Michael Barbieri’s Waldoo Is the Future of Brand-Influencer Communication

Waldoo is a revolutionary platform that connects vetted brands and social media influencers eager to collaborate. Using this platform is straightforward—it pretty much works like a dating app, except the entities matched are geared toward a mutually beneficial business relationship.

Social media has been steadily gaining traction since it began in 1997. In 2005, YouTube came to be and allowed for an innovative method of communication through videos. By 2006, the biggest social media platforms today, namely, Facebook and Twitter, became available worldwide. Today, these platforms are hosts to a diverse population of social media influencers.

3.8 billion users out of the 7.8 billion world population are active on social media. Social media marketing is currently the biggest opportunity in online marketing. In the United States alone, there is an estimated $37.71B spent in the first half of 2020 on social media advertising. 

Many brands are eyeing sponsorships with social media influencers—that is, users who have established credibility in a specific industry and have access to a vast audience—for promotions. Currently, 49% of consumers depend on influencer recommendations before making a purchase. Consumers are more likely to make a purchase when confident about the influencer’s recommendation, further making social media marketing via influencers more interesting for companies looking to increase their sales.

By asking them to complete a questionnaire to assess their target demographics, Waldoo can perfectly fit influencers and brands whose visions and objectives align. While social media influencers are able to land collaborations on their own, they commonly receive messages from their fans. The large volume of messages flooding their inbox is likely to result in missed opportunities and sponsorship deals due to them not immediately finding the offers sent to them.

Waldoo was created by 24-year-old Michael Barbieri, who, as a college senior, started a gaming page with his friends to post clips, stream games live, and host local tournaments. With a modest follower count of just 3,000 at the time, they were already getting overwhelmed with the massive amount of messages they received. They would receive proposals for sponsorships and ambassadorships from companies but would not even know about it until they got to their messages several days to a few weeks later.

There came the inspiration for Waldoo. If they, with a follower count of only 3,000, were already missing such opportunities, then influencers with a bigger follower count must have been having an even harder time. If there were something like a platform where vetted influencers and brands could communicate exclusively, then more deals would have been closed. Michael is hopeful that it will eventually eliminate the need for micro-influencers to hire agencies that take massive commissions despite restricting them from so many opportunities.

Michael graduated with a bachelor’s degree in business and digital media. Even before building his company, he had been working a relatively well-earning job as a sales supervisor at a good company, where he managed a large group of people practically double his age. With his expertise and people skills, he had the respect of his coworkers and growth opportunities. Still, despite loving his job and doing his best every day, he could not help but want more. Hence, Waldoo was born and is now making deals easier for brands and influencers alike.

Find out more about Waldoo and learn more about what they offer by checking out their website.

Companies facilitating influencer-brand communications are rare, and Waldoo has very few competitors thanks to this.