Earned Media Value (EMV) is all the rage these days. Like the discredited Advertising Value Equivalency (AVE), it is essentially a made up number. Some firms calculate it based on what it would have cost you to advertise on a specific Instagram or Facebook page. Others base it on the number of followers and the level of engagement times something mysterious with a dollar sign in front of it.
Whatever—it’s not real measurement and it’s not real money.
Sadly, advertisers and influence marketing folks have now decided that Earned Media Value is the standard by which influencer marketing must be calculated—even though there is no standard way to calculate EMV!
Despite that, journalists and brand watchers are using these bogus numbers as if they were really measuring real money. They compare them to actual ROI, and consider them as a factor in overall brand value. All this as the credibility of influencer marketing is declining. Imagine that.
So to all those gurus, bloggers, writers, and, yes, influencers who are building your empires on fake numbers, good luck with that. You are our Menaces of the Month. ∞
(Image by Michael Mandiberg on flickr.)
