It is no wonder that what is called social shopping and influencers is extremely popular, given how much time we, and especially the younger generations spend scrolling social media on our phones. Many of the things we interact with on a daily basis have some sort of influence on us.
If a member of Gen Z has a favorite person he follows on Instagram, spending possibly hours a day just scrolling that one person’s posts, listening to their stories, that means there is a degree of admiration, or a desire to be like them.
Should this Instagram influencer post about some favorite brand for a product, then it is entirely likely that our hypothetical follower will be buying whatever is being sold. It’s even more obvious when you realize that for Gen Z social media is their preferred source of information. That’s where they spend their time, get information, and get entertained; it’s no wonder that is where they are also spending their money.
If you think about it, this is really nothing new. We are influenced by what we see and hear, even more so if the person doing the advertising is someone we recognize. That’s why cigarette companies used to spend millions getting celebrities to pose in their ads, or why Bud Light commercials are so memorable, or why the typical Michael Bay movie has more product placement than the Super Bowl. All of that is designed to influence us to buy certain products.
No one is really immune either. No, not even you. You almost certainly have a t-shirt with a favorite band, or movie, or just some cool company you like to support. ‘But, I wasn’t influenced! I just happen to like that stuff!’
Yes, that is exactly how it works. Don’t worry, it isn’t even necessarily bad. After all, you need a shirt. If you want to pay a couple extra bucks for a shirt with a picture of One Punch Man on it, more power to you. I have several from brands I bought for the express purpose of supporting the brand, even though I can assure you I don’t need another shirt.
Naturally enough, social media companies have been figuring this out and plenty of apps allow you to buy things directly through them. Instagram for example has a cool carousel with just a few products in it that should be related to whatever you are checking out at the moment.
Brands have also been finding new ways to capitalize on the trend. They will often seek out popular influencers, or YouTubers or another popular user of a given app and ask them to feature their products. Depending on the nature of the channel and the company, that results in a company paying a person or just allowing them to keep the product in exchange for a review. In this way, the company gets to make sure its products are getting in front of the audience most likely to buy it. That’s a win-win situation for the company because their conversion rate goes up, the influencer makes some side money or at least gets some free gear, and the buyer gets more in depth knowledge about a product or brand he is buying and a more convenient way to do so. Many influencers even have the integrity to not give a positive review if they just don’t like a given product, meaning the buyer can have higher confidence the products will work as advertised.
If you think about it, what these brands are doing, reaching out to a narrow audience but one that is more likely to be interested in them is very similar to what we advocate for at TARTLE. A brand like Patagonia is clearly using their data to determine where they should best spend their advertising dollars. They are going right to the source when they find influencers using their products who already have an audience to help sell their brand. That is a solid use of data and social media platforms that helps everyone, which we can definitely get behind.
What’s your data worth? Sign up for the TARTLE Marketplace through this link here.
It is no wonder that what is called social shopping and influencers is extremely popular, given how much time we, and especially the younger generations spend scrolling social media on our phones. Many of the things we interact with on a daily basis have some sort of influence on us.
Alexander McCaig (00:06):
(singing).
Alexander McCaig (00:06):
Hi, everybody. Welcome back to TARTLE Cast. Our avid listeners, thank you for all of your support. We want to hit another topic here. Dave reveals social media shopping, highly popular with Gen Z Millennials.
Jason Rigby (00:21):
Okay. Well, you're on your phone for what? We talked to the FOMO guy the other day that wrote that book [crosstalk 00:00:28].
Alexander McCaig (00:27):
He coined the word FOMO [crosstalk 00:00:29]. Yeah, FOMO sapiens.
Jason Rigby (00:30):
Yeah. I was talking to about a friend I talked to that had [crosstalk 00:00:32] gone for six hours.
Alexander McCaig (00:33):
Patrick McGinnis.
Jason Rigby (00:34):
Patrick McGinnis. Great, great conversation. Listen to that episode. He said that's not ... People are seven hours or longer-
Alexander McCaig (00:42):
Mm-hmm (affirmative)
Jason Rigby (00:42):
On their phone. So when you have that much influence over somebody-
Alexander McCaig (00:47):
Of course, social media shopping is going to go up. So if I have a distorted view of reality, where I only see the brief moment of this influencer taking pictures, and you want to be doing those things, and then they come on and they say, "Oh, this is the product they use."
Alexander McCaig (01:04):
Your thought is, if I follow these people, I listened to what they have to say, I view them every single hour of the day; their stories or posts-
Jason Rigby (01:11):
Right.
Alexander McCaig (01:12):
No matter what it is. And they're buying a product? Of course I'm going to buy that product.
Alexander McCaig (01:17):
Why would I go anywhere else to shop if my number one information stream is social media? Obviously social media shopping is going to be highly popular with Gen Z Millennials. That's their number one source of information.
Jason Rigby (01:31):
I think it's influences ... I mean, it influences me. I mean, we're both wearing stuff that influenced us.
Alexander McCaig (01:37):
I'm wearing-
Jason Rigby (01:38):
I got this shirt and got you one, because I was influenced by this company.
Alexander McCaig (01:45):
Yeah, here-
Jason Rigby (01:46):
I'm wearing their shirt. You're wearing Patagonia and you put TARTLE on the side, which is amazing, but you're wearing Patagonia because you're influenced by their company's message.
Alexander McCaig (01:55):
They are an activism group that is for the planet, and people and human rights.
Jason Rigby (02:00):
Yes.
Alexander McCaig (02:00):
Of course I'm buying your clothing. Of course I will pay a premium for it.
Jason Rigby (02:04):
And I like flying saucers and UFO's so-
Alexander McCaig (02:07):
As do I-
Jason Rigby (02:07):
When you have a cool design like this, it's very simple, on a black T-shirt, black and white, I'm all in.
Alexander McCaig (02:12):
Made out of great quality.
Jason Rigby (02:13):
Made out of great quality.
Alexander McCaig (02:14):
Yep.
Jason Rigby (02:15):
I'm all in. And then I come and I get impressed because the packaging is beautiful.
Alexander McCaig (02:19):
Great packaging.
Jason Rigby (02:19):
And I'm, "Hey, you probably will create more shirts. I'll probably get some more from you."
Alexander McCaig (02:24):
That's precisely correct.
Jason Rigby (02:24):
Pretty simple.
Alexander McCaig (02:26):
And that's how that works. Obviously for Gen Z Millennials, it's going to be an extremely popular thing for people to do [crosstalk 00:02:35]-
Jason Rigby (02:34):
And then Instagram has it now on the feed. It shows the company and then it shows three or four products in a little carousel format that you can just buy directly right on Instagram, or right on Facebook.
Jason Rigby (02:47):
And Google's doing that with Google shopping. You know? So here's why I'm positive towards it. And there's a lot of negative with it I understand. But here's why I'm positive towards it, because I think an influencer in this article talks about influence marketing factory.
Jason Rigby (03:06):
But you take somebody that is a rock climber that's for the environment, and Patagonia says your values line up with us. You're a heavy duty rock climber, and we're going to use you as an influencer to shop. I think that intern can build the brand even, and do more social justice. You see what I'm saying?
Alexander McCaig (03:30):
It adds a face to it.
Jason Rigby (03:31):
It amplifies. It's going, boom, boom, boom, boom. You know? It's like amplifying. What are those? Remember the old radio? And you had repeaters.
Alexander McCaig (03:39):
Oh yeah.
Jason Rigby (03:40):
So you go from here to, so from Albuquerque we could go from here and then we would put a repeater in Roswell.
Alexander McCaig (03:44):
Mm-hmm (affirmative)
Jason Rigby (03:45):
Next thing you know, you're getting that message out to just Roswell.
Alexander McCaig (03:48):
Yes.
Jason Rigby (03:48):
An influencer is the same thing. They have an audience that they've built already, but they're turning around and looking at it, and saying, "That specific audience, or that rock climbing, environmental-friendly person, not only does this huge brand Patagonia wants to line up with that." So it creates a win-win-
Alexander McCaig (04:05):
For both sides-
Jason Rigby (04:05):
And that's beautiful to me.
Alexander McCaig (04:07):
And people don't have to go to the website. They can do all the purchasing right through the social media apps.
Jason Rigby (04:11):
Yeah. So awesome. I mean, look, if you want to see a beautiful website, look at Patagonia's.
Alexander McCaig (04:14):
Patagonia slaps.
Jason Rigby (04:15):
I mean, yeah. And then go to Saucers Instagram, and they're always posting UFO stuff. Talking about Roswell, they have surveys and quizzes on there, and I'm inter ... They're what's did Roswell happen in 1943, 46', 47', 40'? And I'm, oh, which one? And then I hit it, and had the right year and then green and confetti pops.
Alexander McCaig (04:34):
Yeah.
Jason Rigby (04:34):
You know? I like when you can interact with a brand. One, because it gives power back to the consumer.
Alexander McCaig (04:41):
Yes.
Jason Rigby (04:42):
And I love when a brand, and shout out to Patagonia, and all these other brands, there's a ton of them, Whole Foods maybe, and some others. Even Black Rifle Coffee Company, which is kind of more conservative. We'll pick another one and they're helping vets. But whenever you look at these brands, and they're saying, "Fuck the norm."
Alexander McCaig (05:01):
Yeah.
Jason Rigby (05:02):
This is who we are.
Alexander McCaig (05:03):
Then they can actually be who they are.
Jason Rigby (05:05):
That's what we want. That's free market. That's people being individuals.
Alexander McCaig (05:09):
Right.
Jason Rigby (05:09):
That's companies saying, "Let, and then you're going to attract a tribe."
Alexander McCaig (05:12):
And if your identity works, good for you. If it doesn't, if it's fascist, and people don't want to follow it-
Jason Rigby (05:17):
Well then, yeah.
Alexander McCaig (05:18):
There you go. You know? But it seems pretty obvious to me that once a month, Gen Zs and Millennials are buying more apparel through online shopping and their social media than anything else.
Jason Rigby (05:27):
Yeah. How many of them are going to Macy's?
Alexander McCaig (05:29):
Yeah.
Jason Rigby (05:30):
Their walking around. I mean, I see the H&M store, and they were releasing their numbers and it's even Chipotle, the CEO was on the other day, he goes with the new app and everything that we're doing, we're getting more online orders.
Alexander McCaig (05:44):
Right.
Jason Rigby (05:44):
It's just the way ... You're not going to ... Brick and Mortar stores are not, especially with return policies the way they're doing, like I saw a glasses company the other day. This is great. They're, we're going to send you the frames for free. So we're going to send you five frames or 10 frames. We'll send them to you for free. You try them on. And then so, what just happened? I eliminated-
Alexander McCaig (06:09):
Huge amount of returns.
Jason Rigby (06:11):
Yeah. And then on top of that, but what was the process of buying glasses before? I had to go to an optometrist-
Alexander McCaig (06:16):
And just [crosstalk 00:06:17] super expensive-
Jason Rigby (06:17):
And then it's $250 for these pair of glasses and then it was a process of four hours.
Alexander McCaig (06:22):
Yeah.
Jason Rigby (06:23):
I can go to Costco right now, get my eyes checked for [crosstalk 00:06:26] 60 bucks.
Alexander McCaig (06:26):
Yeah.
Jason Rigby (06:26):
It takes 30-45 minutes. And then I get that-
Alexander McCaig (06:29):
Buy one, get one free.
Jason Rigby (06:29):
I get that prescription. Yeah. Buy one eye, get one free. We'll only test the right eye, but the left eyes free.
Alexander McCaig (06:36):
Left eye's a mess, so you don't have to pay for that one.
Jason Rigby (06:39):
And then I can take that prescription, load it, take a picture of it, load it online with my driver's license, get frames sent to me, try them on, say, "Yeah, these frames are good. Maybe I don't."
Jason Rigby (06:49):
And then I can turn around from the comfort of my home, order them online, and then a week later I get these new bright, clean glasses.
Alexander McCaig (06:55):
It sounds great to me.
Jason Rigby (06:56):
You just have to wait weeks to get your glasses.
Alexander McCaig (06:58):
Yeah.
Jason Rigby (06:58):
And it was a big ordeal. And you had one pair of glasses because ... I have five pairs of glasses-
Alexander McCaig (07:02):
And if you broke them you're like, "Wow, I'm screwed."
Jason Rigby (07:04):
See, that is a win for the individual.
Alexander McCaig (07:06):
Yeah. And you know what they haven't realized?
Jason Rigby (07:11):
I want to know this.
Alexander McCaig (07:12):
The data shows that Gen Z Millennials don't want to buy stuff with debt.
Jason Rigby (07:18):
Yeah.
Alexander McCaig (07:19):
Klarna. Affirm. All the Buy Now, Pay Later services: 80% of Gen Z Millennials don't touch it. They have zero interest in debt. Why are you not waking up to the fact that if you have a product, and it's either too expensive, right?
Alexander McCaig (07:35):
Or it's just a shit product, or bad brand, but you're saying, "Oh, you can still get it. I still want you to try it. You can get it with debt. Just buy it now. But pay later." They still don't want it.
Jason Rigby (07:44):
Well, that's just a bad model.
Alexander McCaig (07:46):
It's a horrific model.
Jason Rigby (07:47):
When you're asking eight ... That's the same as student loans-
Alexander McCaig (07:51):
You're asking-
Jason Rigby (07:51):
Let's not get into that.
Alexander McCaig (07:51):
Yeah. You're asking people to have material goods for more debt that you really don't need.
Jason Rigby (07:57):
But why do you want to put people in debt?
Alexander McCaig (08:01):
Don't. Don't. Don't team up with the debt.
Jason Rigby (08:08):
Mr. Alexander McCaig, this is exciting. I think as we get, and we evolve more in TARTLE the choices that people be able to make on that free market.
Alexander McCaig (08:19):
Yeah.
Jason Rigby (08:19):
You know, we've got some new exciting updates that are on the way, but I encourage everyone if you haven't signed up for TARTLE.co, do that. If you need-
Alexander McCaig (08:28):
If you haven't been on it a bit, get back on.
Jason Rigby (08:29):
Yeah. If you're looking at buying data, explain that process real quick.
Alexander McCaig (08:34):
Okay [crosstalk 00:08:36]. Buying data is fantastic. You sign up with the same workflow that happens for a seller, happens super fast. And then you see all the different data packets that are out there on this free market that people are willing to sell their information about.
Alexander McCaig (08:53):
You say, "I want to buy that data packet from a 100, 000 people in 15 countries." I put in my price. I put in my settlement method, crypto or Fiat through PayPal. And I hit submit just like that.
Jason Rigby (09:14):
But I want these buyers. If you're still skeptical, I want you to do something. I think this would be awesome.
Alexander McCaig (09:20):
Tell me what we do with skepti?-
Jason Rigby (09:22):
I want you to go as a seller, as a personal individual.
Alexander McCaig (09:25):
Yeah. Start with your own curiosity first.
Jason Rigby (09:27):
And go in there and sign up as a seller. Throw some little Facebook packets out there. See what's happening on the other side.
Alexander McCaig (09:32):
Oh yeah. See how-
Jason Rigby (09:33):
Get educated.
Alexander McCaig (09:34):
Yeah. You want to know something? Don't just be on one side, blinded to the other. You need to holistically understand it all.
Jason Rigby (09:39):
And we have a new Micro Doc out there that talks about buying data-
Alexander McCaig (09:43):
Yup.
Jason Rigby (09:44):
That you just released. That's great to watch. I think it's 11 minutes or 13 minutes or something like that.
Alexander McCaig (09:50):
And we have another one coming out on our Big Seven.
Jason Rigby (09:51):
Yeah. On the Big Seven.
Alexander McCaig (09:52):
How you can help save the world.
Jason Rigby (09:55):
So let's subscribe. If you love TCasts, and I know you do because our episodes are growing, doubling every month.
Alexander McCaig (10:04):
And you're listening to it right now [crosstalk 00:10:05].
Jason Rigby (10:05):
Downloads. Yeah. You're listening to it right now. Please, this is a movement and we empower individuals to take control of their data. And so we encourage you hop on TARTLE.co. If you haven't been on there awhile, hop on there again, subscribe on YouTube, Instagram, Twitter, we're on everything. Tik Tok, we're [crosstalk 00:10:23] a ton on Tik Tok.
Alexander McCaig (10:24):
And also-
Jason Rigby (10:24):
Every day.
Alexander McCaig (10:24):
And also, reach out to us. We listen and read it all.
Jason Rigby (10:28):
Yes.
Alexander McCaig (10:28):
And we get it in all different types of languages.
Alexander McCaig (10:30):
(singing)
Speaker 3 (10:39):
Thank you for listening to TARTLE Cast with your hosts, Alexander McCaig and Jason Rigby. Where humanity steps into the future, and the store data defines the path. The path. What's your data worth?
