So what is the difference between Influencers and Creators?

[PyongyangKipperbang]

I am a huge fan of Phil Carr's videos. I think he is entertaining and funny and actually informative. But.....he mentions more than once that influencers hate creators and vice versa.

I thought they were the same thing?

He is promoting a particular phone sim...thing (I dont know, something to do with roaming) and its clear that they are paying him or at least paying for his trips, to do that. Isnt that an influencer thing?

In my defence I am 52 so decrepit and pitiful by tiktok etc standards (I have FB, thats it!).

Nothing, they’re all grifters.

It’s so lazy to just look down your nose at these people. It takes a lot of work to build a following of people who are entertained enough to care about you. Why don’t you give it a go if you think it’s that easy?

I agree with @MissKitty0 , this is a lazy and uninformed comment.

Tik Tok/insta are full of businesses where women, often young, are excelling and I think our misogynistic society finds that quite hard to deal with.

I suspect it’s mostly men who are bothered about whether they’re called influencers or creators, when I’m scrolling it doesn’t cross my mind to think about it.

I kind of thought influencers were creators with bigger followings and more commercial contracts. There are actual creators as well, who make stuff instead of selling their 'personalities'. I'm not sure if they aspire to be influencers, they're more likely to want to make money from their creative businesses.

This is all off the top of my head, though. I've never given it a moment's thought and will stop thinking about it again in 1 ...2 ...3!

Yeah, that was also my understanding.

I think there is more and more of a division now between "creators" whose main objective is to create original content in their area of interest, rather than influence a wide audience.
And "influencers" whose main objective is to gain followers and monetise that fame.

Caveat that I don't know who he is, or whether this is the case with him, but there are men who see the Important Stuff they do as creating content, but attractive people women doing the same thing are influencers. In that case, influencers are looked down upon because they are seen as being able to sell stuff because they are attractive women, but creators sell stuff because they have talent and are creating something meaningful. No difference betweem them except salt and misogyny.

I think for some there is a clear division - a musician or comedian with a Patreon paid for workstream is getting people to pay regularly to see more of their work so are clearly 'content creators'. The groups I follow have a free podcast with ads then someone who subscribes on Patreon can access an ad free version.

I'd say an influencer' is a celeb or someone with a strong interest in one commercial area who primarily promotes products they review or claim to personally use - but don't make themselves. So someone who is primarily making long form adverts about an area - make up blogger advertising make up, for example.

Other than successful professionals on Patreon selling their work most of them are essentially generating advertising revenue - just like Mumsnet!

Nothing wrong with it providing people are honest about what they are paid to promote. I'd love to know what proportion of people make a decent yearly salary from this - I bet it's a tiny minority.

The only difference I can see is what they call themselves really

I'm sure people who follow them and care very much about their output recognise a meaningful difference though

My personal view (not to be taken as correct!) is that creators create content for its own sake - i.e. not promoting any products - and influencers promote products.

"The "ship for the useless" in The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy is the Golgafrinchan Ark Fleet, Ship B. It was intentionally sent to get rid of the most useless third of the Golgafrinchan population, including hairdressers and telephone sanitizers, by convincing them their planet was doomed"

To this should be added influencers and creators.

A lot of influencers will try and call themselves creators, but not the other way around.

Influencer - creates content with the primary goal of sharing / promoting products and experiences. Their content contains advice, recommendations, reviews, opinions.

Creator - creates content for educational / entertainment / creative purposes. They may have a sponsor for their videos to enable them to make it, but their content online won't be #Ad after #Ad.

My view is content creators put out content that is entertaining (usually comedians), or informative (showing how a particular skill is done).

Influencers put out content based on promoting a lifestyle - whether that’s tradwives, Turkey teeth Dubai expats, or British country living. If they’re successful, they’ll got sponsorships / brand deals and will then promote products through their channel (often subtly).

Lydia Millen Gorden is an Infulencer, she has taken on the persona of someone living the "English Country Life". She is basically cos-playing, as she doesn't come from that background. However, she has built a significant following of people who also want to cos-play that lifestyle.

Her channel is just a big advert for everything she touches.

Colin Furz is a creator, his channel is like Top Gear on steroids. He doesn't try to sell stuff, he just creates these crazy machines, DIY projects and other quite bizarre stuff.

I’ve got no time for “influencers” at all. They’re just advertisers, often not very transparently.

Ah got you! Thank you.

He makes videos about places mainly in the UK, they are funny and entertaining. As I say they are quite informative too as I have found out about a few places that I would never have known about otherwise. Yes he does seem to be sponsored by the phone sim thing company but cant seem to see anything other ads and he is quite open about it being advertising.

Dont really follow anyone else apart from Melani Sanders who started the We Do Not Care Club, which I highly recommend if you are "of a certain age".

Ah but those left behind all died from a virus on a dirty telephone.......😉

One (the influencer) promotes things/products etc (usually for other/big companies.)

The other (who does content creation,) will - for example - play video games. Or covering popular songs (or songs of their own.) Some may do poetry, or other literature. Some do make up or hairstyle tutorials.

They are not all 'grifters.' (As one poster suggested!) Many of them are earning a lot of money and not causing anyone any harm. I think this type of accusation comes from jealousy and bitterness, because they're not making loads of money from doing what they enjoy.

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I’ve seen Only Fans people call themselves ‘Digital Creators’

I mean technically thats a title they could use, but its not one I would have first thought of.