Startup founder Lingbin Kong created a platform to manage what he thinks is the next wave in marketing — influencer promotion.
The RockitBoost platform is a marketplace where influencers can look for products to promote on their social media pages in exchange for sales commission.
A company can link their product to RockitBoost along with how much commission an influencer will get per sale or per site visit. The influencer chooses which products to promote and manage those deals through the RockitBoost platform.
The company pays RockitBoost, which distributes the commission to the influencer, who can keep their earnings on the platform or redeem them anytime. RockitBoost, which is still in its free trial stage, plans to take 1-1.5% of each sale for its revenue.
“With e-commerce, the traditional marketing and sales doesn’t work very well,” Kong said.
Through working with startups and small businesses, Kong said he saw the struggles creators and influencers had in communicating and striking deals, especially since many influencers may have other jobs.
RockitBoost aims to streamline that communication, making influencer marketing easier for companies and commission more attainable for social media moguls.
The platform isn’t all about product advertising, Kong said. Companies can list virtual products, such as new apps or crowdfunding campaigns, to jumpstart their product development. Marketing agencies could also join the platform to find influencers with whom to collaborate.
The platform also automatically translates into 10 languages, allowing creators and influencers across the world to work together.
“In China, startups don’t have access to YouTube, Instagram, Facebook because of the firewall,” said Kong, who came to the U.S. from China to attend Georgia Tech. “It’s hard for them to collaborate with influencers.”
Kong bootstrapped the company and plans to spend this year promoting and scaling RockitBoost after finishing product development last year. The platform had a soft launch earlier this year and plans to do an official launch in the next few weeks.
He said the Covid-19 pandemic slowed down development, but he sees the accelerated digital transformation as the best time to officially release RockitBoost because of the increase in e-commerce and digital marketing.
