"My child wants to grow up to be an influencer!" *queue smelling salts*
"Nobody wants to work anymore, they just want to be influencers!"
"Our society is crumbling...because of influencers!"
Exaggerated? Sure. Completely off-the-mark? Not really. If a major media outlet posts anything about influencers, I bet you'll be able to find comments along the lines of the fictitious ones I posted above.
Before I delve into the topic of this post, let's define what an influencer is. Even if you haven't been living underneath a rock these past ten years, maybe you'll learn something new!
Let's get this out in the open...
INFLUENCERS ARE NOTHING NEW.
Even if you are a 60-year-old (hello, mother!) reading this, you've seen (and maybe have been influenced) by your fair share of influencers. Celebrities are influencers. Royalty are influencers. (Why do you think 1830s-1910s-ish was referred to as the Victorian Era in the UK? Even if you are the most unfashionable man ever, I will tell you that you do know of at least one lasting fashion instance that started with Queen Victoria. *coughwhiteweddingdressescough*) Talk show hosts are influencers. Hopefully, you get my point.
Technically - because I guess this is a bit of a science? - these kinds of people are known as macro-influencers. From that prefix, you can infer that these influencers have larger audiences, hence why they can impact what people do, buy, say, and so on.
But nowadays, when we talk about influencers, it seems like most everyone is talking about those who are abundant on Instagram and Tik Tok (or the Kardashians - more on them later). Before their...influencing, they were (maybe still are) your Average Joes, like you and me. They most likely didn't catapult to fame by landing a major character role on a popular TV series. They became famous or successful through social media. These are your micro-influencers.
And they're hated because...?
-Promoting sketchy products
-Doing risky or stupid things for virality/attention
-Being vain or too focused on their looks
-Making money without having to do any actual work
I'm not saying I believe all of these things, but these are the major criticisms I see people throw out there, so I will at least briefly address each one.
Whether they're promoting weight-losing teas, cosmetic products being touted for uses they're not marketed towards, or getting people to sign up for Fyre Fest, people do make a good point that many influencers make misinformed decisions or act unethically when promoting certain products. Unfortunately, it can be hard for them to pass up the good bucks. Because of the Fyre Festival backlash, conversations around the FTC, sponsorships, and influencers exploded. In 2019, the FTC provided new guidelines about influencer marketing. Other than that, truthfulness to consumers by influencers is driven by their own moral compasses. If the influencers are professionals by any means - such as psychologists, doctors, lawyers, etc. - I think we can assume that if act in such a manner that reflects poorly upon their profession, that the boards that issue their respective licenses will have a say in how, or if, their career in that profession continues.
People have died taking selfies in risky places. Grifters say what they will to build and maintain a following and achieve virality. There are so many examples, and so little time. I think influencers would do well, in this regard to maintain a good moral compass (like the last point) and have a good head on their shoulders. For example, if a stunt has a good chance of putting your life in danger, filming it is probably not the best idea.
Many of us have heard about it, but practically all of us have seen it - Instagram face. Yeah, what is considered beautiful and stylish changes by culture, by the decade, and even by the hour nowadays. Why Tik Tok and Instagram beauty standards get bashed is because a lot of it has to do with cosmetic procedures, products, and services, that very few people can emulate naturally. Like sure, I am pretty miffed that we now expect hips/butts to be perfectly round due to posing, photo editing and BBLs (and that natural musculature and "hip dips" are frowned upon), but we can't pretend that all of this stuff came about in the 2010s. I do think that social media, Tik Tok especially, makes some of these beauty trends worse. However, I'd rather that people be forthcoming about what they do to look good. A big problem, though, is that people aren't, whether they lie about having plastic surgery, getting Botox, or edit their pictures. It's good that there are many journalists, vloggers, and other people talking about these phenomena, but when young people are big consumers of this bombardment of these beauty standards, it's setting them up for deep insecurity and unhealthy coping mechanisms. This is a whole can of worms I can talk about in segments in the future, so this is the farthest I'll have the lid peeled for now.
Making money without having to do any actual work. This is where the title of this post starts coming into play. And weirdly enough, this is what I see people most pissed off about with influencers. But my main question for people who say this is: "If they're making good money without having to work, why aren't more people doing it?"
The answer is because it's not easy work. Imagine if I told you: "Go build an Instagram page now. In one year, I expect it to be monetized, and you better be making a living off of the money you make from it." You'd probably look at me like I was crazy. Or, as some people do, start making excuses that you're not a "young, hot woman", and that's why you can't monetize an Instagram page. Not all influencers are young, and not all of them are conventionally attractive. The real reason you can't just make money off of an Instagram page is you don't know how. Why can't people just admit this? Let's look at the steps...
1) You have to build an audience from scratch (if you don't already have a "prepackaged" audience)
2) You have to post relevant content on a regular, often daily or more, basis
3) You have to be familiar enough with the constantly-changing social media discoverability algorithms to get your posts seen
4) Your content needs to be engaging enough to get more people to follow you
5) Once you have "enough" followers, you have to find ways to monetize your audience
6) If you choose the sponsorship route, you need to convince companies that your brand is worth investing in, and hopefully what you're assigned gets the company what they want
This is it, more-or-less, I'd say more less since there are many more aspects to this business. Not only do you have to create content, which could be modeling photos or instructional cooking videos, but you have to know basic marketing skills, finances, website design, etc. Then you have to do steps 2-5 over and over and over again. You don't need a degree to be an influencer, and even if all of these skills come naturally to you, I've read of influencers working 40+ hours per week for less money than traditional jobs. It takes grit to earn your living.
Now for the big reason why criticisms of influencers are just misogyny hidden in plain sight - most of the criticisms noted in pop culture have to do with influencer models and beauty content creators. Ohhh, how many times I've seen YouTubers and other creators bash influencers, but how can they forget...THEY'RE INFLUENCERS AS WELL! For some reason, we're less likely to view YouTube creators, Twitch streamers, etc. as influencers, and when we make criticisms about influencers, it has to do with female models and creators on Instagram and Tik Tok. I seem some overlap with criticisms of all of these people, but why is it that social media models seem to face the brunt of these criticisms?? People seem to think that the model influencers are just posing in front of a camera, then somehow these pictures magically end up on Instagram. Sure, I would think there are some models who literally just do the modeling and outsource everything else to other people, but for the vast majority, they're probably doing most, if not all, of the work. Modeling itself is a skill. Running a model page requires business and marketing acumen.
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| Because why use other influencers' pictures when I can just use mine? Instagram: KV_Hansen |
As for the Kardashians, they are an interesting case because they're the faces of "famous for being famous". Robert Kardashian acted as OJ Simpson's defense attorney in his 1995 murder trials, and somehow, that led to Kris Jenner and her daughters (and other family members) becoming rich and famous. Despite the respect many business people gain, especially when passing the billionaire threshold, the Kardashians aren't seen as being business people. I don't watch their reality show, I'm not gonna lie and say that nepotism had no effect on their success, and I honestly am pretty indifferent about them, but you have to admit they're doing something right to have so many businesses under their collective wings. They're made fun of for their reality show and are scrutinized for being the subjects of media attention, yet they're able to covert all of that negativity into profitability. I find many of their actions unethical, but damn, I do have to respect aspects of their business guile.
Maybe the wild fame of the Kardashians isn't what most beauty and model influencers seek, but just a tiny glimpse into how that empire is run, and one can see how much money can potentially pour in. Who wouldn't want a handful of some of that gold?
A big reason why people become influencers, no matter what kind, is because they want to be paid for something they love doing. When I was a child, the idea of having a job I loved was constantly fed to me. In the traditional workforce, it often doesn't work out that way. You want to be a pediatrician? Be prepared to shell out tens of thousands of dollars to get those degrees and licenses! Want to act in movies? Go ahead and live in that expensive city where you're lucky to come across a role once a month that pays less than your rent. With becoming an influencer, people can dabble in hobbies they love and get paid for it. Or sometimes, they're able to become influencers and make enough money so that they can focus on the jobs that don't pay enough.
Being an influencer is more than about looking pretty in front of a camera.
Modeling is a skill.
Communicating effectively is a skill.
Social media marketing is a skill.
Running a business requires many different skills.
And as a reminder, influencers are not just female models and beauty content creators. The YouTubers you watch are also influencers. The radio hosts you listen to are influencers. The political pundits you read from are influencers. Stop throwing certain people under the bus, especially when you ignore the skillsets of one group yet praise another group for the same things, or, very likely, are the consumer of such influencers.
Like that South Park episode "Something Wall-Mart This Way Comes", look in the mirror to see the heart of why influencers exist and thrive.
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| Source: South Park |
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