One of the exciting promises of web3 is the idea of decentralized networks, so that one decision maker can’t necessarily take down a platform used by hundreds or thousands, alone. But how do you build that network? How does that fit with your business model? Your marketing goals? If you’re a creator, why would you spend the time developing a corner of this new internet just for your project’s fanbase? While social media platforms will persist, there’s a layer that has always separated successful, memorable projects from one-hit wonders: fan communities.

Often, a Facebook page with no Fans can drive greater visibility with $500 of investment than a page can achieve organically with 90 Million+ Fans. This Facebook campaign reaches 1.3 Million people and achieves 42,000 clicks through to a website for $643. Despite the declining ROI of organic content, surprisingly few brands actually promote their social posts regularly. And by ignoring this paid investment they waste time and money creating imagery and copy that will be seen by very few people.

In part four, we looked at the difference between hierarchical and collaborative conversations. Now we bring it all together and ask, “What can we do?” The answer is, a lot. There are, as it turns out, many solutions to how we can do a better job of talking to each other, and any one of these are approaches you can try in your own lives or organizations.

An industry rule of thumb, verified by USA TODAY through interviews with nearly a dozen influencers, marketing professionals and influencer platform founders, is a baseline rate of about 1 percent of follower counts per sponsored Instagram post, or $100 for every 10,000 followers. That means someone with 100,000 followers might start around $1,000 per sponsored post, while an influencer with 1 million followers could charge $10,000. And some experts called that conservative. Along with pricing structures based on follower counts, CPEs (cost per engagement) have emerged as another way to calculate marketing rates. Engagement is typically defined by interactions with content such as likes, comments, clicks or shares. Engagement rates can be found by adding up all engagements on a post, dividing it by follower counts and multiplying by 100.

Kraft now generates the equivalent of 1.1 billion ad impressions a year and a four-times-better return on investment through content-marketing than through even targeted advertising.

Presentation by Ike Pigott