Recent happenings have prompted me to think more about the opportunity cost of a ToolGuyd post.
I find myself having to make more content decisions. Is a post worth the effort? Is media cooperation worth what I get out of it?
There are three main parts to a post’s opportunity cost – i) interest, ii) reward, and iii) effort.
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Example of Poor Media Support
A large tool brand prioritized paid and partnered social media influencers, giving them hands-on opportunities. No press materials were available. I was encouraged to check their quarterly sales flyer.
Over the next two years, every time I learned about a new product on my own and then posted about it, they contacted me and offered info and insights, but only after my post was up.
I cooperated because my contact made a genuine attempt to be helpful. That only goes so far.
Fast forward a bit. Influencers once again started showing off gifts they received ahead of the next paid hype event. The brand promised me that they would do better with media resources this time.
The day finally comes. Influencer hands-on content and hype videos are up. I open the timely media kit.
This is close to the quality level of the images they provided. The product details weren’t much better.
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Many if not all of the influencers have also received payment for their exposure. But this is the level of support provided so that I can give them exposure for FREE?
The Gold Standard: Milwaukee Tool
Milwaukee Tool is the best at press and media resources. There is no equal; no other brand comes anywhere close to being this helpful.
Let’s talk about the Pipeline 2025 media kit that Milwaukee sent to tool channels and also provided public access to.
This is a single product snippet from Milwaukee’s massive media kit. It’s choc full of useful details. Milwaukee’s regular press releases are even more informative.
The snippet above represents the LEAST of what Milwaukee provides with respect to product info, and it’s greater than the best of what most other brands can cobble up.
Okay – I need at least one image for a post.
This is what Milwaukee provided for a product that is launching a few months from now. All of this is for a SINGLE product that’s still 3 months out.
Milwaukee’s images tend to be excellent in showcasing product features.
And they’re high quality too.
I can build a post with the images, add in product details and information, and ask questions or request an interview for finer details or deeper insights.
Their press materials and image galleries enable me to explore a product in a post without having to ask for anything extra.
I will occasionally ask questions and then fold them into an already-published post.
For a typical Milwaukee product launch:
Reward: it’s a sought-after brand that interests regular readers and might bring in new visitors.
Interest: most posts aren’t just me sharing things with you; I’m usually also excitedly exploring the tool for myself.
Effort: everything I need is there, without my having to make calls, schedule interviews, or waste time searching for usable images.
Posting about Milwaukee tools isn’t easier; the difference is that there’s no undue effort.
When I work with Milwaukee’s media resources, 100% of my time and effort is well spent. Nearly everything I need is already there. They are the benchmark I wish other brands strived to match.
Some other brands are so bad at this that I practically have to put together a press release for them. That’s okay – all the work, the searching, the phone calls, and emails – it’s what they’re paying me for. Oh wait, they’re not, but they might be paying influencers and marketing agencies.
Almost every day, an interaction has me thinking “why can’t this other brand be even a little bit more like Milwaukee?” They seriously are the best of the best when it comes to media support and informational resources.
Influencer Marketing is Eroding Everything
Brands spend their budgets on influencer hype, but then I have to work harder than ever to… give them free exposure?
And I do it. Why? Because this should be the litmus test: IS THE TOOL INTERESTING?
More and more brands have shifted to prioritizing social media hype and influencer content. It’s eating away at my interest, ramping up the effort needed for a typical post, and often there’s little to no reward. Or sometimes it works against me.
If brands are supporting other content creators, why am I giving them ToolGuyd exposure and support for free?
Because I serve readers’ interests.
Does it serve readers’ interests when I can’t answer basic questions all the while brands are prioritizing influencers?
On average, free media cooperation has become less rewarding, less interesting, and it takes a lot more effort. This is eroding what I can do here, and how I do it. It has definitely impacted what I’ve been able to post about effectively in recent months.
With enough back and forth, a Teams or Zoom call or two, and a lot of time scouring the internet for usable images, and maybe I can glean enough for a good story. But I shouldn’t have to do that so much for basic media resources of the time that more brands used to readily provide and Milwaukee Tool still does.
Sometimes it’s a competency issue. But mostly, I think it’s because brands gave up on earned media. How many tool channels still report on new tools from a press release? How many content creators will give a brand exposure without a tool or maybe payment in their hand? Is that how I should approach things?
I don’t expect every brand to deliver Milwaukee-level media support, and of course my expectations vary depending on the size of the tool brand. But something’s got to change.
I’ve been stomping my feet about this. Nothing has changed. I stomped more. It didn’t help. So, I’ve got to change.
There are 2 ways to reduce the opportunity cost – either the effort required for putting a post together needs to go back down somehow, or the rewards need to go up.
I don’t like the “well, I’ll only work with you in a sponsorship capacity” approach, but I’ll walk that path if necessary.
Impact and reach is all over the place due to modern product research, search, and content consumption habits. I don’t even want to talk about what AI overviews are doing to things. In other words, rewards are difficult to boost.
There’s also the effort-reduction path, where I don’t beg for product images, details, or insights. Here’s what I found (or what they provided), here’s what I think, I’d love to know more but the brand gave all their attention to influencer partners.
I’d love to get an answer to that, but they don’t provide media support – maybe the brand’s influencer partners can help you.
The problem with this is that it causes headaches. It results in emails, phone calls, and in some cases even more unfavorable press/media treatment.
I have finally come to terms that, whether it’s because brands have chosen other priorities, or because of ineptitude, inadequate media support is not my burden to shoulder.
If media support is inadequate or absent, I’ll do what I can with what I’ve got and move on. This has the potential to greatly reduce the effort barrier and opportunity cost where media resources are scarce or completely absent.
I always want to put out my best work, but sometimes it just takes too much. I can’t make a chocolate cake with mud. But I can say here’s some mud, I can’t make it look like cake, blame the huge tool company because that’s all they gave me to work with.
I am always hesitant about the “we saw your post, can we talk or connect you with a product manager” emails and calls that always seem to follow posts where I try to make do.
Having to say “we don’t have the full story” always seems like a personal failure. But it’s not – it’s their failure. I shouldn’t have to do my job and theirs.
Should any brand complain, I can tell them they’ve got their money or effort’s worth.
We’ll see how it goes – please let me know what you think.
Luke
Why is this site so much more valuable than influencers and hangers-on doing their 4534th impact driver race?
Because they can’t make a post like this that discusses marketing and incentives in frank terms. There’s definitely a desire from nearly all companies – certainly the major ones – to only highlight their products and never place them in context where design/budget choices might be questioned.
They need to be questioned, even if it makes the companies unhappy. They don’t deserve our money just because they made something new. They might get our money if they made something that makes our jobs easier or better.
That’s why we’re still here. We – the readers – are the REAL-WORLD influencers for our friends/families/coworkers/peers.
dcoleman88
Stu- Honesty, Integrity, and Transparency are what set Toolguyd apart from other websites. I see no issue with how you propose to handle this issue, and actually respect you more after your explanation. No one can argue with factual information and truth, they may not like it but they can not refute it. Keep being you Sir!
Rog
Hell yeah, Stuart! This site is invaluable to them and us, I support the new direction.
Side note: Have you considered a TG Patreon?
Jack D
Stay the course. The age of social media is taking a turn sooner rather than later, and that’s only accelerated by the incorporation of AI. Social platforms and “influencers” are fast losing their grip on their audience, as people tire of trying to sort what wheat from the chaff at every turn.
And when it does change, as it inevitably will, you’ll be the one best positioned to fill the needs of manufacturers’ PR departments scrambling to adjust their SOP.
Until then, your plan seems the best. Unless something interests you enough to dig deep for info, just put out what you have and lay the rest at the feet of the manufacturers.
Keep up the good work!
Saulac
Yes and no. Social media is like multi level marketing, there are suckers born every minute.
al
Flex immediately comes to mind. Massive marketing campaign built on influencer hype, and then crickets once released. These influencers aren’t actually using those tools in the field. Very few post about their leaking battery packs…
No
I write a little bit about networking equipment and tools for in-company resources, documents, and colleagues.
I’ve learned a lot about the differences in readers’ perceptions by reading your stuff for the last couple of years. Your transparency and directness make all the difference behind how I view your posts versus obvious and semi-obvious paid marketing from influencers. Your posts are a life raft amidst a sea of noise.
I try to emulate the directness and honesty from your posts in my documentation and it has been generally wells received.
Its a hard road and a high road but it is worth traveling: people can spot the authenticity a mile away.
Daniel L
I mean, the way most executives in companies see this is…
“Hey. An LLM can generate a positive review for my product at the venture-capital subsidized price of free. Who needs community outreach and support?”
“Shoot, that was easy! What do I need a marketing team for?”
“Good! Now that I’ve gained so much more productivity by decreasing cost, I wonder if I can use LLMs to do product design?”
“My human quality assurance testers keep telling me that LLMs are producing nonsense designs that don’t do anything. They’re clearly entitled jerks that aren’t worth the money I so graciously pay them for doing work that benefits me and my shareholders. Huh. I wonder if I could just replace them with another LLM? ”
“Hmm. Nobody seems to be buying my product. I wonder if LLMs can replace my customers?”
“See, my job can never be automated away, because I do *real* work. Unlike those other people that I fired.”
We’re reaching peak AI slopification. Eventually the circular funding between these tech giants is gonna stop fooling folks, people are gonna need to find a way to monetize LLMs, and their absurd operating and development costs are going to be borne by the consumer. We’ll see what the “savings” are like from all the cut human labor at that point.
It’s indicative of how the incentives are set up for our C-class executives. Cut cut cut, make line go up, it’s not my fault that everything is actually worse, oh no an iceberg and we’re all dead.
Call me a pessimist.
Rob G Mann
What I most enjoy about this site (in addition to the honesty and transparency) is that it doesn’t tell you the “best” tool. It provides objective information about the various capabilities and drawbacks that a tool brings to the table. This is important because what might be the “best” tool for me, probably isn’t the best tool for you.
Sometimes I want quality longevity above all else. Sometimes, I want it to be light and easy to use. Sometimes I want it cheap even if it wont last me for years. It’s Stu’s analysis that gives me what I need to decide MUCH more than a list about what tool is “best”
And, honestly, the fact that Milwaukee makes the investment (it does cost them time and $ to do so) to provide the information leaves me with a positive feeling about the brand.