Question on influencers

[happyhoix]

I’m an old broad and don’t understand this. Recently I was reading about a law suit between two women, both of them had jobs a social influencers. And then this missing woman, Gabby Petito, supposedly was very distraught when interviewed by cops on the road because she said she wanted to be a full time travel influencer and her boyfriend was not supportive of her. 

Is this really a thing that you can support yourself by being a social media influencer? 

I know a while back I was shocked to discover that you can earn a six figure salary selling digital outfits and houses on line to gamers, so I expect to be surprised again. I get that famous people like the Kardashians can get a lot of people to pay attention them on social media, to the point that they can hawk underwear or diet drinks or whatever, but how does an average, non famous person get enough people paying attention to them to convince vendors to adverse on their sites (or product placement). 

[thyme4change]

Sept 19, 2021 16:09:10 GMT -5 happyhoix said:

I’m an old broad and don’t understand this. Recently I was reading about a law suit between two women, both of them had jobs a social influencers. And then this missing woman, Gabby Petito, supposedly was very distraught when interviewed by cops on the road because she said she wanted to be a full time travel influencer and her boyfriend was not supportive of her. 

Is this really a thing that you can support yourself by being a social media influencer? 

I know a while back I was shocked to discover that you can earn a six figure salary selling digital outfits and houses on line to gamers, so I expect to be surprised again. I get that famous people like the Kardashians can get a lot of people to pay attention them on social media, to the point that they can hawk underwear or diet drinks or whatever, but how does an average, non famous person get enough people paying attention to them to convince vendors to adverse on their sites (or product placement). 

Remember, way back, when we had local shows and local celebrities. I think they were mostly children's shows - Phoenix had Wallace and Ladmo.

They interacted with the audience, and they make some (rudimentary) content, and put out 4 or 5 mediocre shows per week. They were on TV and got sponsors and the station sold ad time.

Local radio - same deal - they tell some jokes, play some music and read scripts about how great the XTZ Ford dealership is (or whatever.)

This isn't that different. People do things and other people like to see and hear about it - be it Instagram, tik tok, you tube, snap chat, etc. It entertains them. There are many different subjects that you can find. And when enough people are interested, sponsors show up. People will talk up their sponsors or whatever, and show you the content you like them for.

It is just a new version of that.

[justme]

It's entirely possible, but not everyone can do it. I've seen articles saying if you have 500k followers you can get a few grand per sponsored post. Plus free gifts they'll send you hoping you'll post it on your page.

Money goes up/down based on how many followers you have. But if you do like 4 sponsored posts a month you're sitting pretty unless you want an extravagant life.

The kicker is that you have to get that many followers. Which isn't easy if you're not a celeb.

[Tiny]

Influencers become "celebrities".

[happyhoix]

I think my problem is the don’t do social media. Or any of the kardasian type reality shows. I watch YouTube videos to figure out how to fix something, or do a new knitting stitch, but I can’t imagine watching some persons private life. I get annoyed when people take a picture of their lunch and post it on Facebook. I don’t care what a random person ate!!!


Watching someone try out cosmetics ranks right up there with watching golf.

Clearly I’m an old fart.

[Deleted]

As far as I understand it, say I love makeup and I’m good at applying it on my own face. I can start out making videos, showing people how to apply makeup and giving them tips. And I try different brands and products and give my opinion on them. If enough people follow me, makeup brands might start sending me products to try for free.

What I've also learned, is that it seems that when influencers promote a specific product, they don’t necessarily get paid for it. So they can make a bunch of posts wearing “Pink Makeup” and talking about how good it is, and have hundreds of thousands of followers, but Pink Makeup doesn’t necessarily pay them for that, just give them free products.

[thyme4change]

Sept 19, 2021 19:43:52 GMT -5 happyhoix said:

I think my problem is the don’t do social media. Or any of the kardasian type reality shows. I watch YouTube videos to figure out how to fix something, or do a new knitting stitch, but I can’t imagine watching some persons private life. I get annoyed when people take a picture of their lunch and post it on Facebook. I don’t care what a random person ate!!!


Watching someone try out cosmetics ranks right up there with watching golf.

Clearly I’m an old fart.

Social media is not the same as a "Kardashian Reality show". Sure, the Kardashians do have a large social media following/empire - but only because they had a reality show, that had long sequences of scripted fake bullshit. You have brought it up twice, and it isnt the same thing.

Influencers are much more concise. They show a couple of pictures, and maybe a short paragraph about what they are doing. If they do videos and stories, they are like one minute videos - maybe they show you a skill (cook this recipe) or a place (I am in Yosemite), or something people want ideas about (here is the room/house we are renovating), and sometimes it is a personal story or a series of stories (I worked backstage at SNL, and I worked with every star and musician that went through.) Thry do give people a peek into their lives, but, like I said before it is a minute at a time and totally personally curated. They don't have cameras following them around and a team of producers and editors turning every word you say into a television moment.

Remember when we all read Dear Abby, because we wanted a peek into other people's lives, but didn't want to fully vest in a relationship. And sometimes a dilemma sounded maybe a little related to your life, so reading the advice might be pertinent. But, the amount you knew and the time you spent was limited. It is kinda like that.

[justme]

It's not private lol. It's all curated and the bigger following you get the more curated it is.

I forget the name but there's a documentary out there where they took 3 people and threw a team behind them to help them create and curate content to see how high their followers would get. And the show showed how fake it was behind the scenes.

[Tiny]

Sept 19, 2021 19:43:52 GMT -5 happyhoix said:

I think my problem is the don’t do social media. Or any of the kardasian type reality shows. I watch YouTube videos to figure out how to fix something, or do a new knitting stitch, but I can’t imagine watching some persons private life. I get annoyed when people take a picture of their lunch and post it on Facebook. I don’t care what a random person ate!!!


Watching someone try out cosmetics ranks right up there with watching golf.

Clearly I’m an old fart.

It's not always one's private life... it's their cats (or farm animals) or their hobby (sewing, historical battle re-enactment, decorating their home with Dollar Store finds,  or "stealth camping" in places they shouldn't camp).   


The youtuber becomes an influencer when they have enough subscribers and at some point their subscribers start paying attention to the products the youtuber is using or places they are going or whatever it is they are doing... and the people viewing BUY or talk about or DO the stuff that the influencer is doing.   And then the 'influencer' might get paid to put in a plug for a particular product (or whatever).  Or might get free stuff to showcase in a video (I suspect there's some sort of payment made.)   
 
An influencer doesn't have to reveal a lot about their personal life to be a successful influencer. 


I hear the stress of being an influencer is the constant feedback (good and bad) and the relentless requirement to post new and exciting content.     The viewers of the "influencer" seem to make it "personal".   

I had to stop checking in on some cats on the other side of the world because their people had started showing themselves more - and the comments got to be about "when is the wedding?" and "oooo she looks pregnant! when are the babies coming!!"     And all I really want to see was a video of their cats hanging out, sleeping, stretching, yawning or playing with toys accompanied by some "play by play calls" and some  purrs and meows.  And read comments about how cute the cats were...   I didn't really care what the humans did in real life - as long as they weren't hurting the cats  I was good with just checking in on the cats.      

[andi9899]

Sept 19, 2021 16:09:10 GMT -5 happyhoix said:

I’m an old broad and don’t understand this. Recently I was reading about a law suit between two women, both of them had jobs a social influencers. And then this missing woman, Gabby Petito, supposedly was very distraught when interviewed by cops on the road because she said she wanted to be a full time travel influencer and her boyfriend was not supportive of her. 

Is this really a thing that you can support yourself by being a social media influencer? 

I know a while back I was shocked to discover that you can earn a six figure salary selling digital outfits and houses on line to gamers, so I expect to be surprised again. I get that famous people like the Kardashians can get a lot of people to pay attention them on social media, to the point that they can hawk underwear or diet drinks or whatever, but how does an average, non famous person get enough people paying attention to them to convince vendors to adverse on their sites (or product placement). 

Yes. If you have a big enough following you can definitely support yourself well doing it. There are plenty of them that are millionaires and being an influencer is their full time job.

[happyhoix]

Sept 19, 2021 21:52:16 GMT -5 justme said:

It's not private lol. It's all curated and the bigger following you get the more curated it is.

I forget the name but there's a documentary out there where they took 3 people and threw a team behind them to help them create and curate content to see how high their followers would get. And the show showed how fake it was behind the scenes.

Well thank you for this, it makes me realize I’m not missing much.

Although it occurred to me I may actually be seeing those kinds of sites through my Facebook feed, which has a lot of animal rescue videos, cute kitten videos, etc. Probably they are hoping I will subscribe to their sites.

[MJ2.0]

Sept 19, 2021 20:45:21 GMT -5 @pinkcshmere said:

As far as I understand it, say I love makeup and I’m good at applying it on my own face. I can start out making videos, showing people how to apply makeup and giving them tips. And I try different brands and products and give my opinion on them. If enough people follow me, makeup brands might start sending me products to try for free.

What I've also learned, is that it seems that when influencers promote a specific product, they don’t necessarily get paid for it. So they can make a bunch of posts wearing “Pink Makeup” and talking about how good it is, and have hundreds of thousands of followers, but Pink Makeup doesn’t necessarily pay them for that, just give them free products.

Maybe the ones that are starting out are open to promoting in exchange for free products, but the established influencers are definitely paid to promote a product.

[Deleted]

Sept 20, 2021 13:29:04 GMT -5 MJ2.0 said:

Sept 19, 2021 20:45:21 GMT -5 @pinkcshmere said:

As far as I understand it, say I love makeup and I’m good at applying it on my own face. I can start out making videos, showing people how to apply makeup and giving them tips. And I try different brands and products and give my opinion on them. If enough people follow me, makeup brands might start sending me products to try for free.

What I've also learned, is that it seems that when influencers promote a specific product, they don’t necessarily get paid for it. So they can make a bunch of posts wearing “Pink Makeup” and talking about how good it is, and have hundreds of thousands of followers, but Pink Makeup doesn’t necessarily pay them for that, just give them free products.

Maybe the ones that are starting out are open to promoting in exchange for free products, but the established influencers are definitely paid to promote a product.

I do agree that a lot of them get paid. I’d assumed that most of them did, until a couple weeks ago when I read on FB about some of the Influencers that promote Fenty products being upset because they don’t get paid. And other people were jumping in saying it was the Influencers’ own faults for agreeing to a contract that didn’t include monetary payments. I admit I don’t know all the ends and outs though.

[MJ2.0]

Sept 20, 2021 13:42:55 GMT -5 @pinkcshmere said:

Sept 20, 2021 13:29:04 GMT -5 MJ2.0 said:

Maybe the ones that are starting out are open to promoting in exchange for free products, but the established influencers are definitely paid to promote a product.

I do agree that a lot of them get paid. I’d assumed that most of them did, until a couple weeks ago when I read on FB about some of the Influencers that promote Fenty products being upset because they don’t get paid. And other people were jumping in saying it was the Influencers’ own faults for agreeing to a contract that didn’t include monetary payments. I admit I don’t know all the ends and outs though.

From what I’ve gleaned on this, it’s up to the influencer to establish a contract with the company in order to ensure they are paid properly.

[jerseygirl]

There’s a big following for YouTube videos unwrapping or unboxing kids toys. Someone told me these also pay and some kids love them

[azucena]

Yes, my 10 yo niece loves watching this kid named Ryan opening up new toys. He has a whole line of "his" toys at Target and other places. This would be like sitting in front of Saturday morning cartoon commercials for hours back in my generation's day. I don't get why my sister and others let their elementary age school kids watch that crap. My mom bought my niece a couple of them last christmas. It was clear that the excitement was in opening them just like ryan, and I guarantee she has never played with them.

[hurley1980]

The only social media I have is FB, and I'm not on there much.  I will never understand this whole thing with influencers.  My mom watches a lot of reality TV and says that most of the reality tv contestants (think Bachelor, Big Brother, etc) all go on those shows to increase their following in order to become paid influencers. 

You have to have A LOT of followers to really make it as an influencer. I don't think there are as many successful ones out there as we think.  From what I've seen on FB posts, most of them are "wannabes" that basically ask for free stuff in exchange for "exposure" and get shot down a lot.  

There is one dog I follow on FB, and his mom advertises products she uses for him in the videos.  I googled the dog, and apparently he brings in about $600k a year for his humans just in paid sponsorship. He's really cute though, and the videos are awesome! 

[Opti]

Who is the dog? 

[hurley1980]

Tucker Budzyn

[alabamagal]

So think of it this way, if this community was big enough to get noticed (it is not, and also likely against terms of service here) what if one poster on here posted frequently and got lots of comments and likes. Then the poster would post about going to a certain store, or using a certain product, then that person is an “influencer”. That person could then go to the company they are posting about and ask for money to continue to post and get likes/comments. Also post about vacation spots could result in money (or traded for trips), etc.

An influencer is not an official job, it is a way to make money.

[justme]

Sept 20, 2021 16:20:51 GMT -5 jerseygirl said:

There’s a big following for YouTube videos unwrapping or unboxing kids toys. Someone told me these also pay and some kids love them

Yup. But a lot of states have no rules around this so parents could make millions off their kids and spend every dime of it.

[Knee Deep in Water Chloe]

I think--really, just in my own head--that QVC is probably an influencer before the term itself actually existed. 

[azucena]

Sept 20, 2021 20:55:46 GMT -5 alabamagal said:

So think of it this way, if this community was big enough to get noticed (it is not, and also likely against terms of service here) what if one poster on here posted frequently and got lots of comments and likes. Then the poster would post about going to a certain store, or using a certain product, then that person is an “influencer”. That person could then go to the company they are posting about and ask for money to continue to post and get likes/comments. Also post about vacation spots could result in money (or traded for trips), etc.

An influencer is not an official job, it is a way to make money.

Kind of like Andi and Ulta?

[NomoreDramaQ1015]

Sept 20, 2021 17:55:36 GMT -5 azucena said:

Yes, my 10 yo niece loves watching this kid named Ryan opening up new toys. He has a whole line of "his" toys at Target and other places. This would be like sitting in front of Saturday morning cartoon commercials for hours back in my generation's day. I don't get why my sister and others let their elementary age school kids watch that crap. My mom bought my niece a couple of them last christmas. It was clear that the excitement was in opening them just like ryan, and I guarantee she has never played with them.

Oh God I am so glad that is at least one Abby doesn't watch.  He had a Nick Jr show for a bit and I wanted to murder the entire family.

Ever watched Sis vs Bro?  Talk about privilege. 

I was reading about it and Youtube is the wild west of "acting".  These kids have even less rights than child actors in Hollywood do and they don't have much.  I wouldn't be surprised if someday we see Ryan on TV claiming his parents never paid him a dime of all that revenue.  Also wouldn't be surprised if a lot of them ended up with various substance abuse issues like child actors.

At the same time though my moral arguments about doing something better with your life flies out the window when I my kids show me these people's net worth. Why the hell didn't I come up with the idea to exploit my family?!   Instead I went to stupid college and got a real job. 

[andi9899]

Sept 21, 2021 7:23:50 GMT -5 azucena said:

Sept 20, 2021 20:55:46 GMT -5 alabamagal said:

So think of it this way, if this community was big enough to get noticed (it is not, and also likely against terms of service here) what if one poster on here posted frequently and got lots of comments and likes. Then the poster would post about going to a certain store, or using a certain product, then that person is an “influencer”. That person could then go to the company they are posting about and ask for money to continue to post and get likes/comments. Also post about vacation spots could result in money (or traded for trips), etc.

An influencer is not an official job, it is a way to make money.

Kind of like Andi and Ulta?

For real! Can I get a sponsorship?!