The Race To Become Influencers and Social Media Stars.
I am a millennial (born 1981–1996), so maybe my thoughts may not match generation z’s (born 1997–2010) and generation alpha’s (born 2011 and after) thoughts. While most of my generation are in their mid to late careers, we think about how to expand our network, gain more experience, advance our qualifications, pursue leadership roles and earn a higher salary. This generation z and the alpha population are after fame, wealth, success, and an elegant lifestyle. Is it only me, or is everyone that uses social media platforms seeing these influencers? Dancing, pouting, collaborating with other influencers, mimicking movie dialogues, and so on.
TikTok, Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, Youtube, and many other social media platforms we use daily are making millions of dollars, if not more. They generate their revenue by selling ads to us. Social media (technology) companies innovate and create products that hook the users to use their platform spending more time scrolling and tapping. Social media platforms make money based on user-created content; that’s their business model. The numbers of followers, views, likes, comments, and shares of their posts are the KPIs for this new-age (social media) influencers. But are they really influencers? Do they have the capability to influence others? If so, what and how are they influencing beyond how to look, dance, walk, dress, and socialize? Are they really influencing the life of people in a positive way that follows them?
An earlier theory of influencing suggested that first, you must learn, then implement, and finally, you can share your opinions in front of the public. We would have considered influencers to be social activists, intellectuals, politicians, or change-makers in society. Those people never claimed to influence ordinary people, but they had a natural ability to impact others.
I work in marketing, so I know what influencers mean in marketing and sales. According to a definition available on AMA, “Influencer marketing focuses on leveraging individuals who have influence over potential buyers and orienting marketing activities around these individuals to drive a brand message to the larger market.” In influencer marketing, rather than marketing directly to a large group of consumers, a brand inspires or compensates influencers (including celebrities, content creators, customer advocates, and employees) to get the word out on their behalf.
The days of old are over! Self-proclaimed influencers are in vogue now. Anyone with 1000+ followers on Instagram or TikTok believes they are an influencer. The influence you have doesn’t matter as long as you have followers who like and comment on your posts and brands approach you to endorse their products. Thanks to social media, becoming a “public figure” isn’t that difficult. Instagram allows anyone to label themselves as a public figure. It took me just 5 minutes to switch my personal profile to a business profile (what people think is an influencer profile) on Instagram.
Social media stars with thousands and millions of followers are likely to be “influencers.” Being an influencer can be lucrative. Even so, their influence may do more harm than good if they are not educated enough. A growing number of people will start meddling with our minds without doing any good for us or society unless we seriously consider the advice that real “influencers” gave us in the past.
I would love to hear your thoughts on my article “The Race To Become Influencers and Social Media Stars.” Please share your views in the comments.
#Influencers #SocialMedia #SocialMediaStars
