Office Tour: Fohr Card with James Nord

When I knew I was going to tag along with Nick to New York but that I had to plan my own days I went through a list of companies/brands that I currently work with to try to get some face-time with. Lo and behold, to get on James’ calendar at Fohr Card was pretty simple and the fact he was accessible left me floored.

After 5 mins of sending my soliciting email, I had a reply and his assistant helped flush out schedules.

I got to our meeting like 2 mins late (my entire morning ran late which had this domino affect – a day in the life of a New Yorker? Maybe.) but he was on the phone so I had to wait a bit anyway.

The office just happens to be Soho (gimme all the cool shops and restaurants) where photographers and models alike blend in the norm. Finding their office was pretty easy and as I walked in I knew I had the right place. Right through their suite door on the left was a bar/kitchen area. Fully stocked.

Curran and Grace welcomed me with a warm greeting and I immediately felt at ease. For those that don’t know, Fohr Card, soon to be just Fohr, is an influencer database that bridges brands with influencers. James, along with his friend, started this company over 5 years ago when I initially became a member back at a Lucky Fab Conference in LA. I had some questions about functionality, actual user usage, brand incentives and the new argument of authenticity vs. engagement. Social is all about metrics, but those metics are getting tarnished with false followings and fluffly engagement stats.

I talked about my frustrations with his services and how I would pay to have a better press kit tool that I could customize. Fohr Card has done a really good job at giving influencers tools to market themselves in a presentation way – like press kits and verification of followers.

James is what you would believe based on watching his Drink with James series on You Tube. He’s incredibly stylish, approachable, engaging and a total dreamer. The guy is ambitious and realizes the company he has founded is built upon the importance of influencers in a brand’s marketplace and he intends to make sure that they stay relevant and provide VALUE to both influencers and brands when only numbers can go so far.

Here are a few things I learned from our hour meeting:

FOHR – came from Fohr Island off the coast of Germany. Long story short, after WWII some German transplants went back to Fohr after being in NYC and brought the idea of a Manhattan back (James’ favorite cocktail) – which is their island drink of choice. Fitting.

He name dropped… Grant, Michelle, Blair and one other but I forgot.

The Fohr Card platform is moving away from the discussion/messaging functionality. The brands didn’t use it. Overall, if they want to contact you they have your email info.

On the horizon… an e-commerce approach for buying influencer posts/shares/stories directly. With their data they can give influencers a BASE price for certain things in which you can use as a negotiating tool. Also, this will offer brand social influencer marketers a way to determine VALUE for such posts based of metrics.

FOHR EDU – they plan on holding more conferences and even educational ones with hand on experiences with photographers, editors etc. to help with social content curation.

After bing watching the last three videos here’s what I learned: