuation, creating digital comp-cards, the dream of a D’Marie popup with curated racks, media exposure of garments, using a garment’s social media popularity to drive sales, and assuring posts stay with branding.

How the growth of modeling portfolios is engaging followers, the changing landscape of contractual language in model usage agreements for online environment, why one shouldn’t give anything away for free, the age gap in the world of agents, and over-empowering models. Off the Grid Questions hits Spadafora’s sweet spot, a Broadway path interrupted by a runway show, being a diva with Fern Mallis, long red hair, appearing on Project Runway, a sheep, Charlie Brown, Asian pop music, holographic performers, manufactured entertainers, House of Gaga, theater chops, and why the company name includes the word “archive.”