Social media influencers / very minor public figures - do you know any?!

[Onionringsarenotforme]

So there’s a few smaller scale social media influencers I quite like, basically people who are involved in one of my hobbies. I kind of feel like they are quite similar to me, like we’d get on in real life.

These are not big name influencers (I don’t tend to follow those kinds of people) . The people I follow have between say 10-15k followers.

Anyway, one of these instagrammers I used to find really funny and inspiring but now I’m starting to see in a slightly more negative light.

So it got me wondering what she’s really like and what people who know her think.

Without naming names, does anyone know any social media personalities and how do they compare to their online personas?

An influencer with ~300k followers lives in my (very small) town. I’ve never met her but friends have interacted with in her shops/cafes and said that she is always very pleasant.

The one thing I will say is that it has made me appreciate how talented she is at creating content! There is nothing particularly special about our town and yet she always manages to make it look dreamy! The local farm shop is very average but looks great in her vlogs. I’m genuinely impressed!

A former colleague of mine now makes a living from social media content. It’s got more and more fake/heavily curated over the years!

just checked and she has 147,000 followers.

it just all looks a bit joyless and superficial, I suppose. Always monetising. I hope she’s investing wisely and is still paying into a pension!

There’s one local to me.
Initially lovely, online presence was much less than the 300+k followers today.

Now rather smug and insufferable.
Lost their way with innovative ideas now more smug teaching granny to suck eggs kind of vibe. Tedious.
And the kids are utter arseholes.

I know 3 in person. One of them has ~150k followers and has been on telly a couple of times and had articles written about them (Daily Mail, Mirror etc). IRL they are a very different person and seem to lurch from drama to drama (they even became the subject of a Tattle thread).

One thing I always notice is how hugely different their lives actually are compared to what they portray on social media (news flash!) but it does help me to remember social media isn’t real and give my head a wobble whenever I start comparing my own life to influencers online.

Yes - lots where I live. Real life is never as they portray. Some kids are isolated as no one will send their kids for play dates due to filming issues in the past.

I’ve found it handy to look beyond follower counts and look at behaviour patterns, and reading the deep‑dive on Influencers really helped me spot which small creators are in it for the hobby and which are chasing drama. In the craft and gardening niches, the ones who stay grounded usually share genuinely useful tips and don’t get sucked into stunts or clout‑chasing.

I live abroad and one lives very close to me, almost 500k followers on Instagram

Tbh a lot of it seems fake and for the cameras, using adopted kids for her own advancement

Used to work with someone who had a million followers and he was maybe the worst person I’ve ever met.

My partner is a bit of a reluctant influencer; started using IG on a bit of a dare but he really struck something and his account has grown very quickly. He’s very very private though and doesn’t talk on camera or anything; it’s just fashion and lifestyle modelling sort of stuff. He doesn’t really tell people in real life and he blocks colleagues etc.

I'm not sure if this counts as an influencer - I know a person who blogs about gardening. Quite a reasonable following, and has won awards for their writing.

Their online persona is exactly like their real life, one. A brilliant, funny and warm person inside and out, who is interested and interesting.