aspects of Lumanu’s technology into them.
“Northwestern Mutual will look to develop a partnership over time and leverage Lumanu as part of our digital marketing strategy,” Schedler said in an e-mail.
The Milwaukee company made one previous investment through its Cream City VC fund—Milwaukee-based Socialeads. That startup is developing technology to mine Facebook feeds, Twitter timelines, and other social media activity to flag posts where users indicate they recently made a significant financial decision.
There’s a chance that recent news reports and disclosures about Facebook users’ data being shared with third-party applications without their knowledge could lessen the appeal of working as a social media influencer. But Tran says those who sign up to become influencers generally understand they’re giving up some privacy.
“By becoming an influencer, you’re saying, ‘Look, I understand that I’m opening up a little bit,’” Tran says. “There’s still a ton of safeguards [within Lumanu and other software] protecting your data, permissions, and access. But when you’re an influencer, you’re in essence exchanging a little bit of privacy for cash. Ideally you want that image [you posted] to be seen by more people.”
