Is Facebook set to kill the influencer economy? That question arose during my recent conversation with Gary Arndt of Everything Everywhere and the Everything Everywhere podcast, and it’s a question we seriously have to consider and contend with in the coming year or years.

He explained every time a brand or an agency, or one of the influencer marketing platforms, pays an influencer to post content on social platform, those are dollars that the social platforms aren’t getting. How long do you think Mark Zuckerberg and the MBAs that pull the strings at those networks will tolerate that?

Gary Arndt is one of the most influential travel creators in the world. His Everything Everywhere blog has been a mainstay for the industry for more than a decade. I asked him to come on the show to discuss is recent pivot to podcasting. But boy, did I ever uncover so much more. We talk about his shift away from social media influencer work because of COVID, the volatility of the travel space and the potential threat from Facebook. He goes deep in his strategy — including the dollars and cents monetization approach — to building his new podcast. 

But we also talk about how social media is killing blogging, how an expert in the field collaborates with brands in multiple mediums and what mistakes he sees brands and influencers making today he would clean up if he could.

I call this a “head explode” episode. Listen. Learn. And share!

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