How Much Is an Influencer’s Following Really Worth? They May Not Want You to Know.

An influencer with 9 million followers asked me for a $100k signing bonus and exposed the social media influencer bubble.

Rachel Greenberg
8 min readJan 10, 2021
Photo by Rajesh Rajput on Unsplash

I’m going to level with you here: we’re all selfish when it comes to business, marketing, and finding success (and profit) on the internet. Whether it’s an influencer trying to score a brand deal, a company hoping a paid collaboration will result in massive exposure and sales, or a manager or marketer hoping the partnerships they facilitate will be profitable for all parties involved, the motive is often clear.

But here’s the problem: we’re not all playing with a full deck.

I’m not saying that the companies or influencers engaging in these paid collaborations are ignorant. I’m simply saying that in many of these partnerships, there is a disparity of information or an imbalance. This lack of full and mutual transparency means that one side is inherently disadvantaged…

You might have suspicions of which side I’m referring to, but I’ll clear that up right now: it varies.

Influencer collaborations and marketing contracts in general are unique and can vary widely…

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Rachel Greenberg

Wall Street Investment Banker → Entrepreneur & Startup Consultant. “Top 10 Entrepreneurs of 2020” Yahoo Finance. CEO of Beta Bowl. Mom of 3 furbabies ❤