Many social media influencers have created massive followings. It is not uncommon to find YouTube, Instagram, Snapchat or Wattpad influencers who have millions of followers. These social influencers have built online followings so strong that they dwarf many Hollywood celebrities. In addition, these social influencers have built personal and authentic relationships with their fan base. These relationships become extremely valuable to brand marketers as it creates new channel for brands to connect with consumers. By creating branded content with social media influencers, brands can amplify their message and engage directly with their target audience in a very authentic and scalable way.

I understand first hand how powerful it is through Wattpad’s own influencer program – Wattpad Stars. Throught Wattpad Stars, many brands such as AT&T, Coca-Cola, GE, Sony Pictures, etc. leverage Wattpad influencers to tell their stories on Wattpad natively. Unfortunately for many other platforms, it is no easy task for brands to connect with these influencers and manage marketing campaigns with them across multiple platforms. That’s why today we’re very excited to announce that we have invested in #paid to solve this problem.

In their own words:

We help brands reach new audiences. We’re passionate about providing a simple & elegant influencer marketing solution for brands. At the heart of #paid, we’re revolutionizing marketing and democratizing access to the top creators. People are no longer looking at commercials, they’re looking at their smartphones and following the latest trends on social media. There are those, known as influencers, empowering themselves to do what they love for a living through #paid. They’re the content Kings and Queens. The unique voices. The childhood heroes. The new age creative artists. The ones who allow the entire world to experience their art and storytelling on a daily basis.

When we made the investment last year, it was decided that we would rather keep it under the radar for a while since #paid’s founders Bryan and Adam would like to keep building the company for some time first. Since we made the investment, the #paid team has made tremendous progress with all the KPIs pointing to-the-top-and-to-the-right. So we believe timing is right to tell the world about this investment and that’s why we are adding the #paid logo to our portfolio page today.

– Allen