Report: Michael Bloomberg Paying Social Media Influencers to Make Him ‘Seem Cool’

The presidential campaign of former New York City mayor and billionaire Michael Bloomberg has begun an initiative to pay social media users to promote his work and agenda ahead of the 2020 election.

The startup, seen by the Daily Beast as an attempt for Bloomberg to “seem cool,” comes a few days after Bloomberg’s campaign announced its plans to double the amount he spends on advertising amid several problems with the Iowa caucus.

Tribe, a “branded content marketplace” that connects social-media users and influencers with brands they would like to promote, can now be used to show support for Bloomberg’s campaign while receiving payment.

For a fee of $150, Bloomberg’s campaign is reaching out to micro-influencers, someone with 1,000 to 100,000 followers, to establish content “that tells us why Mike Bloomberg is the electable candidate who can rise above the fray, work across the aisle so ALL Americans feel heard & respected.”

“Are you sick of the chaos & infighting overshadowing the issues that matter most to us? Please express your thoughts verbally or for still image posts please overlay text about why you support Mike,” the campaign stated in its pitch under the headline “Content We’d Love From You.”

The campaign also wants influencers to “Show+Tell why Mike is the candidate who can change our country for the better, state why YOU think he’s a great candidate.”

The Daily Beast noted:

The Bloomberg content campaign appears geared toward collecting content that can later be shared by the campaign, essentially creating a stock-image library of well-crafted, ‘organic’ – seeming still images and videos custom-made for the campaign. The relatively low $150 cost per post also makes the investment comparatively cheap—some influencers can command fees in the five or even six figures for a brand campaign, and that’s not even including celebrity accounts, who can earn enough money per post to make even billionaire Bloomberg blush.

In order to participate in the process, one must be a U.S. resident and is forbidden to use profanity, nudity, or “overtly negative content.”

Since he announced his candidacy, Bloomberg has amped up his social media use with comments and advertisements that target the Trump presidency.

Earlier this week, Bloomberg’s campaign released an advertisement on television and social media which suggested that President Donald Trump is to blame for the deadly nightclub shooting that occurred at Pulse nightclub in Orlando, Florida, on June 12, 2016 – months before Trump took office.