Social media influence: a new frontier in proprietary rights?

Abstract

Abstract The importance of social media has rapidly increased throughout the 21st century. The metric of influence has been key to the commercialisation of social media, with accurate methods of quantification now allowing it to be used by a litany of corporate bodies to identify appropriate individuals to act as their brand ambassadors for the purpose of marketing products. Given the flexibility of equity, it is only a matter of time before such a valuable commodity is recognised under the law of trusts as a metric for identifying beneficiaries or as the subject matter of a trust itself.