Influence refers to the power to control, manipulate or affect something or someone. All through history influential figures have risen who through one way or the other commanded great influence and used such influence either for the ultimate good or bad. In 1978, Jim Jones through unfettered influence initiated and coerced his congregation nearing a thousand into drinking Cyanide which resulted in deaths of about 909 among them 304 children. This clearly depicts the power of influence and what could be achieved with the power to influence people, though Jim Jones took the negative and unfortunate lane. However, on the brighter side, several have used their influence for the positive good of their world, Nelson Mandela, Martin Luther King and Abraham Lincoln all come to mind.  Influence can prove useful in almost every facet of life and human existence. One of such fields where the power to influence has been recognized and its potency acknowledged is social media marketing. Companies reach out to influential figures who are capable of influencing the behavioural tendencies of those who follow them in order to advertise their products. The emergence of Social Networking Services has also very revolutionized the world of influencers and marketing and thus has opened up new possibilities.

Gone are the days when one had to be a Mandela, a Luther King or even Abraham Lincoln  to be truly influential. The rise of digitization and the emergence of various Social Media outlets like Facebook, YouTube, Instagram and Twitter has enabled for the emergence of a new kind of influencers, a kind who with their large followings can effectively influence their followers into taking various decisions like buying a new product or checking out some financial advice website. In 2018 alone the estimated total number of social media has been recorded to be  a whopping 3.196billion, up 13% from last year.  The Social Networking Services therefore presents a new opportunities with the ability to grant access to the so many people who use the social media. It only gets better as a hitherto unknown individual can through gathering reasonable followings on any social media outlet and constant interaction with such following can become an influential figure so long as his followers are concerned and in turn he could influence them to carry out actions.However, despite the exciting prospects of Social Networking Services through which so much can be achieved, the truth is not so much has been achieved with influencer services because they as yet remain ineffective or not optimally effective.

Comtemporary Influencer Services and Why It Is All A Gamble

Celebrities today have millions of followers on their various Social Media accounts, they therefore to the best imagination of various companies represent the best people to approach in order to promote their services or products. However, a celebrity like Nicki Minaj's following is made up of people from different walks of life, people who would not be interested in the same thing. Imagine a start up company paying her millions of dollars in order to advertise their new skin toning cream. A lot of male followers who make half of her following would not be interested in such a product, the advertising company would have paid to reach millions of people but they would rather end up reaching only half of that. Such a situation can only be described as a gamble hence one who wants to promote their product through an influencer can never be sure about the effectiveness of their campaign and also very much end up losing money in the process. Hardly desirable!There is therefore the absolute necessity to develop an Influencer Service Sharing platform that is highly optimized and poised to deliver results to all stakeholders including companies who wish to get exposure for their products to as well as Influencers and their followers in order to fully leverage the offerings of the Social Networking Service. Patron is a project that fully understands this most important need.

PATRON: An Influencer Sharing Economy Built on The Blockchain

Patron is a project that is poised to revolutionize marketing through Influencers on Social Networking Services.  Patron has developed a working Influencer sharing economy based on the perfectly working Airnbnb sharing economy  model rather than trying to reinvent the wheel. In Airbnb, a host is able to rent out an apartment to a visiting guest for a fee by creating a listing of their property on Airbnb. In the same way, the Patron platform offers a collection of Influencers across various niches  and social platforms who are ready to offer their services to companies or entities willing to promote their products or services. Patron stands out because it integrates mechanisms that eliminate the gambling factor from marketing campaigns through the abilities of ranking influencers based on various parameters as well as providing Influencers whose following is based on a specific demographic that is interested in a specific thing. This way Patron serves as a platform that serves as a one stop shop for effective marketing campaigns and also better empowers Influencers and guarantees their visibility.

Patron makes use of the blockchain in order to guarantee the trustless, Peer to Peer (P2P) transfer of value without the interference of a third party credit facility and also enables the payment of Influencers for their services through the tokenization of  influencer services using blockchain technology. In a nutshell, what patron provides is a priceless platform that would change the face Social Media Marketing by enabling higher success rates while at the same time rewarding Influencers for their services and making such influencers more efficient and reliable.

Built For Efficiency, The Patron Model

Patron is a tripartite arrangement that consists of three equally important parties and stakeholders.These three would be discussed highlighting their importance and roles in the Patron ecosystem.

They include;

1. The Influencers or Hosts

Influencers in this context refers to those who have large followings on the various Social Networking Services that can be leveraged in marketing various products and services. However, being an influencer in the Patron model does not only have to do with having large followings, but rather a following that is united by a particular goal or interested in a particular subject hence such followings convert higher. Influencers enter into contracts with sponsors to promote their products or services to their dedicated following. Such contracts could be on a one time, monthly or yearly basis.

However, as Patron is result oriented, in addition to providing influencers focused on specific demographics and niches, a number of steps have been put in place in order to determine the true worth of influencers. These criteria for determining the worth of influencers include;

(a) The size of an influencer's following: The number of followers an influencer has is ultimately one of the major criteria for determining their worth. An influencer who has millions of followers in a particular niche would obviously be worth more than another who has just a few thousands.

(b) The Engagement Between  Influencer and Followers: While the size of an influencer's following matters, the rate at which an influencer is actually able to engage and interact with his followers is also taken ino cognizance in order to determine the worth of such influencers.

(c) An Influencer's Reputation: Feedback from the followers of an influencer also helps Patron determine the worth of an influencer.

2. Sponsors Or Guests

Sponsors or Guests refers to the various entities or bodies who want to leverage the services of hosts or influencers in order to promote or market their services and products. Sponsors are also able to enter into contracts with various influencers in order to be able to access a highly effective demographic niche made of people enthusiastic about a particular cause that the sponsor is also interested in. However sponsors are screened before they can be able to take up their roles as guests.

3. Followers

These refer to the people who make up an influencer's following. They are the target audience of the various marketing campaigns embarked upon by sponsors through the intrumentality of influencers. With Patron, followers will finally be presented with various products and services they truly care about rather than some random service or product some celebrity is promoting.

Eliminating the Wild Goose Chase With Patron's Targeted Demographic Access.

  One of Patron's core features that really sets it out is the ability to provide targeted demographic access. By targeted demographic access it means that Patron focuses on influencers whose following is entirely made up of fans enthusiastic about a particular thing. For instance an influencer may be known as @Dirt_Bikes, this kind of influencer most obviously only focuses on his chosen demographic, lovers of dirt bikes! Patron calls this kind of influencers who focus on particular niches micro-influencers. They are however the most effective. Thus with Patron's demographic access, sponsors no longer have to embark on a wild goose chase paying heavily for exposure to people who might not even find their product or service valuable. In this way, Patron overhauls the existing structures and replaces them with one that is effective, one that is result oriented and a structure that not only gets the job done but also ensures each party is satisfied.     

 The Blockchain and Why It Is Core to Patron's Functioning and Efficiency.  

The blockchain is revolutionizing almost every facet of human existence and interaction, with its security, trustless capabilities and immutable records provide a super combo that can never be overlooked by those who really wish to up their game. Patron's sharing is built on the blockchain and through the instrumentality of the blockchain, no third party credit facility is needed to guarantee credit hence parties would transact trustlessly with each other based on the immutable history of their performances. 

The blockchain is also instrumental to the economy of the Patron ecosystem hence it is through it that a monetary system is built (in this case the PAT) that would ensure the trustless and P2P transfer of value. While trust needed to transfer  may be extremely difficult to build between strangers, the blockchain enables Patron to achieve that trust because parties do not need to trust at all in order to be able to transfer value.

Exploring the Priceless Advantages and Benefits of Patron

Patron is an innovation that is changing the face of marketing on the Social Networking Services. It therefore very much comes with advantages and benefits that hitherto not enjoined by all the major three stakeholders in the Social Media Marketing sub sector.

One of the mot prominent and outstanding benefits of using the Patron platform for sponsors is the ability to finally make their marketing campaigns more effective as well as the assurance of higher conversion rates through Patron's ability to rank influencers according to their strength in the various niches such that sponsors no longer have to spend without getting their money's worth.

Influencers too have been gifted a platform where they can be truly rewarded for their services and an opportunity to earn while doing what they love doing -influencing. Patron's smart contract technology also eliminates brokerage commissions which highly negatively impacted the profit margins for influencers. 

Followers or fans on the other hand would finally be exposed to products and services that they are really interested and that would  satisfy their cravings. Talk about a mechanized farming  enthusiast being exposed to the latest tractors made by a sponsor who hired an agriculture influencer he subscribes to.

The PAT Token and Its Functionalities

The PAT token for use in the Patron ecosystem is an ERC-20 complaint token built on the Ethereum blockchain. The PAT token is the currency that would be used to access all of Patron's services. The PAT token would also be used to set up contracts between influencers and sponsors, PAT can also be used to buy, sell and trade with influencers. Furthermore, the PAT token can also be used by fans to vote for their favourite influencers through a fan vote. Engagement on the platform would also be encouraged through the use of fan polls and award incentives in PAT based on popular demand. The PAT token is very much at the center of all activities within the PAT ecosystem and thus drives the platform.

Use Case

Ever since he was a little boy, Jon has been enthusiastic about one particular thing -snail farming. Jon has grown up with this hobby and so operates one of the largest and most successful snail farms in his locality. Jon also has an instagram account that has about a hundred thousand followers. The only thing Jon talks about on his page is snail farming, exposing various tricks and hacks needed to maintain a snail farm and also the various equipment and feeds that are best for snail farming. It is therefore safe to conclude that all hundred thousand of Jon's followers are enthusiastic about snail farming. 

Jon hears about PATRON and decides to offer Influencer services in the snail farming niche. Being highly specific in terms of his niche and with the number of his following, Jon is quickly able to rank as the topmost influencer in his niche. He is subsequently hired by Aby & Co to promote their snail feed. Aby & Co had already spent thousands of dollars advertising their snail feed but they got little or no results because of the heterogenous populations they advertised to.

However, since their partnership with Jon, Aby & Co has experienced spikes in the sale of their feed and have thus hired Jon for a yearly contract making him earn considerably more. Jon's followers on the other hand are being presented with quality products that continue to improve their businesses.

Conclusion

What makes a project a great one is the value which purports to add to those who might be interested in such a product or rather take active part in it.  By all means and for all reason, Patron is one such project that is great because of the volume of value that it would add to its active stake holders in terms of the sponsors, influencers and followers. Patron is also revolutionizing the Social Medial Marketing sector through the use of its Sharing economy that is poised to take social media marketing from the throes of ineffectiveness and deliver it unto efficiency and effectiveness for all stakeholders.

The Team and their Philosophy

The team is predominantly Japanese and is led by Atsushi Hisatsumi who is a well known Japanese enterprenuer that is marked out by his precedents. The teams philosophy revolves around building a viable product that would favourably compete with the world's best. Patron is an example of such a product.

 More Information & Resources:

• Patron Website
• Patron WhitePaper
• Patron Telegram
• Patron Facebook
• Patron LinkedIn
• Patron Bitcointalk
• Patron DEMO