Influencer – LSD News

Former ICE director warns ‘wartime recruitment’ tactics like influencer campaigns and $50,000 bonuses could attract the wrong kind of agents | Fortune

LSD News Szerkesztőség — Thu, 08 Jan 2026 23:01:07 +0000

The Department of Homeland Security’s deployment of more than 2,000 Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers and agents—the largest such enforcement action in U.S. history—turned fatal on Wednesday when an ICE officer shot and killed a 37-year-old woman in Minneapolis.

The shooting was just one of several fatal incidents since ICE ramped up its mass deportation effort last year and raises questions about how officers are trained, especially as DHS has dodged questions about this process while more than doubling its number of agents since 2024. Recruitment efforts have been juiced by massive funding from the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, as taxpayers have found themselves funding an unprecedented swelling of immigration enforcement hiring.

Federal officers have also killed at least three other people, according to The Marshall Project, and have shot at least nine people since September, according to The New York Times.

While ICE has ballooned to more than 22,000 agents—more than double from early 2025—the “wartime recruitment” tactics it has employed could be attracting combat-hungry or inexperienced people to the job, experts warn.

Recruitment tactics led to over 200,000 applications

DHS announced last summer its plans to hire 10,000 deportation officers, using what they internally called a “wartime recruitment,” according to an internal document reviewed by The Washington Post.

ICE officials planned to spend $100 million over a one-year period to recruit gun rights and military support through influencers and geo-targeted advertising campaigns, according to The Post. The funding is part of the $1.7 billion allocated for border and interior enforcement, including $75 billion for ICE, to be spent over four years.

The department’s strategy dedicated $8 million to influencers, including “former agents, veterans and pro-ICE creators,” with Gen Z and millennial audiences, according to internal documents reviewed by The Post. DHS planned to work with creators across traditional social media platforms like Facebook, Instagram, and X as well as platforms with more conservative users such as Rumble. DHS anticipated that their influencer would bring more than 5,000 applications.

In addition to a salary ranging from $49,739 to $89,528 a year, DHS offers up to a $50,000 signing bonus split over three years, up to $60,000 in student loan repayment and forgiveness options, and retirement benefits.

ICE also uses a marketing strategy called “geofencing” to send ads to the phone web browsers and social media feeds of anyone located near military bases, NASCAR races, college campuses, or gun and trade shows, according to The Post.

“The recruitment initiative utilized data-driven outreach efforts to recruit qualified patriotic Americans from across the country. As a result, ICE was able to exceed its hiring surge target while maintaining rigorous standards for training and readiness,” the agency wrote in the Jan. 3 statement.

ICE did not respond to a request for comment.

Sarah Saldaña, former director of ICE, recently told The Post she was concerned that the speed of recruitment and the framing of jobs as a war effort in marketing campaigns increased the risk of attracting people seeking combat experience.

The department received over 220,000 applications and hired 12,000 new officers in four months. Despite reaching their personnel goal, DHS is still recruiting more officers.

“We continue to call on American patriots to serve the homeland because we know that there’s still more work to do — and we will not stop until every community in this nation is safe,”” said ICE Deputy Director Madison D. Sheahan in a statement.

Officer training questioned

Renee Nicole Macklin Good was shot in her car as ICE agents approached her vehicle and demanded she open the door, according to video filmed by bystanders. An ICE officer shot her at close range and was briefly hospitalized after the vehicle hit him.

Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem defended the officer who killed Macklin Good, saying that the officer “followed his training.” President Donald Trump doubled down on Wednesday, calling the video of the shooting “horrible to watch,” but said Macklin Good had “behaved horribly” and ran the agent over, even though video evidence disputes that claim.

All new ICE agents are required to undergo the 8-week Basic Immigration Law Enforcement Training Program, during which they train 6 days a week at a facility in Georgia and learn to find, arrest, and deport people. In the past, ICE officials underwent a five-week Spanish-language training program and 16 weeks of basic training, according to the ICE website.

The shooting comes after months of allegations of unprofessionalism and misconduct from advocacy groups. Even after a federal judge ordered ICE officers to wear individual badges, officers were seen without badges, according to the Chicago Sun-Times. Some new recruits showed up to training without full vetting, having failed drug tests, physical, or academic standards, and without disclosing criminal backgrounds.

A senior DHS official told NBC News on Wednesday that ICE officers are trained to never approach a vehicle from the front and not to shoot at a moving vehicle because it will not stop it from moving towards the officer.

Representative Robin Kelly (D-IL) filed articles of impeachment against Noem on Wednesday.

“Secretary Noem wreaked havoc in the Chicagoland area, and now, her rogue ICE agents have unleashed that same destruction in Minneapolis, fatally shooting Renee Nicole Good,” Kelly wrote in a statement announcing the move. “ It’s one thing to be incompetent and dangerous, but it’s impeachable to break the rule of law.”

Your CEO wants to be a social media influencer. Is it cool or cringy?

LSD News Szerkesztőség — Mon, 22 Dec 2025 03:40:29 +0000

Vladimir Godnik | Fstop | Getty Images

For years, Braden Wallake has posted everything from business lessons to animal pictures on his LinkedIn page. A fateful midweek post on a late-summer day stopped the marketing executive in his tracks.

Wallake shared a teary-eyed selfie with a message about his feelings after laying off staff. Just like that, he was the “Crying CEO.”

“I woke up the next day, texted my marketing person and said, ‘I think I went viral last night,'” said Wallake, whose post has raked in more than 57,000 reactions and 10,000 comments.

Users blasted the HyperSocial CEO as being “manipulative” and displaying “self indulgence.” The photo “would make a great dart board,” another wrote.

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Corporate executives and founders like Wallake were sold on the idea that a vibrant social media presence can boost their personal and firm-wide brand awareness. But the reality is less picture-perfect than it’s made out to be.

In many cases, these leaders come off not as relatable but as cringey. And they’re learning the hard way that their digital footprints can even have material business implications.

“There can be real benefits from CEOs being online, but there can also be great risks,” said Ann Mooney Murphy, a Stevens Institute of Technology professor who has studied how company leaders gain social media celebrity status. “One needs to tread carefully.”

The online executive

The pitfalls of social media usage for business leaders are becoming increasingly clear as more executives take to the platforms. Nearly three-fourths of Fortune 500 chief executives had at least one social media account last year, up from roughly half in 2019, data from Influential Executive showed.

More than seven out of 10 Fortune 100 CEOs with social platforms posted at least once a month in 2024, a 32% increase from the year prior, according to an analysis from communications firm H/Advisors Abernathy released this week. CEOs have flocked in particular to the work-focused social site LinkedIn, where they post three times a month on average.

An active social media presence can help build brand recognition and drive attention from mainstream news outlets, Murphy said. It can also allow executives to develop para-social relationships directly with consumers — something that was once reserved for more-traditional celebrities like actors or athletes, she said.

While company news was king in these posts, H/Advisors Abernathy found executives devoting more social real estate to sharing personal happenings. This softer style of content — examples of which include Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg sharing pictures from Taylor Swift’s “Eras” tour and Goldman Sachs‘ David Solomon posting details for his DJ sets — can help keep followers engaged, Murphy said.

Goldman Sachs CEO David Solomon performs at Schimanski night club in Brooklyn, New York.

Trevor Hunnicutt | Reuters

A subsector has sprouted up around executives’ social media habits, with several businesses offering training programs or consulting services focused on best practices. PayPal made waves in marketing circles earlier this year when it posted a “Head of CEO Content” role, which paid upwards of $300,000 in part to lead social media communications strategy.

Promise and peril

But in recent years, a growing list of anecdotes like Wallake’s “Crying CEO” experience show how posting through life can go awry.

Jason Yanowitz boasted on X in October that Blockworks, the crypto company he co-founded, saw “massive growth” and hit “record revenues” in 2025. He also said the company was shuttering its news division and recommended staffers to anyone hiring journalists covering digital currencies.

One user suggested that Yanowitz forgo smiley faces and strike a tone with less “triumphancy” in a post announcing job cuts. Someone else replied that “before jumping into what’s next,” he should “address the real people who were impacted.”

Yanowitz, who declined CNBC’s interview request, later wrote on X that he “should not have mentioned revenue” in the original post.

Around the same time as Yanowitz’s tweet, a social media video featuring Snowflake revenue chief Mike Gannon offered a case study on how these incidents can evolve into real-world crises.

In an Instagram clip viewed millions of times, Gannon told a street interviewer that the data storage firm was slated to rake in $10 billion “in a couple of years.” Shortly after, Snowflake said in a regulatory filing that statements made in the interview were not authorized and that investors “should not rely upon” them. The company declined to make Gannon available for an interview.

Tesla CEO Elon Musk has shared visions for his business ventures on social media in between musings about politics and cultural issues. Two years ago, Musk found himself in court defending comments related to business plans made on X, his social media platform formerly known as Twitter.

Alex Spiro, attorney to Elon Musk, center, departs court in San Francisco, California, US, on Tuesday, Jan. 17, 2023.

Benjamin Fanjoy | Bloomberg | Getty Images

In several instances, readers have responded directly to executives whose content they find problematic or cringe-inducing. Some, like Ryan Benson, have also mocked the broader trend of business leaders’ attempting to connect directly via social media.

“It’s just disingenuous,” said Benson, 28. “They’re not trying to speak with people the way that maybe an influencer has success in. They’re trying to talk at people to make them think something about their position.”

Executives’ missteps on social media can catalyze discontent from investors, consumers or employees, according to Murphy of the Stevens Institute of Technology. In some situations, she said social media statements could lead to increased regulatory or legal risk for the companies they represent.

Is all attention good?

Despite the downfalls, corporate leaders who have seen the underbelly of social media don’t regret being online.

HyperSocial’s Wallake said he initially took time away from LinkedIn to let the dust settle and now thinks twice before making a post. But Wallake still recommends other business managers harness social media to grow their brands given the benefits. If someone does bring up his teary picture, Wallake brushes it off.

“If people want to call me the ‘Crying CEO,’ they’re more than welcome to,” Wallake said. “If they actually get to meet me, they’re going to see me smiling way more often than they’re going to see me ever crying.”

When Yehong Zhu, co-founder of media technology startup Zette AI, jumped on a day-in-my-life trend, responders roasted her over perceived laziness. People said she should be “embarrassed” and was “fundamentally useless to society.” One commenter said they were “printing this out and taping it to the wall to remind me every time I catch myself believing in meritocracy.”

Zhu received handwritten hate mail tied to the post sent to her office. But she also noticed a flood of press coverage that included the company’s name and signups to a product waitlist, underscoring the power of publicity — even if it’s negative.

“After there was this huge influx of attention, I realized, you know what, maybe all attention is good attention,” Zhu said. “As long as your name is in their mouth, you’re doing something right.”

Zhu later understood that her post was taken as “rage bait,” a genre of content so infamous that Oxford named it the 2025 word of the year. She’s currently undergoing a social media rebrand and is considering leaning toward controversial posts — with the hope of winning more attention online.

“I was not trying to rage bait,” she said of the original post. “The day that I actually try to rage bait, everybody will be actually enraged.”

LinkedIn betting it can take on TikTok and Instagram in influencer marketing

LSD News Szerkesztőség — Sun, 14 Apr 2024 10:07:35 +0000

Ryan Roslansky, CEO of Microsoft’s LinkedIn subsidiary, speaks at a LinkedIn event in San Francisco on Sept. 22, 2016.

David Paul Morris | Bloomberg | Getty Images

Influencer marketing has become big business on TikTok and Instagram, where popular creators can make good money by helping brands promote their stuff. Now, LinkedIn wants in the game.

As of last week, LinkedIn is letting advertisers pay to amplify posts from users, including those with sizable followings. Its product, called Thought Leader ads, launched in a limited capacity last year.

The Microsoft-owned business is looking for a jolt, as LinkedIn’s revenue growth has been stuck in single digits since 2022. The company is turning to its membership, which topped 1 billion in November, to help fuel expansion.

Influencer marketing to date has largely been a phenomenon of consumer apps, where shticks and gimmicks can turn internet-savvy creators into celebrities with millions of followers. Almost two-thirds of U.S. social media marketing dollars this year will flow to Instagram parent Meta and TikTok’s Chinese owner ByteDance, with Instagram and TikTok picking up a combined 2 percentage points of additional share by 2026, according to estimates from eMarketer.

LinkedIn, which was launched a year before Facebook, will grab just 4% of the market, equal to $4.5 billion in marketing revenue, eMarketer says, and its share will remain flat over the next two years.

“It takes a long time for ads and ad formats to really take root,” said Max Willens, a senior analyst at eMarketer, referring to LinkedIn’s latest endeavor.

LinkedIn introduced Thought Leader ads last year but with limited use. Brands could only amplify posts from their own employees. Mastercard, for example, promoted posts written by some of its leaders in Singapore, with one receiving over 500 notifications on the first day. LinkedIn has used Thought Leaders ads itself for some posts from operating chief Dan Shapero, but not yet for CEO Ryan Roslansky.

By opening up Thought Leader ads, LinkedIn is letting anyone boost a post as long as the author grants permission. Social media marketer Brendan Gahan is so bullish on the format that he’s focusing much of his efforts on helping companies use Thought Leader ads.

“In an era where brand safety is a big issue, LinkedIn has a leg up, particularly in contrast to Twitter,” said Gahan, who started an agency last year called Creator Authority, referring to the social media platform now known as X.

X lost some leaders working on brand safety last year, just as the Elon Musk-owned platform was seeing a surge in hate speech on the app.

LinkedIn has long been an effective site for advertisers because members list their employment details, making it easy for brands to target ads to relevant audiences. Advertising skews toward business-focused products like software and computer infrastructure, though automakers, universities and banks also use the network to reach potential customers.

“If you’re looking to sell a high-end B2B product, and you know the buying group is a CFO and someone in finance and like someone in HR, we can literally put ads in front of those specific people on LinkedIn, because the first-party data is so strong,” Roslansky said at a conference in late 2022.

Thought Leader ads came about after employees saw marketing clients promoting screenshots of other users’ content. Since turning on the offering last fall, the ads have yielded higher engagement than regular ads that run with images, said Abhishek Shrivastava, a LinkedIn vice president of product management.

“Humanizing your brand is critical for B2B and has been underused in that space,” said Shrivastava, adding that clients are very excited about it.

It might not be cheap. Racking up a thousand ad impressions generally costs more on LinkedIn than on Instagram or TikTok, partly because the company charges more for advertisers to reach its more affluent user base. Shrivastava said that rather than comparing the costs to other sites, brands will look at the sales and business leads they get from running ads.

For months, project management software startup ClickUp has been paying to promote LinkedIn posts from its own executives. Chris Cunningham, head of social marketing at the company, said traditional ads on LinkedIn can sometimes be repetitive and generic, and he’s eager to see how promoted posts will perform when influencers get involved.

On other social networks, ClickUp has found more success promoting posts from creators than with standard ads, Cunningham said. Plus, he said, “it’s super easy.”

Betsy Hindman, a marketer in Tennessee who helps companies make the most of their LinkedIn presence, said a brand ambassador with an audience can have a bigger impact than a typical ad.

“It’s part of a full end-to-end strategy that includes warming people up along the way with whatever type of content they respond to,” she said.

Building up a roster of creators will likely take time. Some influencers are represented by agencies, and LinkedIn’s Campaign Manager advertising system doesn’t have an automatic process for connecting media buyers with agencies.

“That’s a direction we are exploring,” Shrivastava said.

More data will soon be available to advertisers. Starting in a few weeks, LinkedIn members will be able to look up any company’s collection of ads and see its Thought Leader ads, a spokesperson said. That could help advertisers see what works best.

One potential boon for LinkedIn rests with the fate of TikTok. The app faces a possible ban in the U.S. after the House of Representatives passed legislation last month that would force ByteDance to sell it within six months. Momentum has since slowed, though Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., urged lawmakers to take action on the matter earlier this week.

Willens from eMarketer said agencies are keeping an eye on the issue, but said “nobody feels there’s an imminent threat.”

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SEC Cracks Down On Van Eck For Failing To Disclose Influencer Involvement In ETF Launch

LSD News Szerkesztőség — Sun, 18 Feb 2024 04:18:20 +0000

American investment advisers, VanEck Associates, have been formally penalized by the United States Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) for violating transparency laws. The investment company has agreed to pay a substantial penalty fee related to their failure to disclose information about a prominent influencer’s participation in the launch of its Spot Bitcoin Exchange Traded Fund (ETF).

SEC Charges Van Eck Associates

On Friday, February 16, the SEC issued a press release on its official website, confirming the formal charges against Van Eck Associates. The charges are related to the SEC’s order in 2021 where the regulatory agency alleged that the investment advisers’ had launched its ETF to track an index based on the favorable sentiments from social media and other sources.

The regulatory agency contended that the investment advisers were well aware of the index provider’s intention to enlist a popular social media influencer for the promotion of its Social Sentiment ETF. Additionally, the SEC has stated that Van Eck Associates had proposed an appealing licensing fee structure that increased as the ETF grew, to further incentivize the influencer’s marketing efforts.

BTC market cap currently at $1.014 trillion. Chart: TradingView.com

As a result, the SEC has asserted that Van Eck Associates had failed to disclose the influencer’s involvement in its ETF launch and the associated licensing fee structure to the ETF board. This allegedly deliberate omission has led to the SEC issuing an official penalty fee of $1.7 million.

The Co-Chief of the Enforcement Division’s Asset Management Unit, Andrew Dean, in response to Van Eck’s charges noted that Van Eck Associates’ disregard for transparency laws had limited the board’s ability to assess the economic impact of the licensing arrangement and thoroughly appraise the advisory’s contract for funds.

Van Eck Associates Agree To $1.7M Settlement

In the press release, the US SEC announced that Van Eck Associates had officially consented to pay the $1.7 million settlement charge for violating the Investment Company Act and Investment Advisers Act. Without confirming or denying the allegations, Van Eck Associates has responded by issuing a “cease and desist order” and an official censure, in addition to the agreed-upon penalty settlement.

As of February 16, VanEck’s ETF has garnered almost $76 million in total assets under management. Since its launch, the investment management company has also witnessed significant inflows into its ETF.

Additionally, the digital asset investment company is poised to witness more gains according to Van Eck’s head of digital asset research, Matthew Siegel who predicts that over $2.4 billion is expected to flow into the recently approved Spot Bitcoin ETF in the first Quarter of 2024.

Featured image from Adobe Stock, chart from TradingView

Dogecoin Influencer Sounds Warning Of Scam Tokens Targeting The Community

LSD News Szerkesztőség — Sun, 10 Dec 2023 18:07:46 +0000

A popular name in the Dogecoin community has raised alarm about the increasing prevalence of scam tokens specifically targeting Dogecoin community members. According to Mishaboar, an avid Dogecoin enthusiast, the community has recently been targeted by a series of “pump and dump” scam coins looking to capitalize on Dogecoin’s popularity. These scam tokens which are created almost every day, lure in unsuspecting buyers with promises of huge gains, only to crash in value after the scammers dump their coins leading to a collapse in price.

Scammers Promoting Fake Tokens

In a recent post on social media platform X, Mishaboar warned members of the community of actors making use of the Dogecoin tag or targeting specific events to entice unsuspecting victims.

The Dogecoin community has experienced phenomenal growth from its days as the first meme token, to recently celebrating its 10th birthday. Dogecoin has been subject to various positives in its lifespan, gaining the support of popular names like Elon Musk, which has helped it climb to the 9th spot in terms of market cap. Doge’s popularity has given rise to other meme tokens like Shiba Inu and PEPE, which have gone on to build their own ecosystems and garner a support community.

However, the meme token has also been subject to negatives, one of which is dubious actors looking to steal money from members of the community. Several other Dogecoin copycats and scam tokens have appeared over the years, hijacking the Dogecoin tag trademark to encourage people to buy in.

According to Mishaboar, proponents of these scam tokens manipulate X’s algorithm to promote airdrops for their coins. After experiencing a price surge, large holders will dump their tokens and slip away with huge profits, and prices collapse in a few hours.

Dear #Dogecoin, be extremely careful with the several tokens targeting the community, often directly (hijacking the Dogecoin tag or targeting specific events) or indirectly.

New tokens are created every day and pushed to this community. Most of these are short-term pump-and-dump…

— Mishaboar (@mishaboar) December 9, 2023

DOGE market cap currently at $14.193 billion. Chart: TradingView.com

“Stay away from ANY ad or post encouraging you to get free “airdrops”. No exception. I am even surprised @X is still allowing ads containing that keyword to run,” he tweeted.

Dear #Dogecoin and newbies,

stay away from ANY ad or post encouraging you to get free “airdrops”. No exception.

I am even surprised @X is still allowing ads containing that keyword to run.

Report these scammers. Stay away.

When you see their posts, just say: pic.twitter.com/D4REI7WPlV

— Mishaboar (@mishaboar) December 10, 2023

The crypto space can be treacherous to some investors, as it is continuously subject to various hacks and scam methods. According to blockchain audit company Certik, November was the most damaging month of the year in terms of losses, with investors losing approximately $363 million to exploits, hacks, and scams. Approximately $1.1 million was lost to pump and dump schemes in particular.

#CertiKStatsAlert

Combining all the incidents in November we’ve confirmed ~$363M lost to exploits, hacks and scams

This makes November the most damaging month this year

Exit scams were ~$1.1M

Flash loans were ~$45.5M

Exploits were ~$316.4M

See more details below pic.twitter.com/QoDy6d8IJH

— CertiK Alert (@CertiKAlert) November 30, 2023

What’s Next For Dogecoin?

DOGE finally broke the $0.1 level for the first time this year on December 6 and has traded around the region for the past few days. At the time of writing, DOGE is trading at $0.1, looking to gain a footing above this price level. The crypto is already up by 17.45% in a 7-day timeframe and on-chain metrics point to a further price increase to $0.15.

Featured image from Shutterstock

TikTok famous: Influencer Shani Tran

LSD News Szerkesztőség — Thu, 10 Aug 2023 17:32:32 +0000

TikTok famous: Influencer Shani Tran – CBS News

Watch CBS News

TikTok influencer Shani Tran, who is a licensed therapist and the founder of “The Shani Project,” a mental health service provider, joins “CBS Mornings” to share her journey as a full-time influencer and provides valuable insights on selecting the right therapist.