What you say about yourself matters much less than what others are saying about you, which is why we launched StoryCafe today. It’s an Influencer Marketing company headquartered in Los Angeles that matches Food & Restaurant brands with the right influencers so that they can amplify their voice across social.We believe that highly targeted, relevant advertising such as Facebook and Twitter work really well, but the vast majority of advertising is becoming significantly less effective. The continuous growth of social networks has made Word of Mouth much more prevalent than it was just two years ago. People are now listening much less to traditional ads and much more to other people, when making their purchasing decisions.According to Nielsen, less than 50% of customers believe in TV commercials, yet nearly 100% believe in advice from their friends and 70% trust online opinions. In other words, the messenger matters, particularly if he or she is authentic. Influencers are further down the sales funnel and have a much more intimate connection with consumers which translates to the brand.We’re really excited about our new business and we are currently working with a number of companies to place their messages in the hands of the most relevant influencers from a database of nearly 100,000 pinners, bloggers, viners, snappers, tweeters, instagramers, etc.

Our first campaign is a Valentine’s Day Promotion for California Pizza Kitchen (CPK) entitled “What We Do For Love”. Consumers who post a picture and caption to Instagram, Twitter or Facebook with #CPKLoveSweeps can earn a chance to win CPK for a year through a $2,500 gift certificate. To add buzz and influence to the campaign, we reached out to contestants from The Bachelor to post pictures and captions that express the crazy things they do for love.Influencers participating include Courtney Robertson (Former Villain and Winner of Season 16) and Chris Bukowski (Notorious Bad Boy of Season 8). We also added popular Wedding Blogger, Jen Campbell, and others. All photos and captions are captured in a gallery along side CPK’s Valentine’s Day Dinner Special at bit.ly/CPKLove.For more detail, take a look at our website.Want more tips and tricks for how to dominate social this year with Data, Creative and Amplification? Download our 2016 Social Media Survival Guide.