Influencers

[Iamasentientoctopus]

Sitting up holding a sleeping child with a cold so thought I’d pass the time.

AIBU to think influencers have had their day? Just scrolling through Facebook and have seen one I used to follow flogging some we buy any car type app. The comments are just full of absolute weirdos. Had a look on her insta and there are just so many pics of her kids and so much identifying information. Other than that it’s just videos of the big shop laid out on the kitchen side or trips to B&M.

Is anyone here actually ‘influenced’ by these people?

they’re pretty much free advertising for brands and companies and events, sadly I can’t see that changing as there would need to be something to replace them.

It’s hardly free advertisement when they are paid £kkks by brands to advertise promote

I've never understood the term "influencer" on the basis that they are just a bunch of Internet randoms. The fact that anyone could be influenced by them amazes me. That's the modern world for you though.

I think the market is flooded and there’s an awful lot of VERY low quality content, and a lot of them have a schtick that’s getting old now - one trick ponies. That said, there are some I follow who have been really useful and helped me find my style. Most of them I follow for a month or two and then move on. I think Callum Harper produces some great content, and Madeleine White is good (especially now her interminable wedding is out of the way).

At its simplest form, influencing is a video review/marketing of the product with the idea that “normal” people are more believable than a celebrity. Have you ever read user reviews of a product? I know that you can pay people for positive reviews now but it’s the video version of it since there are only so many people that QVC type shopping channels can hire.

Sometimes you know that a celebrity spokesperson is highly unlikely to use an item but their image looks better on a poster and the company looks more successful for being able to afford said celebrity.

Obviously there’s major problems with influencing like people using children or adults who can’t give consent (eg people with disabilities) and I’d like to see the end of that angle. The change on this is very slow and I’d like to see a case where people think twice before cashing in on people who can’t give consent.

I don’t know how much influence they have as I’m probably way too old for that but I assume that some do have an effect like a certain cleaning influencer who has their own cleaning range via a big manufacturer (Mrs Hinch)

Not all of them. My friend is a model and a lot of small brands message her to ask if she will promote their brand if they send her a freebie. So they want the influencers to do all the leg work creating and editing videos (for free) to promote the brand while the brand makes loads of money from her video and my friend doesn’t get paid a penny from the sales she’s driven for the brand. My friend turns them down and tells them they either pay or leave her alone. It’s pathetic. So many girls desperate to call themselves models so they are happy to be exploited by brands and do free work for a measly freebie that the brand will sell 100 times over and make money from their content.

No it’s a lot bigger than your Facebook and Instagram. There’s lots of areas of influencers - gaming, food, parenting, lifestyle, beauty etc. Mrbeast has 440 million follows and is a millionaire several times over. People like KSI, Joe Sugg, Molly Mae etc have become extremely successful. George Clarke is currently on strictly, KSI and the sidemen have a tv show on Netflix for influencers. But there’s money to be made at all levels, my friends brother is a gamer influencer he makes a few £££ a month uploading content he’s 16 years old. A lot of celebs - Stacey Solomon, giovarna Fletcher for example use it to sell their brand and top their income up.
I think it will continue to grow as online gets bigger and bigger .

One trick pony sums it up. I’m seeing a lot of content with all the dumb nail tapping and wiggling fingers under their chins. Literally all they do it on every video. It’s getting ridiculous now. Or those where every post is a picture of themselves.

I don’t mind the ones who are informative and aren’t promoting a particular brand but there’s a lot who just create the same sort of content over and over again.

Sick of seeing endless videos containing Stanley cups too. Or iced coffees/ Matchas/ lattes 🙄

I’d say they are more popular than ever for advertising. The ones I follow seem to have made a lot of money from content creation. It’s definitely not had it’s day. Particularly clothes, always see women ask other women content creators ‘where are your jeans from’. I think that type of advertising, (without making it blatantly obvious) that this is an ad) works really well. Creator will link the clothes on video, often with a code. It’s a very lucrative career and most of them (and often their husbands) soon give up their day jobs to do it full time.