Because of the current economic climate our publication has started a series of discussions with professional individuals meant to engage our readers with relevant companies and their representatives in order to discuss about their involvement, what challenges they have had in the past and what they are looking forward to in the future.
This sequence aims to present a series of experiences recent developments, changes and downsides in terms of their business areas, as well as their goals, values, career history, the high-impact success outcomes and achievements.
Ismael is the CEO of SocialPubli, the leading micro-influencer marketplace with 200,000+ influencers in 30+ countries and eight offices around the world.
Ismael is an official member of Forbes Agency Council where he usually writes about Influencer Marketing, and he is also a remarkable speaker.
What’s the story behind SocialPubli?
We were one of the first ones in our native country of Spain to start incorporating influencers into digital marketing plans as a way to gather feedback and reviews for our clients.
Back then, around 2014, the influencer community was made up of bloggers and YouTubers, so we would invite them to events at our digital marketing agency Internet Republic to meet the brands we were working with and share new product launches.
At that time, nobody paid influencers for these kinds of things – actually, they weren’t even called influencers! They would attend our events because they were fun, and it allowed them to have access to products and information about their favorite brands before the public.
Brands were pleased with the experience and started asking us to reach out to more and more influencers. Suddenly, it had become an ongoing service, but because finding influencers and connecting with them was such a manual and painstaking process, we thought it would be a good idea to create an online platform to connect brands with influencers, even if they were in different cities or countries. Additionally, we would also pay influencers to endorse brands and lend us their voices and reach on social media networks.
That is how SocialPubli was born in 2015. It is a self-serve influencer marketplace that delivers an end-to-end software solution to find and connect with influencers, communicate campaign asks, approve influencer content, distribute content across social media platforms and track the analytics in real time.
What was the most difficult part of your experience in the early beginnings?
Developing the technology. SocialPubli is a tech-driven product integrated with the leading social media networks (Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, TikTok, LinkedIn, etc.) and social networks usually change their technology a few times per year. We had to, first of all, get it up and running and then implement the right system and processes to stay up to date with the latest social media platform changes while running thousands of influencer campaigns per year.
Simultaneously, hiring tech talent is very difficult, especially when you start your business and lack the money or internal talent to evaluate the new hires. Our CTO and co-founder were vital in this process.
What are you most proud of regarding your business?
I’m proud that we’ve been able to consistently grow year-over-year and position ourselves as a leading influencer marketing platform with local teams in ten different countries.
Today, our influencer community is 200,000-strong with presence in 35 countries and an audience that reaches over one billion people.
What is your vision for the future of SocialPubli?
From day one, our objective has been to democratize the influencer marketing space by giving everyday social media users with expertise in specific subjects the opportunity to collaborate with their favorite brands. In fact, we were working with nano and microinfluencers way before it became an industry trend.
We wanted to create a platform where businesses of all sizes could do influencer marketing, and influencers of all audience sizes could have the possibility of earning money. I am happy to say that we accomplished it.
We continue to operate under the core belief that “we are all influencers,” and my vision is to continue expanding and work with the greatest number of influencers from around the world. I would love for SocialPubli to be the go-to influencer marketing platform worldwide.
What’s your advice for the businesses that are trying to adapt to this economic climate?
Be as lean as you can and try to find the best partners to accompany you. In today’s world, it is impossible to have the best internal resources in every field, so it’s a must to be surrounded and supported by good managers, an efficient team, and the best partners to help you grow.
What books do you have on your nightstand?
“The Hard Thing About Hard Things: Building a Business When There Are No Easy Answers” by Ben Horowitz. It’s a must when you are launching a startup and it gives you a lot of food for thought. I also have some of the classics such as “Don’t Make Me Think” by Steve Krug and “Purple Cow” by Seth Godin.
