If you are active on Instagram, odds are that you follow (or at least have come across) an account of an “Influencer”: a term Urban Dictionary defines as “a word instagram users use to describe themselves to make them feel famous and more important when no one really know who they are or care, usually the type of people that call themselves foodies and post pictures of their avocado and toast cause they can’t really do anything else interesting, usually also post their last holiday asking someone to #takemeback”.
Merriam-Webster dictionary, however, gives the term a bit more credit, defining an influencer as “a person with the ability to influence potential buyers of a product or service by promoting or recommending the items on social media”.
Whether you find the notion of a social media influencer to be completely ridiculous or a legitimate career path, one thing is for certain: these people can get #paid. Maybe it’s a friend of a friend from university who now has upwards of 10,000 followers and seems to post a lot of “get ready with me” videos using and promoting new makeup brands, or a legitimate celebrity who endorses products in a simple selfie post. According to Joe Gagliese, the co-founder of Viral Nation, an influencer agency (yes, there are now agencies for influencers), influencers with up to 1 million followers can get $10,000 per post. Influencers with over 1 million followers can charge over $100,000 per post!
It is clear that Influencers are becoming part of today’s cultural landscape, but is this “career” here to stay?
References:
Lieber, C. (2018, November 28). How and why do influencers make so much money? The head of an influencer agency explains. Vox. https://www.vox.com/the-goods/2018/11/28/18116875/influencer-marketing-social-media-engagement-instagram-youtube
Hi Alexis,
Thank you for the great post; quite relevant to our era.
To answer your question, I would have to say that the short answer is Yes, this career is here to stay, and is an inevitable part of mobile and post-mobile times. Influencers have been around for centuries; the concept has just morphed into something new every few years and evolved dynamically. Influencer marketing predates social media era (e.g., Coco channel was a major influencer of the 20th century). The only thing that sometimes I wish existed, was more regulation. In particular considering that the primary target audience for these “influencers” are the younger generations.
Thank you,
Saeid
Very true Saeid – I hadn’t really thought about the history/evolution of influencers and how this is just today’s iteration!