WEEKLY DOWNLOAD: Under the Influence

Where digital meets travel + lifestyle … A collection of can’t-miss news from this week. Sign up to get the TURNER Weekly Download in your inbox every Friday.

Cosmetic Influence

If you’re looking for social media influencer success stories, look no further than the tales of cosmetic brands NYX and Becca, both of whom have turned robust influencer engagement into multi-million dollar makeup empires. The best part? NYX’s approach is organic and unpaid. NYX sends customers new products every month, and those customers then post thoughts and application tips on their social channels. It’s authentic. It’s natural. And it’s also cheap – never a bad thing. NYX’s overall social media engagement increased an incredible 97 percent over the past year.

Clash of the Platforms

Watch your back, Instagram. Though the Facebook-owned photo-sharing platform remains the most popular and effective channel for social media influencers, YouTube – owned by Google – is making serious moves to change that. According to a recent survey, a growing number of influencers see YouTube becoming their primary focus by 2018. That’s not to say that YouTube is going to completely overtake Instagram’s influencer dominance, however. That will take some doing – 92 percent of influencers polled still chose Instagram as their number one platform.

Who Started The Fyre?

The instantly infamous Fyre Festival last month was a true disaster – and there’s plenty of blame to spread around. But a good portion of the blame, some claim, lies with social media influencers. Several supermodels promoted the festival via their powerful social media channels – and were given lavish perks and payment to do so. The problem? Many influencers didn’t disclose their profitable relationships with the festival, a clear violation of FTC standards. Here come the lawsuits! The lesson for brands and influencers here is clear: always disclose. Always.

YouTube’s A-List

Are YouTube celebrities just plain old celebrities now? It’s looking that way, with vloggers amassing an empire of millions of devoted followers. If you’re feeling lost in this new (and ever-changing) world of online influence, don’t worry: Wired made you a map. Just follow along and you’ll start connecting the dots and understanding just how powerful some of these YouTubers have become in recent years. And you might even learn what “smoshing” is.

Weekly Moment of Zen

Need to unplug from the madness for a while? How about some barnyard live-cams.