Digital marketplace connects social media ’influencers’ with brands

Plugg Market|Plugg Market|Plugg Market

Plugg is a 'social media marketplace', a database of brands users can pitch to as a way to take control of monetising their online influence.

Brands are continuing to reach out to ‘influencers’; social media users with large followings willing to namedrop a product in exchange for payment or free merchandise; and investing in technologies such as machine learning or IBM’s Watson AI algorithm to find users who can maximise their product’s exposure. A new digital marketplace is flipping that concept to enable social media-savvy users to connect with the brands that appeal to them.

Plugg is an app-based database of brands interested in expanding their social media presence for users to browse through and learn about. When a user finds a brand they identify with and feels they can bring to their audience, they can bid to represent them, uploading a pitch to outline how they can provide exposure across social media and then setting the price they’d be willing to accept for their work, creating a competitive, application-like process. As well as connecting users with brands, Plugg also acts as an analytics dashboard bringing together all of a user’s social media accounts under the control of a single app, and providing feedback on how users’ posts are received, how their followers are spread geographically, as well as offering explanations of developing trends and hot hashtags. Plugg are aiming to change the way influencers operate, making the process a viable freelance career as content creators take control of monetising their social media presence.

With social media unlikely to see falling popularity levels any time soon, how else can the gap be bridged between brands and the users pushing the products across social media platforms?