Sandy Kenyon tours first social media penthouse once belonging to singer Bob Dylan

Wednesday, November 28, 2018
Sandy Kenyon tours first social media penthouse once belonging to singer Bob Dylan
Sandy Kenyon reports on Manhattan's first social media penthouse.

SOHO, Lower Manhattan (WABC) -- A Manhattan building that once housed Bob Dylan's studio is now a space designed as a background for social media posts.

It's a tastefully decorated and fully furnished penthouse in SoHo most folks would love to call home, but, surprisingly, nobody lives there.

"Nobody sleeps here," said tenant Vickie Segar, who spends $15,000 per month to rent. "Nobody sleeps in this bed."

Segar said she wanted a space for social media influencers to shoot content. They use this space to create their daily posts, because in a city like New York, it's so much more space than most young influencers can afford.

There's a fully equipped kitchen, a beautiful bathroom and splashes of a color called Millennial Pink.

"It's almost like inviting your audience into kind of a cozy space, but of course, there's no laundry on the floor," the 23-year-old influencer said.

Remi Park is paid to post and enlisted by brands anxious to reach her followers -- mainly young women like herself who spend an average of more than two hours every day on social media.

Segar's firm, Village Marketing, arranges the marriage between the brand and the influencer. The influencer will talk about how a product is useful for them or useful for their own life, and they position it within their own story.

Park gets up to $10,000 for a single post.

"It's almost like a form of advertising, but a lot more personalized," she said.

Park has 93,000 devoted followers, but Segar said others have many more.

"There are social media influencers who have millions of followers that my parents have no idea who they are," Segar said.

It's a generation gap that corporate America is learning how to bridge by respecting the vibe. That's an old expression given new meaning here, but there's an ancient principal at work too.

In the best tradition of capitalism, Segar saw a need before others did and took the plunge, and now takes her place as the leader in a brave, new world.

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