Social Influencers

AMKC

Anyone here follow any of them or know any? Me I say fair play to them if they can make a living and money that way but I honestly would not know a single one or follow any and nor do I intend to. I would not call any of them celebrity's either. Was watching Panorama on the BBC last night and one on it had made 3 grand just for promoting something product for 10 minutes. I wonder how taxes work on that. If someone could do that here would the taxman then take a 3rd or two 3rds even?

eeloe

It’s an income at the end of the day, so they’d need to register as a business and get that business to pay them a wage

Tom Mann Centuria

A barometer of how fcuked the world is, that these people exist, and there's an actual term for them.

brevity

I follow mother of daughters and father of daughters on Instagram. They seem like nice enough people, they get some free or discounted stuff out of putting their lives up online and I don’t really judge them for it. They promote a lot of smaller businesses too.

I couldn’t do it. I don’t have a picture of my kinds online anywhere but more power to them.

valoren

It is the natural progression of web 2.0 with 4G internet speeds.

Before faster internet access and cumbersome load times for video content, you had blogs and some niche blogs were (and remain) capable of generating serious money from adverts and sponsors.

Now those same niches are expanding into video content/youtube/pod casts in line with 4G access.
In essence, they provide value to people and there's an income derived from it.

AllGunsBlazing

"Social Influencer" - sounds almost Orwellian to me.

hatrickpatrick

Tom Mann Centuria wrote: »

A barometer of how fcuked the world is, that these people exist, and there's an actual term for them.

Why though? At the end of the day they're just freelancing PR spokespeople or marketing workers. Your influencer who posts photos of stuff and extols their virtues on Snapchat or Instagram is no different to the person who actually runs the company's own profile and posts directly to it, it's just that they're doing it on a freelance basis and aren't formally attached to a company the way a traditional marketing or PR worker would be.

To put this another way, it's kinda like the difference between someone who works directly for a politician, let's say Leo, with the job of appearing as his spokesperson and talking up his policies in public, and someone who doesn't work for any particular politician specifically but makes themselves available to talk about them for a fee on a case by case basis.

I don't get all the negativity about it. Many jobs and roles which would once have been done by full time employees have shifted to freelance style work in the era of zero hours and "the gig economy" - this is just that same concept applied to marketing. I don't see anything inherently wrong with that myself.

Do you find it annoying when a well known personality endorses a product in a more formal setting? For instance, when Brian O'Driscoll appeared in those ads for a travel agent, or when various sportspeople endorse products such as lucozade as being helpful and relevant to their field? Personally I don't see how the influencing thing is any different.

Mr. Incognito

I feel sorry for them

Vacous Twits who dont have enough self esteem not to be reliant on the approval of strangers.

It's toxic.

whisky_galore

No. Never have and never will.

seamus

It's another word for "model".

You don't see very many arse-ugly "social influencers" around. Where in the past an attractive 17-year-old got their start in modelling handing out flyers at a junction in tight trousers, now they just start up an instagram account, post photos of themselves and videos of makeup tutorials.

Eventually they reach a critical mass of followers and companies start sending them free sh1t in exchange for a plug.

Will I Am Not

There’s one around where I am. She’s driving around in a lovely new Mercedes. There’s money to be made in any old sh*te and she’s making it so fair f*cks to her.

orourkeda1977

These people have the world bollixed.

meeeeh

All I'm going to say is Dan TDM and Stompy. Chances are that if you have kids your are plagued by at least one of them. What is an attraction of watching a guy with bad teeth or blue hair playing Minecraft is beyond me.

PTH2009

My young neice and nephew are both watching some little spoiled **** and his parents open and review toys

What's the world coming too

In my teens we had bebo and msn with both just as liable too cause ****

CrankyHaus

The only problem I have with it is that many may not be fully tax compliant. But that's a common story with any freelancing sole trader in Ireland so Plus Ca Change.

Birneybau

Tom Mann Centuria wrote: »

A barometer of how fcuked the world is, that these people exist, and there's an actual term for them.

It basically people aspiring to be BARRY SCOTT

Boom_Bap

meeeeh wrote: »

All I'm going to say is Dan TDM and Stompy. Chances are that if you have kids your are plagued by at least one of them. What is an attraction of watching a guy with bad teeth or blue hair playing Minecraft is beyond me.

He's done well for himself though, books, voice actor i a few big animated movies and tv shows and merchandise.

Ush1

There's actually a few around where I live, all women. Seem to be doing well for themselves. Fair play.

mad muffin

No I do not follow these fûcktards. No stupid god damn “celebrity” no matter how big or small will influence anything in my life.

Anyone who follows them or even worse wants to be like them because of their “influence” needs to be drop kicked.

magic_murph

It's the self importance they give them self that's the most painful to tolerate

If you can get paid decent money for 10 mins worth of work then fair play but don't be slapped c*nt about it

Princess Consuela Bananahammock

hatrickpatrick wrote: »

Why though? At the end of the day they're just freelancing PR spokespeople or marketing workers. Your influencer who posts photos of stuff and extols their virtues on Snapchat or Instagram is no different to the person who actually runs the company's own profile and posts directly to it, it's just that they're doing it on a freelance basis and aren't formally attached to a company the way a traditional marketing or PR worker would be.

Go watch one of the Fyre Festival documentaries.

They're like the new religion: find ignorant lazy vulnerable ****wits and get them to blindly follow you because only THEY will make you happy.

To put this another way, it's kinda like the difference between someone who works directly for a politician, let's say Leo, with the job of appearing as his spokesperson and talking up his policies in public, and someone who doesn't work for any particular politician specifically but makes themselves available to talk about them for a fee on a case by case basis.

I don't get all the negativity about it. Many jobs and roles which would once have been done by full time employees have shifted to freelance style work in the era of zero hours and "the gig economy" - this is just that same concept applied to marketing. I don't see anything inherently wrong with that myself.

Do you find it annoying when a well known personality endorses a product in a more formal setting? For instance, when Brian O'Driscoll appeared in those ads for a travel agent, or when various sportspeople endorse products such as lucozade as being helpful and relevant to their field? Personally I don't see how the influencing thing is any different.

Except these people are accountable.

And if you go to a certain travel agent JUST because Brian O'Driscoll does, you're an idiot.

I'd argue that people who follow this self-important morons are sheep, but sheep do atually serve a purpose.

SoundsRight

They're nice to look at. I wouldn't ascribe any influence to them, other than as an advertising tool.

Eggs For Dinner

Social Influencer - Horrible phrase

Jesus was a social influencer, and a pretty darn good one at that.

2000 years later and he has a billion people on their knees everyday.

razorblunt

There's been an issue of tax payment in the past as there has been with the #ad usage.
There's clever ways around the #ad though, keep an eye on sports stars using instagram and managing to get logos into the shot e.g. steering wheel, car badge seen on keys.

Birneybau

SoundsRight wrote: »

They're nice to look at. I wouldn't ascribe any influence to them, other than as an advertising tool.

Yeah, but that's all they are

Princess Consuela Bananahammock

Deleted User wrote: »

Jesus was a social influencer, and a pretty darn good one at that.

2000 years later and he has a billion people on their knees everyday.

In fairness, that wasn't Jesus - that was his various "followers" piggy-backing on his reputation!

Floppybits

SoundsRight wrote: »

They're nice to look at. I wouldn't ascribe any influence to them, other than as an advertising tool.

It wouldn't be so bad if they were just an advertising tool and it was just about selling a make up range, moisturizers or clothing but the worse thing for me is the effect it is having a younger folks about body image. Is it good that they all want to look a certain way or have a certain type of body and if you don't when then you are some sort of freak?

Also the lack of regulation about this and the lack of action taken against Social influencers when they are found to breaking the regulations is another problem I have. It seems to be the wild west of advertising that some influencers will set themselves up as this independent person who is telling which of all the moisturisers they try which one is the best and giving the impression they are not being paid by the companies for this and then its found out actually the reason why they said Product A was the best was because they got paid to say it.

MrCostington

Like many here I've no interested in these narcissistic people.

However. I did come across this while having breakfast (warning video auto starts with music so turn down volume if in work!)

https://www.bbc.com/reel/video/p070bkx0/how-to-become-a-successful-digital-influencer

In Spain, fashion and beauty brings approximately €30bn per year to the economy.

This video shows how the Autonomous University of Madrid is working to create the next generation of virtual and visual influencers.

Bigbagofcans

I used to follow a 'fitness and lifestyle' influencer but I stopped as there were just too many Instagram stories. I felt like I knew too much about her from the second she got up the morning until she laid her head at night.

Red_Wake

It's made stalking young attractive women easier than ever.

begbysback

Shepherds will always be employed once there are sheep

scamalert

wasn't there a story recently where some snowflake was crying because she didnt get hotel room or meal in Dublin and was told to take a hike :pac:


I get advertising business properly, but some twat claiming they have following and will promote your business is most stupid thing to come out.

Bob Harris

I think if someone introduced themselves to me as a social influencer I'd punch them in the fucking face.

GLaDOS

I've no issue with these people. They saw a gap in the market and exploited it to their own gain, fair play to them. They're not doing any harm.

It's the people who follow them religiously I'd judge.

mordeith

Why I don't get is people who follow them are usually envious or admiring of their lavish lifestyle ignoring the fact that they are funding it by following them in the first place.

w/s/p/c/

I know a girl who is trying to become one of these. She fancies herself as some sort of lifestyle guru. In reality she's a bit thick.

Started off with "designing" her self build home. Then came all the interior posts. Like all these "influencers" every wall in the house is grey, along with every piece of grey furniture.

Then her and her fella got married last year. Again she went on about her wedding as if by having a civil ceremony was a totally new and unique experience and "blogged" every minute of it, including on her wedding day. I believe she spent most of her wedding day at the top table on her phone looking at the likes she was receiving on her instagram. Funny thing is that she doesn't have a big following outside her friends and family (who were at said wedding). Its monkey see monkey do with the likes of her, who hang on every word of these "influencers". Pathetic.

Obvious Desperate Breakfasts

I used to follow one because I found her genuinely funny and she wasn’t really a shill. I unfollowed her recently because there’s only so many hours in the day. I just didn’t have time to watch her videos.

I know a few people who want to be influencers and honestly, it’s depressing. I think what depresses me is how much of your downtime you’ve to give up to try and make it happen. The wannabe influencers that I know all have day jobs because they need them. So when do they get time to decompress after work like everyone else? To be a successful one, you need to sign away a lot of your life and make yourself a commodity.

My OH and I had a bit of a row about this at the weekend - I think the amount of attention-seekers has likely been constant throughout time but that there are more avenues for attention-seekers now whereas he just thinks there are more attention-seekers now.

A guy OH works with is really trying to be an influencer and is glomming onto mental health and fitness to try and make it happen. He has around 2000 followers on Instagram. A woman in their workplace is also one, with about 20,000 followers. Apparently ‘2000 followers’ guy could not hide his envy that she had ten times his following.

retro:electro

If you want to know my real opinion on this be sure to check out my insta stories, like and subscribe to my YouTube channel and give this post a thumbs up. Thanks guys.

Obvious Desperate Breakfasts

Bigbagofcans wrote: »

I used to follow a 'fitness and lifestyle' influencer but I stopped as there were just too many Instagram stories. I felt like I knew too much about her from the second she got up the morning until she laid her head at night.

YES, this is it. That’s why I stopped following the one influencer I followed. I just felt like I knew too much about her.

DEFTLEFTHAND

Youtube is making a lot of folks wealthy.

It's crazy what people will subscribe to.

For instance I follow a long distance truck driver in the States who vlogs his journeys.

The only problem now is that the fcker is getting too big for his boots with his youtube cheques and endorsement deals and is talking about quitting the trucking business to focus solely on vlogging his home life. :mad:

We watch for the scenery mate, not your personal life. Now show me the back roads of Idaho again. :mad:

.......

DEFTLEFTHAND wrote: »

For instance I follow a long distance truck driver in the States who vlogs his journeys.

I dont specifically follow one but I like one who travels with his cat in the truck and its basically footage of his cat sleeping/playing/eating/looking out the window.

His cat is actually the social influencer.

Then again, the proper use of the interwebs IS to watch cat videos so I feel ok about watching.

Obvious Desperate Breakfasts

DEFTLEFTHAND wrote: »

Youtube is making a lot of folks wealthy.

It's crazy what people will subscribe to.

For instance I follow a long distance truck driver in the States who vlogs his journeys.

The only problem now is that the fcker is getting too big for his boots with his youtube cheques and endorsement deals and is talking about quitting the trucking business to focus solely on vlogging his home life. :mad:

We watch for the scenery mate, not your personal life. Now show me the back roads of Idaho again. :mad:

I still reckon it’s like, say, the acting profession where only like the top 5% or so make it.

Unearthly

I've been influenced by boards.ie to hate them

Cienciano

I think it's good. There's millions of youtube channels/twitter users/instagram users out there. Follow who you like. Before people had to make it onto TV or radio. This cuts that part out.
2 people (twins) that used to live near me started a youtube channel. They were idiots imho, a bit like Jedward. They started up a youtube channel and now earn €2m a year and drive around in Audi r8's! Fair play to them.

The beauty of it is you can follow who you like. Or ignore it altogether.

Boom_Bap

Social influencers have no impact on my life. Now I'm off to put on my waist trainer, down a Vit Hit tea and then brighten my teeth with my Hi Smile all while wearing my valentines garb from @fashionnova

Iang87

The term influencer genuinely bothers me.

Its like the advertising industry couldn't be arsed trying anymore instead they're like lets get these people to influence you because you're incapable of forming your own opinion on anything.

With that said it appears to be another side effect of people incapable of living life without their phones in their hands

El_Duderino 09

Tom Mann Centuria wrote: »

A barometer of how fcuked the world is, that these people exist, and there's an actual term for them.

Isn’t it similar to an actor advertising aftershave or hair dye? It’s just the natural extension of capitalism and marketing. It’s just very targeted marketing at a very specific audience.

But to answer the question I don’t subscribe to any or know any.

Mena Mitty

Red_Wake wrote: »

It's made stalking young attractive women easier than ever.

This would be funny if it weren't true.

Obvious Desperate Breakfasts

El_Duderino 09 wrote: »

Isn’t it similar to an actor advertising aftershave or hair dye? It’s just the natural extension of capitalism and marketing. It’s just very targeted marketing at a very specific audience.

But to answer the question I don’t subscribe to any or know any.

To me, the difference is that the model does their day’s work and goes home. Social influencers have to almost make their whole life a commodity to be successful and even then it’s not guaranteed. Now, if someone wants to do that and is happy to, let them off. But I would fücking hate it myself. It seems like giving up a lot for possibly quite meagre returns.

The influencer I used to follow has around 50k Youtube subscribers and around 20k Instagram followers. She says she makes about $200 per month plus a small amount of freebies. It’s basically just a hobby for her because there’s not that much filthy lucre in it. And it’s not that easy to get 20k followers on IG!

And surely the more people try to enter the field, the less money there is to go around.

.......

Obvious Desperate Breakfasts wrote: »

And it’s not that easy to get 20k followers on IG!

You can buy them.