Introduction to OSP: Influencers

Influencers

1) YouTube first launched in February 2005, Instagram launched in October 2010 and Twitter initially launched in March 2006.

2) An influencer is a person with the ability to influence potential buyers of a product or service by promoting or recommending the items on social media. They typically have a large amount of followers on different social media sites, predominantly Instagram, YouTube, Twitter and TikTok.

3) An example of an influencer is Bella Hadid, who currently has 61.1 million followers on Instagram. She is the ambassador for a number of different brands, which include: Charlotte Tilbury's, Versace, Bulgari's, Swarovski and Fendi.

4) According to the article, the influencer industry is very huge. By the end of 2019, the influencer marketing industry was worth some $8 billion a year. It was predicted to have grown by as much as $15 billion globally by the end of 2022.

5) Influencers are required to spend endless hours preparing for photo shoots, editing photos, and posting regularly - as well as having to re-shoot countless photos daily for particularly demanding clients. There is also the added pressure of always having to increase their follower count, in order to drive up revenues.

6) It can be suggested that audiences actually like being sold products by influencers due to "engagement fraud", which means fake followers are able to be purchased online, from people who operate bot accounts. This means that influencers appear to have received a lot of engagement from audiences when in reality this is not always the case.

7) The representation of beauty portrayed on Instagram and other influencer sites include having a look known as “Instagram face”. This means having “a young face, with poreless skin and plump, high cheekbones”, "long lashes and full lips" - generally white but with a hint of “rootless exoticism”. This is due to the increase of cosmetic procedures, as well as filters found on Instagram which modify the face.

8) In my opinion, I believe that influencers can have both a huge positive and a negative impact among society and culture. Firstly, they can be seen as a great source of entertainment as well as be an important aspect in which audiences and followers can find and purchase branded products. However, I also feel that they have a far too lordly status in society for what they do, and that they are also paid an immense amount for doing little physical work - as opposed to people like teachers or doctors, who work much harder, and for a longer amount of time, and yet they are severely underpaid. Also, I believe that the influence that they have especially on younger people in society is acutely detrimental towards their mental health, as they feel as though they are to follow bizarre beauty standards due to the way that they are promoted by influencers on social media.

Grade 8/9 Extension task:

Authenticity and originality became important in 2020 as brands struggled to find meaningful ways of staying relevant without coming off as insensitive or appearing to capitalize during a critical crisis. Many of today’s digital creators focus their content on the specialized topics they know their followers are interested in. Food, DIY, tech, parenting, fashion, beauty and lifestyle are all examples of popular niche categories, with subcategories that can be incredibly specific while still appealing to large audience numbers. This shows that influencers are becoming more creative and open-minded in regards to interacting with their audiences.