That inspired her to start a software company called Zyper a year later that connects brands like Kellogg, Nestle and cosmetics maker Rituals with “super fans,” instead of paid professional influencers. Zyper, which relocated to San Francisco from London in 2018, identifies the top 1% of a label’s fans by analyzing data from public social media. Brands can then chat with those fans and can enlist them to serve as brand ambassadors on social sites in exchange for new products and access to events. So far, Atherton is seeing these “super fans” drive twice the average order value than other traffic sources for many brands. But the best bit is connecting fans to each other to hang out in real life, swap skills — real friendships form through these brand communities.

Source: ABC News January 19, 2020 18:00 UTC